‘The History of Sexuality By the same author Mads a Cian: A Mion fIaiy i the A of Te Ot of Things An Archtiog of te Han snes Te Arca Knowle nd The Doar on ange) [Ulan Roe ng shed yet ys anes Disin td Pui The Bh tthe rsThe History of Sexuality Volume I: An introduction by Michel Foucault ‘Translated jrom the French by Robert Hurley Jit Pantheon Books ‘New York ah nn op 197 ano Ha aera ine ay testContents ax one We “Other Victorians” — 1 axe 1wo The Repressive Hypothesis 18 Caper The Inetement w Discourse 17 (Chapter 2 The Perverse Implantation 36 rae Scientia Serualis $1 Chapter 1 Objective 81 Chapter 3 Domain 103 axe rive RightofDeath and PoweroverLife 133 Index 16, _PART ONE _ We “Other Victorians”Fors longtime, the sory goss, we supped Vitoria regime, nd we coatinve © be dominated by i even toda ‘Thus the image ofthe imperial prude is emblazoned on out restrained, mute, and hypocritical sexuality ‘AL the begining of the Seventeenth century a certain frankoeat wes sl common i wold seem Sexual postions hag te ed ofSorecy, words were said without undue rescence, and things were doae without 0 much conceal- tment, one ad a tolerant faraiaity with the lit, Codes ‘regulating the coarse, the obscene, and the indecent were le lax compared thor ofthe nnctetth centry. nas ‘Trume of direct gestures, shameless discourse, and open Iranspressions, when anatomies mere shown and intecmin- ied at will, and knowing children hong about amid the Inughter of adults: it was a period when bodies "made a spy of themacvca” ‘But twlight soon fll poo this bight day, followed bythe ‘monotonous nishs of the Victorian bourteoisie Sexuality ‘was earefily confined it moved into the se. Theconjugal family tok custody fit and absorbed tito the serous fame the rule The legitimate and procreatve couple lid own the law. The coupe imposed itself s model, enforced. the norm, safeguarded the th and reserved the eight (0 speak while tang the principle of secrecy. A singe locus ‘texsalcy was acknowiedged fn soci space at we a the heart of every household, but i was a ilitirian and ferle one: the parents" bedroom. The rst had only tre main vague proper demeanor avoided contact with ober bodies, ad verbal decency sanitized one's speech. And ster 3 ‘ “The History of Sexuality {de bcavir cutie the taint of abnormality iit insisted on ‘aking ie 00 visible, I would be designated accordiagly fd would have to pay the penalty. ‘thing the we not ede tems of goneetion twansigured by it could expect sanction or protection. Nor ai it merit a heating. Te would be driven out, denied, and {exist and would be made to disappear upon seat mani fesation wheter inate or in words. Everyone knew, for trample, that hldren had no se which was why they were forbidden to talk about it, why one closed one’s eyes and stoped anv ene whenever they came te thn evenee 10 ‘he contary, and why 4 general and studied silence was imposed, These are the characteristic features attbuted 10 egress, which serve to ditngulh fom the pobibe ‘os maintained by penal awe repression operated as a $n tence to disappear, but also as an injunction eo silence, an afimation of nonentence, and, by implication, an adi Sioa that there was nothing tsa} about such things, nothing, ‘owes and nothina to know. Such was the hypoeriny of oat bourgeois soleus with salting logic. I was Torced 10 make afew concessions, however IF twas uly necessary fomake room frente oneal i was retoned et ‘hr ake their infernal mischieelbewbere: toa place where ‘hey could be reintegrate, if nt inthe cgcults of produc- tin, atleast those of profit. The brothel and the mental hospital would be thse places of tolerance’ the protitte, the cen andthe pimp. together withthe pavehisest sad his hysterio~thoee “other Vietrans” as Steven Mazes ‘would say—seem to hive surreptisouly transfered the lacus that are unepolen into the order of thing that are Eounted. Words and gestures, quietly authorized, could be exchanged thereat the going rate: Only in those places would Sherammcle vex haves righ to efetyiaularzes) forme of realy, and only to clandestine, citcumseribe, and coded types of discourse. Everywhere ee, modern putinpose ts tiple edit of taboo, nonexistence, and silence ‘But have we not liberated caries fom those tw long ‘centri in which th history of sexuality must be een fs ‘slight extent, weare told Perhaps some progress was made by Freud, but with such cicumspection, such medical ra- ‘ence, scentfe guarantee of nocuodsness, and so my precautions in ozder to contain eveything, with no Fear of Foveriow:” in that safest and most dere of pact, be teen the couch and discourse: yet anaer round of whi pring on bed. And could things have been otherwise? We Be informed that if epresson has indeed been the funda. ‘mental ink between power, knowledge, and sexuality since the clsicl age it stand to reavn that we wl ot he ble to free ourselves fom it except ata considerable cost othe ing ls than a transgression of laws, a iting of probibiions, sit zrupion a speach a teastatng ot pleasure within el iy, and a whole new economy inthe meckanisms of power tciberuied For the lest glimmer rath cenit by politics. Hence, one cannot hope to obtain the desired reslssimply from amecical practice, nr frm theoretical ‘scours, however rigorous pursued. Thus, one denounces Freud's conformism, the noemliiag functions of psychow alysis, the eins imiity underlying Reich's vehemence nd al the elect of integration ensure by the “scence” of Sex and the barely equivocal practices of Sexlogy “This iscourse on modern sexual repression hots up wel ‘owing no doubt to how eas itso uphold. A solemn histori ‘al and pel guarantee protect, Ry placing the ment Of the age of recession in the sevententh century, after hundreds of years of open spaces and fre expresin, oe adjusts 1 to coinede withthe development of capital: becomes an integral pat ofthe bourgeois oder. The minor _hrnnile if wn ante ra ic taney nt th rem ‘us history of the modes of production; is ting espest fades from view. A principle of explanation emerges afer the ‘ ‘The History of Sexuality fac: if sen is 50 rigorously repressed, this Beease i is incompatible with «general and intensive work imperative [Ate tine when labor sepeiy wat being estate ex pleted, how could this capacity be alowed to dispate tse! in pleasurable pursuits, excep in those—reduced toa mii uth enabied ito reprdce ise Sex and seers fre perhaps not socal deciphered; on the other band, their repression, thas reconstructed, i easly analyzed. And the Serual case—the demand for sexual freedom, bat also for the knowledge tobe guid fom sex and the right to speak about it—becomes legimatlyasocated wit the hon of 1 political cause: sex too Is placed on the agenda for the future A suspicious mind might woader if taking so many ‘Sve fliation doesnot ber taces of the same old proses: ‘if hoe valorsing correlations were necessary before such 2 aiscourse cou be tormulated or accetea Ut there may be another reson that makes it so rai ing for us to define the elationship between sex an power in terms of represion: Something that one might call the ‘speaker’ benefit If sex is repressed, that is condemned 10 That one is speaking abou it has the appearance ofa deliber- ate transgression. A person who holds forth such guage he upsets established lw; he somehow anticipates the com ing feedom. This explaas the solemaity wilh which one Speaks of wx nowadays When they had t allie 0 the {ist demoprapers and piychistits ofthe niseteeath cen- try thought it advisable to excuse themselves for asking thet eager o dwell on mater soil and ase Bt for decades now, we have found it cifcult to speak on the “tert wth striking iferent poe: we are consis af Aetyng established power, our tone of voice shows that we ‘know we are being subversive, and we atenty conjure away the present and appeal #0 the fatrs, whose day wal BeWe “Ober Vioriane”™ 7 hastened by the contribution we believe we are making Somathing that smacks of rvs of promised edo, of coming age ofa ierent la slip easily into this discourse fon seiual oppression. Some of the ancient functions af prophecy are rectvated therein, Tomorrow sex wil be ood ‘asin. Because this reprenion is afirmed, one can dicrelly ‘ing into cootstence