Key Arguments

• Foucault notes that legal historians know about “The reduction in penal severity in the last 200 years,” but that it “has been regarded in an overall way as a quantitative phenomenon: less cruelty, less pain, more kindness, more respect, more ‘humanity’.”
• He insists that “these changes are accompanied by a displacement in the very object of the punitive operation. Is there a diminution of intensity? Perhaps. There is certainly a change of objective.”
• He formulates the key question: “If the penality in its most severe forms no longer addresses itself to the body, on what does it lay hold?” and cites the eighteenth‑century theoreticians’ answer: “since it is no longer the body, it must be the soul.”
• Punishment that previously “rained down upon the body” is said to be “replaced by a punishment that acts in depth on the heart, the thoughts, the will, the inclinations,” indicating a turn to interiority as the penal target.
• Foucault marks this as “an important moment,” when “The old partners of the spectacle of punishment, the body and the blood, gave way. A new character came on the scene, masked,” signalling the entrance of the ‘soul’ as the new focal point of penal mechanisms.

Source Quotes

There remains, therefore, a trace of ‘torture’ in the modern mechanisms of criminal justice – a trace that has not been entirely overcome, but which is enveloped, increasingly, by the non-corporal nature of the penal system. The reduction in penal severity in the last 200 years is a phenomenon with which legal historians are well acquainted. But, for a long time, it has been regarded in an overall way as a quantitative phenomenon: less cruelty, less pain, more kindness, more respect, more ‘humanity’.

The reduction in penal severity in the last 200 years is a phenomenon with which legal historians are well acquainted. But, for a long time, it has been regarded in an overall way as a quantitative phenomenon: less cruelty, less pain, more kindness, more respect, more ‘humanity’. In fact, these changes are accompanied by a displacement in the very object of the punitive operation.

But, for a long time, it has been regarded in an overall way as a quantitative phenomenon: less cruelty, less pain, more kindness, more respect, more ‘humanity’. In fact, these changes are accompanied by a displacement in the very object of the punitive operation. Is there a diminution of intensity?

There is certainly a change of objective. If the penality in its most severe forms no longer addresses itself to the body, on what does it lay hold? The answer of the theoreticians – those who, about 1760, opened up a new period that is not yet at an end – is simple, almost obvious.

The answer of the theoreticians – those who, about 1760, opened up a new period that is not yet at an end – is simple, almost obvious. It seems to be contained in the question itself: since it is no longer the body, it must be the soul. The expiation that once rained down upon the body must be replaced by a punishment that acts in depth on the heart, the thoughts, the will, the inclinations.

It seems to be contained in the question itself: since it is no longer the body, it must be the soul. The expiation that once rained down upon the body must be replaced by a punishment that acts in depth on the heart, the thoughts, the will, the inclinations. Mably formulated the principle once and for all: ‘Punishment, if I may so put it, should strike the soul rather than the body’ (Mably, 326).

Key Concepts

• The reduction in penal severity in the last 200 years is a phenomenon with which legal historians are well acquainted.
• for a long time, it has been regarded in an overall way as a quantitative phenomenon: less cruelty, less pain, more kindness, more respect, more ‘humanity’.
• these changes are accompanied by a displacement in the very object of the punitive operation.
• If the penality in its most severe forms no longer addresses itself to the body, on what does it lay hold?
• since it is no longer the body, it must be the soul.
• The expiation that once rained down upon the body must be replaced by a punishment that acts in depth on the heart, the thoughts, the will, the inclinations.

Context

Transitioning from the persistence of bodily suffering, Foucault critiques the standard ‘humanization’ narrative and introduces his central thesis that modern penality has shifted its target from the body to an interiorized ‘soul’ or subjectivity.