Summary

Foucault begins “The means of correct training” by asserting that the main purpose of discipline is to “train,” and in doing so, is capable of creating individuals by using them as both “objects and as instruments of its exercise” (170). Compared to the grand displays of absolutist power in past eras, modern discipline is modest about its control, and yet quietly pervasive.

Disciplinary power works through three instruments. The first is “hierarchal observation,” a method of coercion that works by keeping individuals under constant supervision. This occurs through the creation of “observatories,” spaces where individuals can be seen at all times. These observatories were modelled after military camps where the tents, paths, and entrances were divided in precise geometrical terms for surveillance purposes.

Foucault contends that the military distribution of space was a model for the layout of “working-class housing estates, hospitals, asylums, prisons...