concepts which the far of iule oF te biernss of history prevents mos of us fom putting side by side revolution and happiness of revolution anda die. cent body, one that is newer and more beautiful or indeed, evolution and pleasure, What sustains our eagerness 10 peak of etn terms of repression i doubters thr opports ‘ly to speak out against the powers that be, to utr tuts and promise bis, oink together enlightenment, eration, {nd marifld pleasures to pronounce a discourse that con bines the fervor af knowledge, the determination to change {he laws, and the longing forthe garden of earthly aight. This is perhaps what also explains the market value at tebuted not oly to what i said abou sexu epesion, but also tothe mere fact of lending an ear to those who would tliminate the fects of repression. Oursis, afterall, the only ondry impart the secrets of ther sex: a if the urge to alk bout tad the interest one hopes to arouse by ding 30, have fa surpassed the pssibites of being heat, 50 that some individuals have even offered thee eas for hire economic facto, but rather the exten in our era of & ‘dscourse in which Sex, the revelation of truth, the overturn tng of global laws, the peacamaton of a new day to ome, fd the promise of a certain felicity ate linked togethe ‘Today it sex that serves ew suppor foe the ancient Form So nian and important ia the West—of preaching. A treat serul sermon-—mhich has had is sable theologians dite popular voces swepe through our satis over the last decades it has chastised the ald order, denounced 8 “The History of Sens typocray, and prised the igh ofthe immediate and the rea it has made people dream of New City. The Francis ant ate called to mind. And we might wonder haw it posuble tha the lyrics and regio that tng accom nied the revolutionary project have, in Western industrial Secities, been largely cutie over 10 sex “The notion of repressed ex not, therefore, only a theo: retical matter, The afmation of «sexu that Bas never teen more ngorowlystugated than during the ne ofthe hypocritical, busting, and responsible bourgeoisie coupled with the grandiloguence of «discourse purporting to reveal ‘ert the law that governs i, and change its fture: The Statement of oppression and the form ofthe sermon refer back to one ancer they ave mutually reinforcing. To say that sex snot repressed oF rather that the relationship be- teensex and power is not characterized by feptsion. it sk faling into sterile paradox. It no only runs counter to Awelhaccepted argument, goes gains he whole economy ‘Thsis the point at which I woud ike to situate che series of historical analyses that wil follow, the present volume fang ate stme nme a introdicton and ant at an overview: it survey few historically significant pois ‘and outlines certain theoretical problems. Bit, my aim to examine the case ofa society which as been lol cast _ ating self forts hypoerisy for more than a centory, which Speake orb of trom iene, tas grat pe le in dtl the things it doesnot ay, denounces the powers t exercises, and promises fo liberate itself from the very laws these discourses bu also the wil that sstine them andthe strategic intention tha supports them. The question I would keto pote not, Why are we repressed but rather, Why do we Say, with so much passion snd So much resentment against our most ecent past, aginst our preset, ed agaistoureives, that we are repressed? By wha spiral id we come At fic nat aon ga” What fe wo hw tea Hous, that sexs Something me hide, 15a tis something tee silence And we do all ths by formulating the attr in the most explicit terms, by tying tO revel ei is most aka reality, by aiming tin the positivity ofits power and {oes 1s ecto legume to wh hy en was ae sciated with sn for such slong tmealthough H would remain to be discovered how this association was formed, tnd one would Rave to be careful noosa in summary ‘nd hasty aso that sen way "condemaed™—but we must farhaving once made sex in, What paths have brought us to the pot where we ate “a fault" with respect to our own ‘sex? Ad how have we come ea ciation So peculiar 4510 elise that, through a abuse of power which hs nt count for the displacement which, while casing to fee ws fiom the sinful nature of ex taxes us with a peat bistorial ‘wrong which consists precisely in imagining tbat nature to be Blameworthy and in draving disastrous consequences from tat oie? Tel be said that if 50 many people today afrm this reprenion, the reason i that ts historically evident And Irth speak ofits abundant as they have Yor such eng time now, this s because repression isso firmly anchored having oid roots and reasons, and weigh 0 avy on Sek {hat more than one denunciation wl be requied in order free ourselves from ithe jb will bea Tong one. ll the leer no doubt, sis inthe nate of power particularly ‘Me kind of power that operates in our society be reper sive, and f0 be especialy earful in repressing uss energies, te intensity of pleasures, and irregular modes of liertion vis-a-vis this repressive pomer are 0 slow to mani fest themselves, the effort to speak rely about sex and = o ‘The History of Senay ‘ep cm rely sw len to historical sequence that has gone unbroken fra thousand years aow, and so inimical to the inasic mechanisms of power, that it bound to ‘make tle esaway fora long ime before succeeding ins ‘One can rae three serious dubs concerning what I shall term the “vepesive hypothesis” Fist doubt Ts sexual re pression truly an established historical fact? Is what Sst Comes into view-and consequently permis one 1 advance 4a intial hypothess—really the acentuation or even the “talishiment ofa regime of sexual repression beginning in the seventeenth ceturv? This ea propery histoncal ates: tion Second doubt Do the workings of power, and in pate: uae tho mechanisms char ae brought iat play i sees sich a ours, really Belong primarily tothe category of te pression? Are pechibition, censorship, and denial (uly the forms threugh which powers exercised in a general way, if rot in every society, most certiny i our own? Thi isa histrcotheoeical question. A third and fnal doubt: Did ‘theevtical discourse that addresses itself to represion come ‘ated unchallenged upto that point o ist notin fact part ‘ofthe same stoic network a the thing it denousces (and Soubitss miseepresets) by alli it ucptenon™? Was ‘there really historia uptre between the age of repression and the cial analysis of represion? This is a htrico- potuca! question. MY purpose mn iuroducing tse vee ‘vba isnot merely t9 construct counterarguments hat are Symmetrical and eontrary to those outlined above; i not ‘ater of saying tat sexuality a Irom beng repressed in ‘apts and bourgeois societies, has on the contrary bene ted fiom a rege of unchanging Uberty; nor is ta mater of saying that power in societies suchas uss mare tolerant ‘than repressive, and that the entiqu of repression, while i ‘may aie ise ais ofa rapture with the past aeualy forms birt of a much older process and, depending on how onechooses 1 understand this proces. wll appear eiber as 2 fnew episode in the lessening of prohibitions, or as a more devious and discret form of owe ‘he doubts I would ke to oppose to the repressive hy potest are aimed les at showing it o be mistaken than at Ping i back withina general egonomy of Sacouree om ean Ih modern societies sine the seventeenth century. Why has sexuality been so widely discused, and what has ben said About i? What were the fects of power generated by what teas sud? What are the links between these dcourse, these ‘ects of power, and the plesure that were vested by ‘hen? What Knowledge (ahi) was formed ay result a this Tinaget The jr. nor. ctndefne he rgime of per. knowledge pleasure that sustains the discourse on human Sexuality nour pat ofthe wold. The centralise, hen (at Teast in the Rist instance, not to determine wher one says yes or mo tose, whether one fermulates prohibitions oF ‘fects, or whether one refines the words one ses a designate but to account forthe fat hati spoken about to discover who does the speaking, the positions snd viewpoints from which they speak, the institutions which prom people to speak about ian which slore andesite the tings ‘that are said. What at sue, bee ithe overall "dive