Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body

Evidence

If the penality in its most severe forms no longer addresses itself to the body, on what does it lay hold? The answer of the theoreticians – those who, about 1760, opened up a new period that is not yet at an end – is simple, almost obvious. It seems to be contained in the question itself: since it is no longer the body, it must be the soul. The expiation that once rained down upon the body must be replaced by a punishment that acts in depth on the heart, the thoughts, the will, the inclinations. Mably formulated the principle once and for all: ‘Punishment, if I may so put it, should strike the soul rather than the body’ (Mably, 326). — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 55

Categorization

• DEFINE: Foucault names the 1760s shift: punishment’s object becomes the soul (heart, thoughts, will, inclinations) rather than the body.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s panopticon project: the shift to punishing the soul prefigures the internalized surveillance-watching-one’s-own-thoughts that telescreens dramatize. — connects to: Modern penality’s ideal is endless observation rather than spectacular punishment — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 353; The reformed penalty shifted its target from the body to subtler suffering — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 43; Modern punishment targets liberty, not bodily pain — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 46 (+11 more)

Related

• Penal power shifted its target from the body to the mind (similarity 0.89)
• Modern punishment targets liberty, not bodily pain (similarity 0.88)
• The reformed penalty shifted its target from the body to subtler suffering (similarity 0.86)
• Penalty operates through the idea of pain, not pain itself (similarity 0.86)
• The criminal’s soul is itself judged and punished, not merely analyzed (similarity 0.85)
• The guillotine aimed to punish a juridical abstraction rather than a pain-feeling body (similarity 0.84)
• Modern penality’s ideal is endless observation rather than spectacular punishment (similarity 0.83)
• The respectful ‘humanity’ of the criminal became the target of correction (similarity 0.83)
• Judging the soul expands state hold from acts to potential persons (similarity 0.82)
• The punished body anchors sovereign power’s manifestation (similarity 0.82)
• Imprisonment has always retained a hidden element of physical pain (similarity 0.81)
• Punishment’s deterrent power migrated from visible spectacle to certainty of apprehension (similarity 0.81)
• Bourgeois republics punish the soul while monarchies punished the body. (similarity 0.81)
• The example shifted from terror to the decipherable lesson of crime and punishment (similarity 0.80)
• Punishment’s severity must aim at future prevention, not past harm (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Penal power shifted its target from the body to the mind #corroborates (0.95) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 162
• The punished body anchors sovereign power’s manifestation #contradicts (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 110
• Feigned punishment could deter crime without real suffering #complicates (0.75) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 28