Foucault Michelle: Biography and Philosophy

Foucault Michel among his contemporaries is considered the most original and progressive philosopher in France. The main direction of his work is a study of the origin of man in the historical context, the attitude of society to the mentally ill and the very concept of mental illness.

Childhood. Adolescence

Born Michel Foucault October 15, 1926 in the south of the country in a small provincial town. His family belonged to a dynasty of surgeons: his father and both grandfathers owned this profession. They expected that the eldest grandson and son would continue their work and go along the medical path, but despite the pressure, the boy defended his right to self-realization and partially moved from medicine to metaphysics. Another exception to the rules was the ambiguity of his name. In his family there was a tradition - to give all first-borns the name of Paul, but the mother named her son Paul Michel, and the child preferred it when he was called a second name. Therefore, in all official documents he appears as Paul, but the public is known as Michel Foucault. His biography is also quite contradictory.

The future sociologist, historian and philosopher studied in the best higher school in France, but could not find contact with his fellow students. He received an average education during the fascist blockade of Europe, and this significantly affected him as a person, changed the angle of his vision. Everything that happened at a time when politics determined the fate of people, can not be taken on the basis of today's moral and ethical foundations of society. People thought differently, their lives changed quickly and not for the better, so there were supporters of radical measures.

Youth

After entering the university in 1946, a new life begins for the twenty-year-old Michel. And she was much worse than before. All students were terribly pressured about their future, for graduates of the Higher School had such outstanding people as Kangiyyem or Sartre who had written their name in gold letters in history. To repeat their path or to surpass, it was necessary to differ strikingly from others.

In this respect, Foucault Michelle achieved the palm trees of primacy. He knew how to work amazingly, persistently, study, practice skills. In addition, his all-round education, sharp irony and sarcasm did not leave indifferent fellow practitioners who suffered from his bullying. As a result, classmates began to avoid him, considered him crazy. Such a tense situation led to the fact that Michel Foucault tried to take his own life two years after his arrival. This event first led him to the psychiatric hospital of St. Anne. Positive aspects of his actions still were, because the rector gave the unstable student a separate room.

Mentors

The first, thanks to whom the philosopher Michel Foucault could take place in the future, was Jacques Lacan Gusdorf. It was he who organized lectures on psychiatry for his students, took them to the St. Anne Hospital for practical classes. Next was Louis Al-Tusser, who continued his predecessor's tradition of preparing students. Foucault Michel, despite his reputation, was able to make friends with him for many years.

Specialist

In 1948 Sorbonne gives the writer a scientific degree in philosophy. A year later, the Paris Institute of Psychology gives him his diploma, and four years later, Foucault Michel graduates from the same institution, but the specialty is already psychopathology. A lot of time a philosopher takes work in the hospital of St. Anne. He goes on medical examinations to prison, to the house to the sick, studying their life and the painful condition. Due to this attitude towards patients, serious intellectual work, the modern Michel Foucault crystallized. The biography briefly describes this period of his life, because he himself is not located to spread about him. The hospital was one of the many that operated then in France. It did not have any significant advantages or disadvantages and produced a rather depressing impression when viewed with the eyes of a modern doctor.

Teaching

Five years, from 1951 to 1955, Foucault Michel teaches at the Higher Normal School and, imitating his mentors, also leads students to St. Anna's Hospital on excursions and lectures. This was not the most intense period in the life of the philosopher. At the same time, he begins work on his book, The History of Madness, drawing inspiration from Marxism and existentialism, the popular philosophical currents of the time. Wishing to repeat the triumph of Sartre and being a graduate of the same educational institution, an ambitious scientist sought every opportunity to improve his creation. He even had to learn German to read the works of Heidegger, Husserl and Nietzsche.

From Nietzsche and Hegel to Foucault

Years later, when his attitude toward Marxism and existentialism changed, respect for Nietzsche's work remained for life. His influence is seen in later works of Foucault. It was this German philosopher who pushed him to the idea of genealogy, that is, the study of the history of the origin of concepts, things, ideas.

Another facet of creativity Michel Foucault is indebted to Hegel. Or rather, his teacher Ippolit, who was an ardent supporter of Hegelianism. This inspired the future philosopher so much that even the thesis was devoted to the analysis of Hegel's works.

Marxism

Michel Foucault, whose biography and philosophy were closely intertwined with the political currents of Europe at that time, entered the Communist Party in 1950. But the disappointment in these ideas came quickly, and in three years he left the "red" ranks. During his short stay in the party Foucault manages to rally around himself students of the Higher Normal School and organize a kind of circle of interests. The courtyard of the institute has turned into a discussion club, the leader of which was, of course, Michel. Such a desire for change, the corresponding mood among young people can be explained by the fact that their childhood and adolescence were during the Second World War, and youth - in the process of redistribution of spheres of influence between the USSR and Western Europe. They saw both heroic and frankly dastardly deeds, and each of them represented himself as a participant in the Resistance, in a romantic halo. Membership in the Communist Party gave them the opportunity to get closer to their dreams.

Features of work in the party, a critical view of the surrounding reality, a sharp rejection of the ideals of the bourgeoisie reflected in the work of Foucault. But, as always, several from a different angle than expected. Most of all he was interested in power relations. But not obvious examples, but those that are veiled in society: parent-child, teacher-student, doctor-patient, condemned-overseer. In more detail, the philosopher comprehended and described the relationship between a psychiatrist and a mentally ill person.

Wandering

Life in France has antagonized Michel Foucault, and he hurriedly packed his bags and left to travel. The first stop was Sweden, then Poland and Austria-Hungary. During this period there is an active work on the "History of Madness". This period of his life is inherent in some dromomania, as Michel Foucault himself noted (Biography). Photo attractions of different countries and even continents reveal to us a new, lost philosopher. He lectured in Brazil, Japan, Canada, the United States, Tunisia.

A family

At the slope of his life, this talented person finally found a place where he could be truly happy. Long-term search was due to the complexity of awareness and acceptance by European society of how Michel Foucault lived and worked. His personal life has always been a secret, since homosexuality in communist-minded countries was frankly not welcomed. But in California, the US affairs were not so bad. There existed a separate subculture of people with non-traditional orientation, they fought for their rights, produced newspapers and magazines. Perhaps, it was this way of life that influenced Foucault's quick departure from life. In the fall of 1983, the philosopher visited the United States for the last time, and in the summer of 1984 he died from the terminal stage of HIV infection - AIDS.

Afterword

The study of insanity as alienation of a person from society, its development, the attitude of society to the mentally ill, the interaction between the doctor and the patient convinced Foucault in the thought that before him no one had been studying this problem from within the human community. His book is not a history of the development of psychiatry, but rather a way of its formation and acceptance by society as a discipline.

He was especially interested in the aspect of the influence of insanity on the culture of the time in which it is actively developing. He made parallels between the historical epoch and the main, in the opinion of society, a manifestation of insanity, and then found reflection of this in literature, poetry, painting of that time. After all, people of art have always been sure that the mentally ill know some secrets of human existence and can be considered the ultimate truth, but the truth is not always sweet and pleasant, therefore, "healthy" people must be fenced off from the revelations of the "sick".