L'Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique (1972) was an archaeology of the division that separates the insane from the insane in our societies. The story ends with the medicalization of madness in the early 19th century.
Michel Foucault's lecture at the end of 1973 and the beginning of 1974 on " Pouvoir psychiatrique " ( Psychiatric power ) continues the story, but takes a different tack from : the aim here is to trace the genealogy of psychiatry, of the specific form of " pouvoir-savoir " ( Power-Knowledge ) that it constitutes. To do this, it is impossible to start from medical knowledge about madness, which is inoperative in practice. Psychiatric truth about madness can only be accounted for on the basis of the mechanisms and techniques of power that organized the treatment of the insane in the period between Pinel and Charcot. Psychiatry did not come into being as a consequence of a new advance in knowledge about madness, but rather of the disciplinary mechanisms that organized the regime imposed on madness.
Michel Foucault often questioned the vanity of psychiatrists' discourse, which is reflected in the still contemporary practice of judicial expertise. From this point of view, Le Pouvoir psychiatrique pursues the project of a history of human " sciences ".
The lecture concludes at the end of the 19th century, at the time of the double " depsychiatrisation " of madness, divided between neurologists and psychoanalysts. But the summary of the lecture Michel Foucault was to prepare for the Annuaire du Collège de France contains the essence of what he perhaps didn't have time to expound in that lecture. In fact, Le Pouvoir psychiatrique goes so far as to propose a genealogy of the anti-psychiatric movements that so marked the " sixties " of the previous century.
This summary is published with the kind permission of Editions du Seuil. It is taken from the back cover of Le Pouvoir psychiatrique. Cours au Collège de France (1973-1974) by Michel Foucault, published on October 17, 2003.
The sound recordings of Michel Foucault 's lectures were made by his public, notably by Gilbert Burlet, and given at the Collège de France.