Hence, too, my main concer wll be 16 locate the forms of ‘over, the channels it takes, and the discourses it permeates In order to reach the most tenous and inva modes of lbhavior, the paths that give i access othe rare or seately petctable frm of dre, ow it penetrate nd contro very pleasureall this enting ect that may be rent and intensifcation in sho, the “polymorphous tck- ‘igus of power.” And finaly, the esential aim will not be {o determine wether these discursive productions an these ‘flere of power lead one to formulate the truth about sex, of n The History of Sexual ‘on the contrary flbehoods desaned to conceal that tat, but rather to bring out the “wilt kaowlodge” that serves as both ther support and ther instrument. has not been prohibited or barred or masked ar misap- Brehende since the clase age, nor do I even assert that ‘before donot maintain that the prohibition of sexs rose Butt is arse to make prohibition into the basic and con istry of what has Been sid concerning sx starting from the moder epoch. All these negative elements—defenses, ensestipa, donate the, Tepresive Bypoiess: |roups together in oe great central mechanism destined to Sa no, are doubts ony component parts that havea local fi tactical oe to play i transformation ito scours, ‘techacogy of power, apd a wil knowledge that ate fat from being reducible to the former. Tn shor, I would ike to disengage my analysis from the privileges generally accorded the ecomy of searcity and "he prises of atelction. to seach ested fo nstances of acursive production (which also administer silences, to be sure, ofthe production of power (which sometimes have the funeion of prohibiting), fe propagation of nou edge (ich often case mistaken bei or ytematicmisconep- tions to circulate I woud ike to write the history ofthese ‘hom this vewpetat seems to indicate that since the end of the sixteenth century, the ‘patting nto discourse of sex." far from undergoing 8 proves 0 esticton om the contrary hs ten subjected tou mechanism of increasing incitement hat the techniques of power exercised ovr sex ave nt obeyed ‘principle of rigorous selection, but ater one of disemina "ibn and implantation of paymorphous sexual aad hat the will o Knowledge has not come 10 a halt in the face of ‘taboo that must ot be lied ut has persisted in consiWe “Orke Victron” 8 Jng—devpte many mistakes, of course—a lence of ext: iy. It i these movements tat I wil now atempt to bring into fous ina scherato wey, bypaasng an it mere herpes sive hypothesis andthe fats of interdiction or eclsion i ‘invokes, and starting from certain historical ats that serve 25 guidelines for research PART TWO | The Repressive HypothesisI The Incitement to Discourse Theserententh century, then, was the beginning ofan age behind. Caling sex by its name thereafter became more if uk and more coy” As if in oer to pin mastery over in realy it had frat been acesaty to subjugate iat the lent of language, contol is ee sealton fn pene, puget fom the things that were said ad extinguish the ‘words that rendered it 100 visibly present. And even these prohibitions, st seems, were afraid to name i. Without even having o pronounce the word, modern prodshness was able {Weute tha oe did na peah of em aetely tug the interplay of prohibitions that relerted back to one another: Instances of muteness which, by dit of saving nothing, im posed silence: Censorship. "Yet shen one loks back ver these Iss thre centuries diferent ligt: around and apropos asex one esa veritable ‘discursive exolosion. We must be cleat on thi point, how ‘ver. Tis quite possible tat there was an expurgation—and 2 very rigorous one—of the authorized vocabulary. It may Indeed te tracthat «whole tetorie ofaluion and actor was codified Without question, new rules of propriety ‘The History of Sexuality Screened out some words there was a policing ofstatements ‘A control over enunciatons ts wel where and when wat ‘ot possible Yo talk abot such things Bacame much more Strictly defined; in which circumstances, among which Speakers and within which social relationships, Areas were ths estblaie, if not of ltr silence, at lent of tact and Ascrtion: between parents and children, fr instance, ot teachers and pupil, or masters and domestic servants. This Almont certainly consstuted a whole restrictive ecomoey, fone that was inconporated into that polis of language and Seech—spontanecus on the one Hand, concerted on the ‘ther—which atcompanied the social redistribations ofthe asa period. “At the level of discourses and thei domain, however, prctzlly the opposite phenomenon occurred. Tete was 8 eadyproiferation of discourses concerned with sex—spe- fe ducourses, difereat from one another both by thet form and by ther objet: cacursive ferment that gathered ‘moment fom the eghtenth century oawatd. Here Lam thinking not so much of the probable increase in "iict™ Aiscourses, that's, discourses of infraction that crudely ‘named sex by way of insult or mockery of the new code of Ascenc: the tahtening up ofthe rules of decorum likely did produce aba counteract, a aloization and intensification indecent speech. But more important was the multipin. tion of discourses concerning sex inthe Bld of exercise of power ila institutional nclement to Speak about nd {fo do so more and more a determination onthe pat ofthe agencies f power to hea it span about and to ease ito Speak through explicit articulation and endlessly ac- ‘mulated dt, ‘Consider the evoation ofthe Catholic pastoral and the sacrament of penance after the Council of Tent. Lite by lite the nakedness ofthe questions formulated bythe con fesion manual of the Middle Ages. anda good numberof ‘hoses nus nthe seventeenth century, Was velled, OneThe Represiv Mypthis 8 voided entering into that dee of detail which some av thors. eichne Sancher Tabi, ha Yor» tg telved indapenabic forthe coneson 1 be camp description ofthe respective postions ofthe partner, he ostres sumed geste places touche arses he re Se moment of pesare—an ete pistaking review ofthe sete inne walling, Dron wes rach increasing cophans ‘The pret scrve mas counted shen eng within sin pity "Thi mtr sie {> pith fer however on might han even to cas ar fro oneal, cks nonetheless and lays soils” And Inter, Alfonso 6 Ligon preseibol staring-and pos feing m0 further, epi when dealing with creo But whe the language ny ve be rele the Scope fhe tfron the sfeton oft esh-omtay increased. This was pry toate the Canter Reformation Sasi ise with stepping up the cyt ofthe yal one fsoon the Cathal oun, and bees tlt impo melo rules of eiferamiaation; But sbove al, and perhaps athe expense of ame oer sins—tn lh imaatione othe Reh hgh din, lpn firings, delectations, combined movements he Body a thea hencfort all thi had fo eter in tal, at the rose of coneion and guidance. According tthe new Pastoral se must ot be named impradety, bus aypet, {Strela antisera Sow ie Senders ramieations «shadow in daydream, an age ton snly diplnd, stay esorcnad comity between the body's mechanic andthe minds compliceny every. thing ha bead A wofl crlton ended oma the ‘eno the root of lve, siing the mos portant Ioment of ranserenon fom teat slo the rings Mae Lm tts rh 045 a Pe es oh a 8 » ‘The History of Sexuhty —s dca perceive and formulane—of dese. For this ‘was an evil that acted the whole man, and inthe most Secret of forms: "Examine cilgey therfore all he fcul- tie of your soul: memory, undemtansing, an will Evamine wth precision all your senses as well =» Examine, more ‘ove, ll your thoughts, every word you speak anc al your ‘weakened, you di no give them your consent, And ally, donot think that in so senstiv ang prlous.a matter as this there anything tna insignificant” Discourse, tere fore, had 0 trace the meting ine ofthe body and the sul, following alls meanderings: beneath the surface ofthe sins, ‘would ay bare the unbeoken nerve of the sh. Under the authonty ofa language tht had been carefully expor ‘Charge of tracked down ast were, by a dicoure tha ied tan no obscura rape. oo. West was aid dows for the frst ime, in the form of @ eneal constraint. Tarot talking abou the obligation to amo otmans ofthe is a ea, a equied by ta. tional penance; but ofthe early infiite task of teling— teling oneself and another, a= often as