Judging the soul expands state hold from acts to potential persons

Evidence

Psychiatric expertise, but also in a more general way criminal anthropology and the repetitive discourse of criminology, find one of their precise functions here: by solemnly inscribing offences in the field of objects susceptible of scientific knowledge, they provide the mechanisms of legal punishment with a justifiable hold not only on offences, but on individuals; not only on what they do, but also on what they are, will be, may be. The additional factor of the offender’s soul, which the legal system has laid hold of, is only apparently explanatory and limitative, and is in fact expansionist. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 58

Categorization

• XREF: The expansionist logic of the soul being judged on what one ‘will be, may be’ parallels the telescreen’s discipline over potential thought, per the reader’s panopticon thesis. — connects to: Investigation transferred truth-finding authority from God and community to the sovereign state — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 351; The criminal’s soul is itself judged and punished, not merely analyzed — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 58; Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 55 (+3 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The inverted claim — that explanatory attention to the soul is expansionist, not limitative — is a dense, counterintuitive mechanism worth sitting with.

Related

• The criminal’s soul is itself judged and punished, not merely analyzed (similarity 0.89)
• Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body (similarity 0.82)
• The soul is the prison of the body, not its freeing essence (similarity 0.81)
• Penal power shifted its target from the body to the mind (similarity 0.80)
• Investigation transferred truth-finding authority from God and community to the sovereign state (similarity 0.79)
• Discipline judges individuals themselves, not just their acts (similarity 0.78)
• The respectful ‘humanity’ of the criminal became the target of correction (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Discipline judges individuals themselves, not just their acts #expands (0.90) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 279
• Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 55
• The examination unites surveillance and normalizing judgment to fabricate individuality #expands (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 299