Panopticon

It was the English Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), who originally proposed the Panopticon as an architectural model of a prison. Bentham imagined a design that would ensure efficient supervision of a large number of convicts by as few prison wards as possible. The Panopticon would be a circular building with an inspector’s lodge in its centre and cells set along its circumference. Due to its circular form a single warden would be able to supervise all cells in the whole room from within the inspector’s lodge. The convicts, on the other hand, would not be able to see the warden.

“The essence of it consists, then, in the centrality of the inspector's situation, combined with the well-known and most effectual contrivances for seeing without being seen.” (Bentham, Letter V)

This would help to enforce discipline in the prison as each convict would always have to assume that he or she might be watched any time. Ultimately, a warden might not be needed anymore, as the psychological effects of the apparent omnipresence of the inspector would still apply.

Michel Foucault and the Panopticon

French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) used Bentham’s idea of the Panopticon in order to describe modern societies and their modes of social control. According to him power does no longer seem to show itself explicitly. Supervision and discipline is acted out by various institutions and authorities (e.g. schools, factories, prisons, and military) and power has become so entrenched in our society that it has become a ‘disciplinary society’, in which its people constantly observe and discipline each other and themselves.

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Works cited:

Foucault, Michel. Überwachen und Strafen: Die Geburt des Gefängnisses. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1994.

Raffinsoe, Sverre. Foucault: Studienhandbuch. München: UTB, 2011.

Bentham, Jeremy. The Panopticon Writings. London: Verso, 1995, p. 29-95 (http://cartome.org/panopticon2.htm).