Delivered at the Collège de France from January to March 1975, the lecture on " Les Anormaux " continues the analyses that Michel Foucault has devoted since 1970, and especially in " Il faut défendre la société ", to the question of knowledge and power : disciplinary power, normalizing power, bio-power. Drawing on a wide range of theological, legal and medical sources, Foucault tackles the problem of these " dangerous " individuals,known in the 19th century as " abnormal ". He defines the three main figures: monsters, who refer to the laws of nature and the norms of society; incorrigibles, who are taken in hand by the new body-training devices; and onanists, who, since the 18th century, have fueleda campaign to discipline the modern family .
Foucault's analyses take as their starting point the forensic examinations still being carried out in the 1950s. He then outlines an archaeology of instinct and desire, based on the techniques of confession and the direction of conscience. In so doing, he laid the historical and theoretical foundations for work that would be taken up, reworked and elaborated in his lectures at the Collège and in subsequent works. This lecture is therefore an essential part of following Foucault's research in its formation, extension and development.
This summary is published with the kind permission of Editions du Seuil. It is taken from the back cover of Les Anormaux
Cours au Collège de France, 1974-1975 by Michel Foucault, published on March 18, 1999.
The sound recordings of Michel Foucault 's lectures were made by his public, notably by Gilbert Burlet, and given at the Collège de France.