possible, everything ‘hat might concer the interplay of innumerable pleasures, Sensation, and thoughts which, through the body and the Soul: ha some ainity with ex. This scheme fr transform ing se into discourse had been devised Tong before in an ascetic and monastic setting. The sevententh century made itcouldsarely have applied to any but any sit; the great majority ofthe faithful who only went to confession on are ‘ezanons ithe course of the year ecyped noch complen Prescriptions. But the important point no doubt stat this ‘blgation was decreed, a an ideal a lest, for every 0dThe Represive Hypothesis. Fa (Chistian. An imperative was established: Not only wll you confess to acts coneavening the law, but vou wil sek t0 transform your deste, your every dsr, into dacourse 1a sofas as posible, nothing was meant 10 elude this iam, ‘ei de word employed a o be cteully eure, ‘The Christan pastoral peeserted as a fundamental duty the tack of pssing reeything having to with we thro the tndless mil of spech The forbidding of certain words, the ‘decency of expressions, al the censrings of vocabulary, mga Well have been only secondary devices compared 19 ‘hat great subjugation: ways of rendering it morally accep- ‘One could plot alin going straight from the seveatcenth- entry pastoral to what became its projection in erature, “Sandaous” iterate at that. "Tel everything,” the dive. tors would say time ad again: “not only consummated at, ll consenting thoughts Sade takes up the injunction in words that sem to have been retranscibed from the Ueatises of spirtual direction: "Your narrations must be decorated with the most numerous and searching deals the reise may and extent to which we may jodge Row the pasion you desrie ras to human manners and man's ‘cumstance; and what is more the least creumtance apt to have an immense influence upon the procuring of that ind of sensory iritation we expect from your stores" And Aguin atthe end of the nineteenth century, the anonymous tithor of My Seon Le subnited to the sume prescription futwardly, a least, this man was doubles a Mind of trad near aa A ‘Neem igen ner rise ome Fh 39, ‘eae Algor ete he 2 Daf Sb te. Ane Wahome 2 ‘The History of Sexualy ial ierine; bt he meee he ies of complementing is ife—vhich he had almost totally dedicated to sexual ctivity—wth a serupalous account f every one of is ei Seas. He sometimes excises Rime! by tesig is concer, te educate young people, this man who had eleven volumes published, in a printing of only a few copies, which were Sevoted tothe least adventures, pleasures, and seston of his sex It is best to take im at his word when he ets nto hi text the voice of «pure imperative: "Trcount the fics just they happened, instar as am abe f recollect them this all that T can do" “a Soret life must not leave out snything;thereinathing the scam fn am never ow foo much concerning human nature” The solitary author of My Soret Life ten sys in order to justify his Sesrbing them, that his strangest practices undoubtedly \wereshare by thousands of men onthe surface ofthe eth, ‘But the guiding pincple forthe strangest of these practices, wn waste fe or recounting tem an neta, OM ay today, had teen lodged inthe heat of madera man for over two centuries, Rather than sezing in this singular man ‘courageous fupivetrom a"Vicloanim” that would Mave compelled hin to silence, am inctne to think that, in an epoch dominated by (highly pols directives ening dis ffeton and modesty, he wat the most direct andi a way the most alt represeaatve of plursecula injunction to alk ‘hour sex. The historia! cident would consist ater of the Fetcenes of "Victorian puritans”; at any rat, they were 2 digrsion, a refinement, a tactical diversion i the great process of transforming nx into discourse “ThinamelessEngisn wl serve beter than hs queen asthe central figure for a sexuality whose main features were in contrast othe later, fr him twas a mater of augment. ing the sensations he experienced with the details of what heThe Repreive Hypothesis 2 sav bout the ie Sade, he wrote for hi plese sone inthe strongest sense ofthe expression; he careful ined ‘heeding and rereading of his text with erotic ernes which thove wre cits repeated, prolonged, and timated. Bt afer al the Chistian pastoral also sought 0 proce ‘peste ents on dee, bythe ec at rans uly an deiteratey—ino dicoure: fess of mastery feconversion of ming back to God, physical eect of Us suferng from feling in one's toy the pangs of temptation andthe Tove that ress Ths the eset thing: ht Wester man has ben drawn for thee centris tothe tashof eng eveything concerning his se chat ine the classical ge there has bona constant opinion and tv increning saeraton of he dco este that thscarflly aryl doar was meat fo ld ml Fleets of dplacement, tention, reortation, and rat one could sy about cx elarged, and men conpllod {o eset si but more important sours was connected to sex bya complex organization with varying eet, by a <éeloyment that camel be adequately explained merely by felting i104 lw’ of prohibtio. A sensrship of Sex? “There was installed rather an apparatus for producing an thereat gusty of Scouse oat oy capable ie {oning and taking eet i is wey economy. “This echniaue might have remained ito the destiny of Cchtstan spray fithad na been supported and rene ‘by other mechanisms In thes place, by a “publi inte (5." Nova colltive curios or sensi; not anew men tay; bot powermechanms that fnctiond in such way tha iepurcon sea retont that wil have abe eae Jncdbecame cet, Toward the beginning ofthe igh teenth century, there emerged politic, economic, and {echnical etement fo tk about sok And ft 20 much ‘he form of a general theory of sexuality a in the form of ™ “The History of Serelity amyss, stocktaking, classifcaton, and speciation, of Guamitave or caus studies, Thi ned to take sex "into Aerive rom morality alone ba rom ratonaly a8 wel, was Sufism tha tft wondered tel and soght ‘thologie or its om erranc, How could a disoure tated {en ean speak of tha? “Rarely hae hilosophescected ‘steady gaze to these objets situated between disgust and a1 And neryacentury ltr the medial xaisent, ‘which one might have expected o bel surprised by what Speaking: "he darkness hat envelop hese fat, he shame fd disgust they inspite, have alvays replied the observer's fare. ror Tong time estan fornirooute te athe Some pict into this study." What eset is notin a ‘hese sep, nthe "mora the Beta, onthe By oorisy one can spect them of but the recogni nace iy of overcoming this hesitation. One had to speak of x, fone had to peak publicly and in 8 manner that was not etermine by the division between it anil, even the Speaker ainsi the distinton for isl wich what these solemn and preliminary declarations were tens 9 som): one had to speak of ako thing Yo Be not simp ondered or tolerated But manage, inserted int stems fof unite. regulated forthe greater good of all made tn fnetion according to an optimum. Sex was D0t something ne simply judge i was thing one administered. Te was inthe nator of pub potential alle foe managment Procedures it had tote taken charge of by aaa! die funes. Inthe eighteenth century, sen became a “pole” ‘ater ince land strc ens ven the er thine: ‘ot the repression of disorder, but an ordered maninization ‘Rept rg Bad tpt tam mrThe Repesive Hyphess Fa fcoletive an individual fore: “We mustconaiate and rower ofthe sae and snc this power coms ot ol a the Republic in general and in each ofthe members who onsite bt ao im the fates and lent OF those telonging ot lows tha he oie must cone then wefte And they cam only obtain shi teal through the omelet they hve he ifernt nt" A pling ofsex that is not the rigor of abo, but the nec of ‘egulting et through useful and public courses ‘te enrpls wl sce. One he pet inovaions inthe teshmgues of power nthe eighteenth entry was the vergence of “population” a an comonie and pie ‘problem: population as wealth, population 28 manpower Into api, population balanced betwee is own szowth nd the ramureey it ommanded. Goverment pereed {hat hey mer not desling simply with ube, or ren with 2 peopie” ue with 8“ popunon,” th ke specie phetomena ands peculiaeVarables birth and death rats, esac pater of cet and habitation. All thes variables tere