The individual is an effect of power, not its presupposed target
Evidence
It is therefore, | think, a mistake to think of the individual as a sort of elementary nucleus, a primitive atom or some multiple, inert matter to which power is applied, or which is struck by a power that subordinates or destroys individuals. In actual fact, one of the first effects of power is that it allows bodies, gestures, discourses, and desires to be identified and constituted as something individual. The individual is not, in other words, power’s opposite number; the individual is one of power’s first effects. The individual is in fact a power-effect, and at the same time, and to the extent that he is a power-eltect, the individual is a relay: power passes through the individuals it has constituted. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 48
Categorization
- DEFINE: The counterintuitive core claim: the individual subject is produced by power, not prior to it.
- XREF: This is the same productive-subject move Althusser makes with interpellation — foundational for how the racialized/othered subject gets constituted in Islamophobia theory. — connects to: Authority is a constructed, analyzable mechanism rather than a natural given; Power produces the individual rather than merely repressing it — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 301; Disciplinary power produces individuals rather than suppressing them. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 264 (+6 more)
Related
- Power produces the individual rather than merely repressing it (similarity 0.89)
- Disciplinary power produces individuals rather than suppressing them. (similarity 0.84)
- Power produces subjects and desires rather than merely repressing them (similarity 0.81)
- Authority is a constructed, analyzable mechanism rather than a natural given (similarity 0.80)
- Emancipation from society weakens rather than empowers the individual (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Power produces the individual rather than merely repressing it
#corroborates(0.98) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 301 - Disciplinary power produces individuals rather than suppressing them.
#corroborates(0.95) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 264 - Power generates the will of the power-holder rather than serving it
#qualifies(0.72)