Foucault and Power

Michel Foucault's most influential insight: power does not just repress — it produces. Power creates knowledge, defines what counts as normal, and shapes what counts as truth.

The medical establishment defines what "healthy" means. The education system decides which knowledge matters. The justice system decides who is criminal. These institutions do not just enforce existing truths — they generate the very categories through which we understand reality. Madness, criminality, and sexuality were not natural facts waiting to be discovered; they were shaped by specific institutions at specific moments in history.