ate athe pint where the charactee move Tens of ie and the space fects of sation er Sete: "States ae nt populsted in scodance wih the ‘tual prgienson ot propaga bt Uy ve fe incr, ther product, and thee diferent institutions Men mui ike the sei rom the eran an proportion othe advantage and source they fn the Tire athe heart ofthis esnomtc and pot problem {populist was near oa he Behe fat, the age of arias, the leptimate and eiimate trae of making them fre or ste the ts of una i an Bap Sas fp ea ‘The History of Sexuality fie ite or ofthe prohibitions the impact of contraceptive practices—of those notorious “deadly. secrets” which Aemograpers on the eve of the Revolution knew were al: ‘eddy Taran fo the inhabitants ofthe countryside ‘Of couse, it had Tong been asserted that a countey had 19 be populated fit hoped abe ich and powerful but this was the a time that a society had affeme, ina constant wa, that it future and its fortune were tied not only tothe umber and the upriahines fis etzes. othir maviage Toles an farly organization, bt othe manner in which tach individual made use of his sex. Tings went fom taal lamenting over the unfeuitful debauchery ofthe rich, Bache: lor and libertines toa discourse in which the exon conduct ‘ofthe population ws taken both a an objet of analysis and 484 large of intervention there was a peogtsson from the ‘rudely populations argument ofthe mercuntilist epoch to ‘the mich more sible and calculate aempts at regulation that tended to fa nr desonrnge—arcring the ja tives and exigencies of the momenta ineeasngbrtrate ‘Through the political economy of population there was fovmad + whole gid of averting regarding ton, There ‘emerged the analysis ofthe modes of sexual conduct, their ‘eterminaions and their ests, tthe boundary ine ofthe those systematic campaigns which, going boyond the trad ‘ional means—moral and religous exhortation, cal meas- ‘ror ted to taneforn the eel ondct of couple nts 1 concerted economic and polite behavior. In time these ‘ew measures would become anchorage point forthe diflr- fies It was enna tht the state know what was happening ‘with is citizens” sex, and the use they made of i, But also that cach individual be capable of controling the we he ‘made oft, Between the sate and the individual, sex became nis, and a publicise ola whole web of icourses, special Knowles, analyoen ad injunetions ted upon“Te situation was similar in the ease of chiens sex. It js often said thatthe classes! period consigned i 0 an ‘bacrty fom wbich it searely emerged betoe the Thee ‘hata longstanding “eeedom” oflanguage between children fand adults oF pap and teachers may have disppcared. [No sevententhcentory pedagogue would have pobey ad ised his iia as did Erasmus in his Difogues, on the hace ofa goo prostate. And the olteroun UE hat had accompanied the precocious seal of children fo 30 sited But this was not 2 pain and simple imponion of Silence. Rather, it was anew regime of cscousenNot any Tes was sid aboot on the contrary. But things were sud in diferent way, it was diferent people who sid the {fom diferent pin view and in de 0 ota ierent resis Silence isel™the things one declines 1054, Fis freien tn nae. the dcrtinn hat raged eran dlfeen speakers ies the abolte init of discourse, he ‘other sie rm whichis separated by a srt boundary, ‘man an element at uncon longs he ings a, wth ‘them ad in ration them within overall strategies There what one does not say; we must yf determine the dient ‘wavs fot saving such thine. ow the who can and those Ivho cannot speak of them are istrbutes, which type of Alscourse i authorized, or which frm of dcreton fst ‘uted nefter ease, There eno one bat many sence, na they ae an integral pert of the seats that under and ‘Take the secondary school ofthe eighteenth centsy for cxample On the whole onecan have the impression tha sex ‘was hardly spoken ofall in these isitutions, Bu one ony has to plance over the architectural layout, the els of dice pln and ter whole aterm organtaton the question of Sex was a constant preoccupation The Builders considered it 2 “The History of Sealey ‘plicit. The organizers ook t penny iat ast. ‘ao helo a meme of unary were places ra ste ‘perpetual ale, which he tre, the reasons ken, the iterlay of punishments and espa, never ‘sesnd torent’ Ihe space fore the saps ofthe tales the planning ofthe recreation lessons the exriton ‘the dormitories tho without partons, wth or wi ‘ou cura) te res for thomtong bean an esp peri —all this eer in the mot pole manne, 0 he ‘Ehuniy of chien What one might alte fnternal ‘couche nsttton the one employed to sae. elt and which cclated among those who made func teat lara bsed onthe spin ta i ealty ‘etd, that twas prococious, atv, and ever present. But thiwas otal thesexofthe chen Became inthe our ofthe sehteeth cenryand gute apart from that of ‘tokens m gener pot problem, Det eouniced the rector sd pesos of edueatoaleabshment but they alo gave tele opinions fo fame: eestor de Senet projeets mach they submited t0 the stores, ‘Hoovers tuned tostadents ade rsommendaions 0 them, an rte for tie Benet hooks of exhort fl ‘fmorl and metal etmpio. Around te schoolay and hisex thee prorated «woe Mertae of peeps op ions Steration, dc aie, cle aes, ones for tec, and pla fr ea intone: With Baedow ahd the German “philanthropic” movement, this ransformation fadolecent sex nto dacoue pew 0 considenble dimen Sons Stnmann even pans an expen sen00 tan poe 0 Ta ee tghe Reprsine ypu » which owed its exceptional character 1 a supervision and ‘ovation of senso well gh at at yon Sin would never need to be practiced there And with all ‘heer mencires tae, the child we nt ae ip the te lind unconscious object of attentions prearanged between Adults only, a certain reasonable, limited, canonical, and ‘ruth! dacourse on se was peesrbed Tor hima Kind af ddscursive orthopedics. The great festival organized at the this regard Taking the form of an examination, ned with fora gms. the mening pees an a hard of evi is was the iat solemn Communion of adolescent sex and ‘easonabl discourse, In order to show the success ofthe ek sucation given the students, Basedow had invited all the Alignitaries hat Germany could muster (Goethe was one of {te few 9 devine ie ition. Bene the seated pb lic, one ofthe prfesors, a certain Wolke, asked the students selected questions concerning the mysteries th, and procreation. He had them comment on engravings that de: Dicted a pregnant woman, a coupe and cradle, The repli ‘rere ealghtened, ofered without shame or embarrassment, [No unseen laughter intervened to disturb then—excet the ehildeenthemsclvs, and whom Wolke severely cepi- ane At the end they all applied thee cherb-ared boys who, ia trot of aduls, had skill woven the gar- lands of discourse and tex” Tr would be les than exact t0 say thatthe pedagonical instinon has imposed a ponderous silence on the sex of stuldren und adolescents nthe contrary, since the eh= teenth cerury ths matipbie the forms discourse on the ‘bart it hae talihedvarout pointe of implantation for Sex; thas coded contents and qualified speakers. Speaking ie Deane mare A sa shout children’s sex, inducing educators, physician, ad- ‘mumsratos, an pares to speak of oF peaking fo Rem shout i causing children themselves (otal about i and ‘xcosing them ia'a web of dourses which sometimes a tess them, Sometimes speak about them, or impos canon fe its of knowledge on them, or use them a «bass fOr fonsructing Science that is beyond ther grasp—all this fogether enables sto ink an intention of the intervene tions of power to 2 multiplication of discourse. The sex of children and adolescents has become since the eighteenth entry, an important area of contention around which i+ ‘erable institional devices and discursive strategies have teem deployed may wall be trae that dale and chiles themselves were deprived ofa certain way of peaking about sex, a mode that was disallowed as beng foo direct, crbde, ‘or conrve: Dutta was only the counterpart of oie se Courses, and perhaps the condition necessary in order for ‘them 1 function, discourses that wer interlocking, hie ahized,andall highly articulated around aclstr of power felations ‘One could meation many other centers which nthe igh- teenth a nneteenth