The Great Confinement (Selected Writings 3)
Good Fit
- Readers who want a more compact grasp of the background to Foucault's "History of Madness"
- Anyone who wants to see that institutions like prisons and hospitals are historical/political constructs, not "natural" ones
- Readers who enjoy philosophical texts in their original interview/essay format rather than academic monograph form
- Anyone who wants to connect Foucault's biography (given in the introduction) with his body of work
Not a Fit
- First-time Foucault readers who should start with a core work like "The Order of Things"
- Readers looking for plain language rather than academic philosophical discourse
- Anyone expecting the full "History of Madness" monograph rather than a short preface to it
Ferda Keskin's introduction presents Foucault's central thesis: the most significant moment of the great shift in 17th-century Europe was the founding of the Hôpital général (general hospital) in Paris in 1656 — within a few months, a substantial share of the Paris population (at least six thousand out of three hundred thousand) was placed under this institution's supervision.
Foucault stresses that the Hôpital général had no medical function or purpose whatsoever — on the contrary, it was an important part, even an organ, of the monarchical-bourgeois order being organized in France at the time.
Similar processes unfolded across all of Europe in the same years: a mixed group of people with varied traits — the insane, the sick, the poor, homosexuals — all unable or unwilling to work due to physical disability or other reasons, without fixed employment or homes — were confined in the same places without distinction.
Foucault notes that modern confinement institutions like asylums, hospitals, or prisons did not exist before the 17th century — cells holding criminals functioned not as a means of punishment but as a kind of courtroom waiting room.
The text explains the economic logic behind confinement: providing cheap labor in periods without unemployment and with high wages, and eliminating idleness as social protection against unrest during unemployment — a relationship that emerged precisely when 17th-century capitalism confronted problems of unemployment and rebellion.
- Academic essay/interview format — each text can be read independently, not a continuous monograph
- The introduction (pp. 7-9) provides a full biography of Foucault, helping situate the works chronologically
- A careful, academic translation from the French original (Gallimard, "Dits et écrits")
- Dense philosophical-historical terminology, with an extensive reference apparatus (footnotes)
The same author's core monograph examining the birth of the prison in far greater depth
The original work where the 'Great Confinement' thesis covered here was first fully developed
At the end of the part read, the text lays out the economic logic behind confinement: supplying cheap labour when there is no unemployment and wages are high, and, in times of unemployment, doing away with idleness and creating a social safeguard against riots. This relation emerged in the 17th century at the moment capitalism faced the problems of unemployment and revolt.
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