Penal power shifted its target from the body to the mind

Evidence

Beneath the humanization of the penalties, what one finds are all those rules that authorize, or rather demand, ‘leniency’, as a calculated economy of the power to punish. But they also provoke a shift in the point of application of this power: it is no longer the body, with the ritual play of excessive pains, spectacular brandings in the ritual of the public execution; it is the mind or rather a play of representations and signs circulating discreetly but necessarily and evidently in the minds of all. It is no longer the body, but the soul, said Mably. And we see very clearly what he meant by this term: the correlative of a technique of power. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 162

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for the reader’s thesis — the ‘soul’ as the correlative of a technique of power parallels the internalized panoptic gaze of Oceania’s telescreens. — connects to: Modern power gained force by moving from brute architecture to the subject’s own perception — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 315; Penal justice entrapped itself by entering relations of knowledge. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 381; Penal detention replaced public execution as a calculated technique for altering behavior. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 400 (+16 more)
• DEFINE: Foucault defines ‘soul’ not metaphysically but as the correlate of a power technique.

Related

• Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body (similarity 0.89)
• The criminal’s soul is itself judged and punished, not merely analyzed (similarity 0.85)
• Modern punishment targets liberty, not bodily pain (similarity 0.82)
• The reformed penalty shifted its target from the body to subtler suffering (similarity 0.82)
• The guillotine aimed to punish a juridical abstraction rather than a pain-feeling body (similarity 0.81)
• The example shifted from terror to the decipherable lesson of crime and punishment (similarity 0.81)
• Imprisonment has always retained a hidden element of physical pain (similarity 0.80)
• Punishment doubled into an object relation producing the criminal as a known individual (similarity 0.80)
• The respectful ‘humanity’ of the criminal became the target of correction (similarity 0.80)
• Judging the soul expands state hold from acts to potential persons (similarity 0.80)
• The soul is the prison of the body, not its freeing essence (similarity 0.80)
• Modern penal practice replaced the act-question with the identity-question (similarity 0.80)
• The public spectacle of punishment gave way to enclosed hierarchized detention within decades. (similarity 0.80)
• Both sovereign and disciplinary power pursue the exploitation of others through obedience (similarity 0.79)
• The rise of the prison institutionalized the power to punish (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Codified legal punishment works by creating mental associations of crime and punishment. #expands (0.85)
• The rise of the prison institutionalized the power to punish #expands (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 209