century began to produce dscoures on sex Fist there was medicine, vin the "nervous dsordes"; ext psyehiary, whe it se out to discover the exlony of rental ines, Feusing is gaze fst om “exces” then ‘onanism, then frustration, then “frauds agaist poet perversions as its own province rimial justice oo, which fad long been concerned with senality, particule in the which, toward the midle ofthe nincteeath century, broad re itsjariction once petty oflenses, minor indecen- ono, eoppig up at the end of the last centr, which Screened the Sexuality of oupls, paren and children, dan sefous and endangered aolecenundetaking to pote,‘The Repesive Hoa 4 separate, and forewarn signaling pris everywhere, awaken: fg people's atenion, eallg for ingne ing wp He ors, organising therapies. These sts radiated dcourses Simed at ex, intensifying people's awareness af it as a cone Stant danger, and this in turn created a further incentive to talk about it ‘One day in 1867, a farm hand fom the village of Lapcout, ‘who was somewhat simplesminded, employed here then {here depending onthe seson, living batd-to-mouth om 2 lite chaty orm exchange forthe worst sort of labor, Sleeping in barns and stables, was tured into the authorities. [Avie Dodero el, ind ota a em caves 0 Sil i just as head done before and sen dome bythe ‘illage chins round about him: fo, atthe edge the wood, for inthe ditch by the road lading to Saint-Nicolas, hey would play the faiar game called “curd mil.” So he tren potted out y the i's parents co the mayor of the village, reported bythe mayor fo the gendarmes, ed bythe tendrmes tothe jee. wha indicted him and tore hin ‘ver st toa doctor, then wo two other experts who na only wrote thee report but also ad i published" Wht i the Stpnmcane rng about this sory? the petiness of al tne fact hat ths everyday occurence in theif of illge sexual from aceitin time, the object not only of collective intoler- sce bt of judicial action, a medal intervention acarefl ‘The thing to note shat they went so far as to measure the enna: sty the facial ene structs and nant foe posible sgn of depencrescene the anatomy of this person ge who up to that moment had been an integral part of ‘alae ity that they made ham tlk that they quetioned him concerning his thoughts, inclinations, habits, sensations, sin epinione And then, anuiting him of any em, they "Meta agp ti il a md 2 The History of Seuaty cided fay to make bio into pe objet of madiine tnd knowledge an objet 1 be shut awa il the end of is ‘ie in the hospital at Maré, but also one to be made Ienown tothe world of learning through «detailed enalyi (One can be fry certain that during tis tame period the Lapeourt schoolmaster was nsrating the litle villages to ‘ale tagged tad sto lle hing cred, Buchs was undoubtedly one of the conditions enabling the ‘institutions o knowledge and power to overlay this everyday soviety—and it wis doubtless heist in bistry to take such ‘messurerassmbled around thse timcess gestures, these barely Tortve pleasures Between siiplesminded adult and alert children, a whole machinery for speschifying nalye- ing, and investigating. Between the lcetions Englishman, who eamesty ee- corde for his own purposes the singular episode of is secre fe, and his contemporary, this village balfwit who ‘woul givea few pennies to the ite pin or favors the older (nes refused hi, there was without doubt profound con: became something to sa and Say exhaustively in accord- nce with deployment that were varied but al ther own in confidence ofan authoritarian interrogation, sen—be it fefined or usio—had tobe pt into word. A gen polymor phous injunction bound the Euglaboian auth fst Le Fainese peasant like. AS history would have tthe ater was ‘ated Jouy* ‘Se te sighioruls century, sex Ia not eed prot voke a kind of generalized discursive eethism. And these tdscourses on sex did not multiply epart fom or against power, but te very space and as ne means oF exerase Tncitements to speak were orchestrated from all quarters, an ee rs eo acing,‘The Repesie Hype 2 apparatuses everywhere for Iistenng and recording proce utes for observing, questioning. and formulating Sex was riven out of hiding and constrained to lead a cncorve ‘existence. From the iaglarimpevilis that eompals every ‘Se to traform thir sexuality into a perpetual docoure, {othe manifold mechanisms which, inthe areas of economy, edad, medicine. an fuses. incite extract. dtibute, {nd institutionalize the sexual course, an immense verbo: ity is what our civilization bas required and organized Strely no other type of soe has ever acumen ‘in such relatively shot span of time simular quay of Aleve socenned with aH ry wl he that tl bout sex more than anything els; we et our mins tothe tsk; we convince ourselves that we ave never sid enough ff the subject, that, hough ear suDmSGeRES, we ‘once from ourselves the Dig evidence, and that what ‘once apni in search of it.I is possible that where sex ‘concerted, the most long-winded, the most impatient ofc ‘ut as thi first overview shows, we are dealing less with 4 dnousse om ten than wth tility of cours ‘roduced by a whole serie of mechani operating in dif: ‘rent inuations. The Midale Age had orpanzedzound thethome of the flesh and the practice of penance dcourse ‘that was markedly unitary. Ia the course of recent centuries, mtipied in an explosion of distinc etcurvites Which took form in demopranly. biology. medicine. psychiaty psychology, ethics, pedagogy, and polities ericim. More ‘reisely the secure bond that held together the moral theal- ‘ay of concupscence and ie coigation of confession eat lent to the theoretical discourse om sex and ts es-person sited: berween the objetfcation of sex in rational dis ‘courses and the movement by which ech individual was st ue The History of Sesualty to the ask of recounting bis own se, there has occurred, since the egcemh centry a we sere of tensions, con Soit inna simply in terms of continual extension that we ‘ust speak ofthis cscursive growth hould be seen rather 2 cversication ofthe orms ad the complex deployment ofthe network connecting them. Rather than the uniform once to hide ax, rather than a general prodtinem of language, what distinguisies these at thre enti i the ‘ately the wide dispersion of devices that were vented for ‘paki aan rangi apn su rng Ito speak of tse for listening, recording. transerbing. and ‘edisibuting what is sid about around sex, a whole ‘etwork o vying spect, ang coer rapes no Giscourse Rather than a massive censorship, begins with the verbal propities imposed by the Age of Reason, what Sssahoed wna ed ad pmespows tenet ‘The objection wil doubles be ried that if so many stimulation nd costaiing mechanisms were ncesary forder to speak of Sex, tis was beau there reigned ovet teryone # extn fundamental prohibition, only definite bseiteseconomie remus, ‘pola requests tere able oli this probiion and open afew approaches {othe dncourse on eu but these were limited and carta odes 30 much tak about Sex so many Insitent devices onttved for causing itt be talked sbout—but unde stret fenditone: Ac Tt ot pores that seam bjt ee recy, and more porta hat thee i ill an temp 10 ep it that way? But this oftenstated theme, that sex fe, the breaking ofa esr, can clear the way leading to is precisely what needs tobe examined. Does it mot partake ‘tune njanction by which encores e provoked ‘withthe aim ofinting people wo speak ofsex that its madeThe Reprsive Hypothesis s suns a he ois i every actu nen ee thing akin to a eeret whose discovery imperative hing fd necessary, dangerous und precious to divulge? We must not forget that by making Sex no that whic, aboveal ee, a to Be confi he Carian pastoral aways presented ita the disquieting enigma: nota thing which stubbornly txce that speaks na wice 0 mute and often disguised that tne risks remaining deat to it Doubs the sort does 0 resid in tht basi reality in lation to which al the nce ‘ens to speak ofscx are itated-whether hey ryt ores by the manner in which they speak of Ie a question father ofa theme that forms part ofthe very mechatics af {hese incitement a way of giving shape fo the requirement tospeak aout the mater, able tat indispensable tothe nates proerang economy of the eisourse on sek ‘Wiha is peal to