Summary: It is legitimate to analyse power by looking at institutions, but relationships of power are based in the depths of society, in the “systems of social networks”: There can be no society without some form of power relations. Power does not act on others directly, only on their actions, and it not only forbids or commands, it also works by subtly making things easier or harder. In every social relationship there are ways of structuring the field of possibilities for others, that is influencing how they can act. Violence is the primitive form of power, and it is also its constant secret and final resource. But in contrast to violence, those over whom power is exercised need to be understood as free persons with agency: One can only influence the possibilities of those who have possibilities. In this way, a power relation can always turn into an open confrontation, where the actions of others are not influenced, but reacted to. Inversely, a confrontation ends when the free play of forces is replaced by stable mechanisms, and thus a power relation. In modern societies all forms of power relations must refer to the state in some way, as power relations are increasingly coming under the control of the state.

My goal has not been to analyse power, but subjectivation. And I specifically looked at techniques of power, which by categorisation, by individualisation, by identification, by imposing truth, etc, make humans into subjects. This means both being subject to another person, but also having an identity and self-knowledge. This works by in part by institutions and disciplines, but the Western state is today’s major form of political power, and it is both individualising and totalising. Accordingly knowledge of humans has taken two forms: of the individual, and of the population. We need liberation not just from the state, but also from its specific type of individualisation, which works by integrating people through reshaping their individuality. Perhaps we need to refuse what we are, to leave the double bind of individualisation and totalisation. We need to promote new forms of subjectivity.



Source: Michel Foucault (1982) The Subject and Power. Afterword to Dreyfus & Rabinow (1982) Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Chicago: CUP, 1982.

[This text was partly written in English by Foucault, partly translated. As far as txteo is aware this text remains unpublished in French.]

(Full text at monoskop.org [6MB PDF], English)

This summary is licensed CC:BY-SA.



Detailed Summary