- For Foucault, what we call psychological or mental disorders (schizophrenia, OCD, depression, etc.) are not timeless, natural, or purely biological facts.
- Instead, they are products of social, institutional, and discursive arrangements:
- Institutions: asylums, hospitals, clinics, psychiatric offices.
- Discourses: medical texts, case studies, moral norms, legal regulations.
- Social norms: expectations about behavior, reason, and normality.
The “disease” exists because society, through its institutions and discourses, constructs it as a recognizable and classifiable problem.
2. What “Produced” Means Here
- Classification and Naming
- Behaviors are observed, labeled, and categorized.
- Example: Someone exhibiting compulsive rituals might be classified as having OCD — that classification is a product of medical discourse and historical context.
- Institutional Treatment
- Once classified, the individual is treated, confined, or disciplined according to the institutional logic.
- Hospitals, clinics, and asylums shape the experience of the disorder itself, producing “madness” as a lived reality.
- Internalization
- People internalize the norms and labels assigned to them, becoming subjects in accordance with societal expectations.
- In Foucault’s terms: the social setup produces the patient as a subject.
3. Example: Madness Across Time
| Century | How madness was treated | Social/institutional influence | Resulting “disease” |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17th | Confinement with beggars, prisoners | Social order, moral norms | “Madness” as social deviance |
| 18th–19th | Asylums, hospitals, moral treatment | Medical observation, classification, institutional discipline | “Madness” becomes a medical category, with specific symptoms |
| 20th | Modern psychiatry | DSM manuals, case studies, therapy institutions | Specific psychological disorders like schizophrenia or OCD, experienced as objective realities |
The behaviors exist, but whether they are a “disease,” and what kind, depends entirely on the social, medical, and institutional context.
4. Important Clarification
- Foucault does not deny that behaviors or symptoms exist, nor does he claim that individuals are “faking” mental illness.
- His point is epistemological and historical: the meaning, significance, and classification of these behaviors are produced by society.
- In short: the social setup produces the concept of the disease, the categories, and the experience of being a patient, rather than the disease being a universal, natural fact independent of social structures.
✅ Key Takeaway
Psychological disease, in Foucault’s view, is produced through social arrangements, institutions, and discourses. The disorder itself becomes real and experienced because the social setup constructs it, classifies it, and disciplines the subject accordingly.