modern societies, infact, nt that they ‘hemseves to speaking of ad ifntum, wile exploiting as the sec 2 The Perverse Implantation Implantation {A possible objection: it would bea mistake tose inthis proliferation of discourses merely 2 quantitative phenome. on, sotehing Ue a pure fneense, asf what wa id them were ivmateril asi the fact of speaking about sex ‘were fief more important than the forms of iaperaives that were imposed on it by speaking about i. Fr was this transformation of sex into dacourse not governed! by the we torpedo ren the Tome of seal tht ‘were amenable tothe sc economy of rpreducton 0 Sy n0 fo unproductive to banish casual pleasure, tion? Through the various discourses, eal sanction against ‘nunoe perversions were multiplied sexual erequlety Was ‘Sane to mental nes fom shidhod o lage, nora fof seuual development was defined and all the possible devia tions were carefully described, pedagogical controls and ‘weil eines weve organi aout he fe fae Ss, morals, bu especially doctors, bandied the whole ‘phat voesbulary of abomination. Were thee anything ‘move than means employed 1 abso, for the Benet of seatally centered sexuality, ll the fruitless pleasures? All {his garrlous attention which has ws ina stew over serait, 'Si1 Hot mounated by one base concern: 10 ensue popu:‘The Represine Hypothesis y tion to reproduce labor capacity, to perpetuate the form of Social rltons in shor, to consiute a sexlty that i ‘conomically uel and politcal conservathel Till do ot know wheter this the ukimate objective, ut this such & certain reduction ba not bee the meas ‘employed for tying 10 achieve ie The nineteath century Sn our own bave been rather the age of malipliction: Sispersion oF sexual, » streagthening of thar apart forms, a multiple implantation of "perversions" Our epoch Uptothecad ofthecightesnth century, three majo expi- it codes—apaet from the cusomary regularities and eo straints of opnion--governed sexual practices: canoaical Ia, the Chistian pastoral, and civil law: They determine, cach in i own wy, se Gvson betwee et and et ‘They mere all entered on mateimonial relations the marital complied witht the requirements and Wolences that accom panied ithe useless of unwarranted caresses for which it ‘ava petet, fs fecundity ore way ne went about mak ‘ng itsterie, the moments when ane demanded it (angeros priode of pregnancy or breatfecding, forbien timer of Lent or abstinence) it frequency or infrequeny, and soon. 1 was this domain that was especially saturated with p= Sériptions. The sex of Busan sd wife was beet by ues and recommendations. The mariage relation was the most mene focus of conteiny twat spoken of ere than snything else; more than any eter relation, Iwas equred torivea detailed accounting a ise It was under constant surveillance if was found fo be lacking it had fo come Forward and plead is ease before a witness. The “es re {rived gud de wre toned ome ly Ia to tisk the uncertain satus of “sodomy.” ofthe inderence cepa “Moreover, thee diferent codes didnot make a cleae ais tinction between violations ofthe rules of marriage and FY ‘he History of Sesualty ovations with sespect to genitals. Dicing the eles of ‘marrige or soking strange leases brought an equal mc ‘ref condemnation On the ist of grave Sins, ad separated ‘nly byte relate mportanes, tere speared ebaichery (Cxtamarital rations), adultery, rape, spiritual or caral {incest but abo sodoms. or the mutual “cares.” As 10 the ‘Sours they could condemn homosexuality as well i diy, mariage without parental consent, or besa. Action alike was A general ulawfulness. Doubles ats contrary tonature” were stamped as especially abominable, ut tey were peoaved simply a an extreme orm of ats “agsnst the law they were infringements of dere which vere jun a sacred a those of marriage, and which had Deen ‘Stablshed for governing the ode of thing and the plan of beings. Prohibitions bearing on ex were esenally of a Sills kind of law. For fong time hermaphrodts were ‘fiminals,oerme's oping snc ther anton apo- bulthed the sexes and prescribed their union The discursive explosion ofthe eighteenth and incecnth centuries ented this system centered on legitimate sliance {0 undergo two modifetions. Fit, a centrifuga movement ‘tin resqet in bernenal menogainy. Of come, the array Ut practioe and pleasures continued tobe refered 10 2 {hairatemalsandar; but twas spoken of ess ad ss, oF in any cave wth «growing modcraon,Efora to fd out its serets were abandoned: nothing frtber was demanded oft than to define ise from day 10 day. The legitimate up wth regula sexual, had eg to more ace: tio tend to faneton aka nem, one that was ster, ‘etapa, bu quicter On the other hand. what exme under ‘erin was he sexulity of cildren, mad men and wore, ‘nd criminals; the sesutty of those who id at like theThe Rereive Hyphae » porte f cage He nan time forall shoe figure, serely rotced inthe pst, to step forward snd speak, to make the Aiicltconesion of what they were. No doube they were fsondemed all the same; but They were listened 1 and If al exec. "Whence the sting apart the “un mension inthe eid of sexi. Tew Kind of aeotty assumed an autonomy with regard oth fhe condemned frome rh we nny ne tps tan the eer wee se eimed ls a es) to my lose eae or practice Sodomy, to sodue 2 mun or engage in sam, to dese ly iferen. The ares eovered bythe Sth Command tment began to feagment. Sima inthe ei order. the Solin atepoy of “debavhery,” which fr more han & entry had been one of he mos fequet reson fora pearl on the one hand infractions again the egilaton (Gr moral) petinne to marrige an the fais ad on {hecther, oss apa the egy fanaa uncon (tenses wh st most be add, the law was apt 0 pais). Mite we have Wel sats mang ay ten (Don ian, which tree ena havent eased Under: ‘ath he get wolatr of he ul of mariage of ‘nes sede of gin, the same of mie, and an nt to. usbands and fatere another penonage cx be ‘imped the india! vn opt of bel by the Somer made of tx. Undereth the Borin, the per tert He detest bes the au, but athe same ne, {omehing Ie auf pone try tnepas te far fo nature, is death ithe momen when he spear] ‘eure ofthe ear tein thwart gh no ourtratore. There were tn great Sens coed by ‘he West for governing sex telaw of mariage andthe order of desite—and the ie f Don Jan oven hem bth ‘We sal ave to pyshownly to peels wether he ts monn ear, or impact. ‘Although at without dela apd equvoction the natural tava cf mattinony andthe ienenent rule of etulty began tobe recorded on two neparat rghtes Thee merge a worl of perversion wick partook oth of a ‘Kent ne tace was orient depe ceain nsipte—from the iene ofthe past. rom the end Mt cighcuth century oss oun they ctl tough the pores of society; they were alvayy hounded. Bt not wap bylaw ere ler locked up Bt not alas In ny mee ch porhapa ut seandaus dangerous {ims prey toa strange ev hat aso bore the name of ice tnd sometimes cnme They wee cir wie Beyond thee ‘rans and ecatrs ror maniacal shan sary colton rnb wth bear impale they hatte he SOuce cP coer hepa colonies he hanya the slums thy sired thar infamy To the doctors ac Uhr tote jd This waste umber fay Stn wo madmen Inthe couse ofthe Ceury thy sucoee “genta nero” “physi! imbalance What does the appearance ofall these peripheral sexu tis sgn? fe theft that they could appear in broad dy light sgn thatthe coe had become mor lax? Or does the fact that they were given so much attention testy to a ‘ices rege and tts conser to bring ther ender clove ‘Supervision? Ia ters of epson things are unclear. There ‘ets permissiveness, if one bears in ming tat the severity of in the nineteenth century and that law itself often deferredThe Represine Hypebes 0 tometicne But an addon case of severity, fone thinks fal the agencies of control and all the mechanisms of Survelance that were pt ito operation by pelagoey oF {herapeutis. Te maybe the case tat the intervention ofthe ‘Church in conjugal seunlity and ts reetion of “rads” guns proctaton had les much ofthe insistence over the revit rw hundred years Rat meine mace afore ry into the pleasures ofthe couple i erated an etre ‘xg, functional, or mental pathology asing out of “n= ‘opie senal pace, cel las al forms of rented pleasures incorporated them int the notion of took to manage