One observation action suffices to make prisoners police their own behavior permanently

Evidence

Of course, only one action of this sort is needed for the inspector to appear all-seeing in the eyes of the prisoners: from this moment on, every prisoner will think that he himself is constantly under the gaze of the inspector, and that none of his movements can escape the ever wakeful, watchful eye of the inspector. Even if the inspector no longer keeps a list of further transgressions, even if he never again intervenes, even if he no longer watches, no longer surveys, the prisoners will now begin to do this by themselves: each will watch himself, each will keep in his mind a list of his own transgressions and calculate the gravity of the punishment that he will sooner or later have to suffer for them. — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 59

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the precise mechanism of the internalized panopticon — the moment surveillance becomes self-surveillance — core to the reader’s Foucault/Orwell thesis.
• XREF: Directly maps onto Foucault’s description of the panopticon producing ‘a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’. — connects to: Unlocatable individual addressing makes all prisoners assume they are watched — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 46; Prisoner behavior control generated a continuous individualizing knowledge — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 202; Invisible inspection can awe prisoners to silence without any physical restraint — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 288 (+6 more)

Related

• Unlocatable individual addressing makes all prisoners assume they are watched (similarity 0.90)
• Visible surveillance makes subjects police themselves without any force (similarity 0.88)
• Invisible inspection can awe prisoners to silence without any physical restraint (similarity 0.85)
• Uncertainty about being watched suffices to make surveillance effective (similarity 0.83)
• Internalized discipline makes the human inspector functionally superfluous (similarity 0.83)
• Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence (similarity 0.82)
• Apparent omnipresence of the inspector sustains discipline (similarity 0.82)
• Even imperfect invisibility can sustain the illusion of constant surveillance (similarity 0.81)
• Centralized visibility defeats prisoners’ ability to prepare staged appearances (similarity 0.81)
• Power functions automatically when subjects believe they are always visible (similarity 0.80)
• Prisoner behavior control generated a continuous individualizing knowledge (similarity 0.80)
• Visibility and invisibility must be balanced for surveillance to function (similarity 0.80)
• The panopticon governs through prevention rather than detection (similarity 0.79)
• Surveillance controls populations chiefly through internalized self-policing (similarity 0.79)
• Feeling watched matters, but actual inspected time must also be maximized (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• External surveillance becomes internalized as self-imposed bodily discipline #expands (0.95) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 512
• Visible surveillance makes subjects police themselves without any force #corroborates (0.95) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 315
• Invisible inspection can awe prisoners to silence without any physical restraint #corroborates (0.88) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 288
• Prisoner behavior control generated a continuous individualizing knowledge #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 202
• Only human beings modify their behavior because they are being observed #expands (0.85)
• Centralized visibility defeats prisoners’ ability to prepare staged appearances #corroborates (0.75) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 164