In this chapter, Foucault addresses the issue of torture during and after the French Revolution used as a mean of power and control over the masses. It discusses the different ways the practice of torture has been modified over the years, which reflects the political changes that happened in France between the 1700’s and the 1900’s.
The human body was used as a tool to express the power against those who violated the status quo and to keep the general public under control. The torture techniques, which varied over time, were used as a way of punishment and control during executions which were public spectacles charged with rituals and ceremony. Later on, with the birth of the prison, torture was used in private and the techniques were different.
In the 1700’s the objective was to inflict pain on the condemned to pay for his crime. Later on, the objective was to steal the “soul” of the condemned, for “the soul is the prison of the body” (pp.16). The executioner was to be replaced by professionals of the mental health, medicine, education and the like.
During public executions, things were getting out of control for the ruling class. The general public sometimes would revolt against the executioner, and the criminal was protected and considered a hero. The message of fear against the authority through public executions was not affecting the population.
In the past, anyone who committed a crime was a criminal, and the possibility of being absolved from a crime due to insanity was not an option.
The disappearance of torture and public executions in the judicial system does not mean that the punishment from the ruling power has ended. It has shifted to a more subtle and yet very powerful expression: the creation of prisons, in which the body occupies an important role, deprived of freedom, confined and used for free labor.
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