them ~ Perhaps the pint to consider i not the eve of indlaeice cor the quant of epson bt the form of power tht was fecied. When this woe thicket of disparate sexualities ‘va label nt disentangle them fom one another, was the objet to exclude them from reality? Te appears fst not hat ofnteriton and tha it involved four operations Take the ancient probitions of consanguine mariages (s numerous and complex as they were) or the condemn Mw o adultery, witht neviablerequescy of occurrence, for onthe other hand, the recent cools trough which, Since tbe nicest century, the senaly of hen has ‘been subordinated and ther “solitary babs” interfered sith Tecelenr that we arent dentng with one a the sme power mechanism. Nov only because in the one casei is & ‘uestion of aw and penalty, and in the other, medline and Tegimenttion, but also because the tactics employed Is no the sme On the surface, what appears in bath cases an ways constainad to begin agin. But the prokittion of "ines attempted to rach tev thrgh an yp tote decrease in he thing ceondemped, wheress the contol e “The History of Seay ‘ot infite senanty hoped 0 reach i throw sm heows propagation of is own power and ofthe object on hich Ht was brought to bear. It proceded in accordance octrscombatted childrens onanism ike an epidemic that reeded to be eradicated. What this actualy ented, Ault workaround the sex of children, was wsing these Tenaous pleasures «6 » prop, constituting them as sees (Ghat ein hes mo ising soa o ake posse thelr ‘iscovery) tracing them back o thei source, tacking them Som thei origins to their ets, searching out everything ‘that might cause tem orsmply ent hem Yo exst. Wer cer there was the chance they might appear, devices of Sureilance were installed taps were laid for competing ‘Mmasioninehausible and coercive discourses werent pond patents and teachers were alerted, and left with the Suspicion tha all tldren were eit, and withthe fer of being themselves a fault i thei suspicions were nts ciel song: they were kept in readies inthe face of ths recurrent danger thee conduct was prescribed and their palagoey recoded an ertire mediosenal reine 10k oldor the family milieu. The cis "vie" was 130 ch am enemy a sport: it may have arn designate athe ilo be eliminated, but the extraordinary effort that went fo the ask that was bound ofl leads one to suspet that the mis of the visible and the Ini, ratber than Alaappear fo good. Always elying on this suppor, powet ‘dvanced lied i eny and i eet whe ts target Expanded, subdivided, and branchal out, penetrating further into reality atthe same pace. Tn appearance, we ae dealing sabe ste; Ut fx around he nee Tite fies of penetration were dpsed 2. This new persecution of the peripheral sexualities en- tailed an mcorporanono perrerons ana anew speciationThe Regrsiv Hypothesis a of tndivduals Ae dcSnct bythe ancient civil or enonicl odes, sodomy was a category of forbidden ats thee perp trator was nothing more than the jr! sobet of them, The ninetceni-century homosexual became a personage, a ast, a ease history, anda ehilood, in adatom to being a {pect ite aie orm, anda morphology wth an nchcret anatomy and possibly a mysterious physicigy. Nothing that ity. Tt was everywhere present in hms atthe root ofall his section bcatne twas ther insidious and indefinitely active Drineple; written immodestly on his face and Body because Fewas a secret that always gave islf away. It was onsub- anti! wth him, lese ae 8 Raita! Sn than 38 single ature, We must not forget that the psycholonical psychi. Fes medioal category of Romovenvay was consi from the moment it was characterized —Wessphalsammousatile of 1870 on “contrary sexual sensations" can stand as its ate firth by a typeof sexual relations than by a cerain quality of sexual sensibility, a certain way of inverting the Iascline and the feminine in ones” Homesexsalty 8p: eared as one ofthe forms of sexuality when it was tan- Froved rom the practice af sodomy onto Kind of interior tndrogyny, a hermaphrodsm ofthe sol. The sedomite bad been temporary aberration: the homosexual was now & specie. 'So t00 were all those minor perverts whom nineteenth cenrurypsyehiatrssentomotogizea by ging tem strange baptismal names: there were Keaf-Ebings zoophiles and Seopopiles, gynecomast, prsbyophiles, sexosthetie in- ‘ert, nd dspareunst women. These fine names fr heresies Tefered ta nature that was overiooked by the lam, but not so neglect of ise thai did not goon producing more Speci, even where mere was no ordr to at sem mo. ne “Gat Mehl te No 0 “ “The History of Sena machinery of power that fcused on this whole alien strain Aid no aim to suppres tbat rather to give tan analytical, ‘sible, and permanent reality twas implanted in Does, Slipped in beneath modes of conduct, made into principle of elssifcation and ineligibility, established as @ raion (fire anda aturl order o disorder. Not the exclusion of these thousand aberrant sexualities, but the specication, the regional sldieation of each one of them. The srsegy behind this dissemination wast stew realty with hem sd incomporate them into the individual. 3: More than the old taboos this orm of power demanded. constant, attentive, and curious presences forts exereise i eesuppesed proximities it proceeded through examination Sod isitent ‘observation; it required an exchange of dis courses through questions tht extovied admisions, and confidences that went beyond the questions that were asked, Te implied a physical proximity and an interplay of intense Sensation. The modiealzation of the sexually peculiar was both the eect andthe instrument of this, Lnbedded in bod ies, becoming deeply characteristic of individual, the od. {es of sex eled on a technology of health and pathology. ‘And conversely, since sexuality was. medical and medica able object, one had to ory and detect tas a lesion. a Aysfuncton, or 2 symptom—in the depths ofthe organi, for on the surface of the skin, or among all the signs of behavior. The power which thus took charge of sexuaiy st shout contacting bodes, caressing them with ts eye inten ‘using ares clecriping surfaces, dramatizing oubled m0. ‘ments: wrapped the sexual body in ts embrace. Thee was “undoubtedly an increase in efectveness and an extension of the domain controled; but also asensalzation of power and ‘evn a leone Thi pried a twfld eet apt ‘8s given fo power through its very exercise; am emotion ‘esardal the ovetsesing contol and cared it Turther the Inteity of the confetion renewed the queatinners caro iy the plesure discover fed back to he power that en.The Reps Hypothesis 6 lel I Dot 20 eany renin quests single the ‘esse fl bythe one who had to reply. They were Bed Fyn gure, kolnted nd animated hy the tention they t= ceived. Power operated asa mechanism of traction it drew ‘ut those peculiarities over which i kept watch. Pleasure Spread o fhe power tat harmed it power anchored the ease i uncovered ‘he pedagogical report, and family controls may have the ‘overall and apparent objet of saying not all wayward ce unpeoductive sexual but he fact sha they function ‘mechanisms wth doable impetus: pleasure and power. ‘The plese hat voeauteaciesing pues tha quinn, rontors,welchs, spies, searches out pelts, brings 10 ‘aving to evade this power ee fom fol it of travesty The power tht let ite be invaded bythe pleasure ii parsing tnd oppoate power ssertng si the leas. Ure of showing of, scandalizng or reiting Capture and ‘lection contention snd minal enforcement parts {nd children, adults and adolescent, eestor and stent, doctors and patents, the pychistst wth his hystere and Ais perverts lave played this game continually since the nineteenth century These atractons, hese evasion, these ‘ular iitenets bare tacel around bodies And sen, fot boundaries not to be eros, But perpetual spiral of ower and pleour °S Whencethoae device fxexual saturation so character ine of the space andthe socal rituals of the nineteenth Century. Peope ten say tat moder soit tas tempted to redice sexuality tothe couple—the heterosexual and ne for saying tha it hs, not create, at last uted and made to proliferate, sroups with multiple cements and & ‘Srulatng sexuality = strut of pnts of power, ere arcized and placed opposite to one another; “pursued “ “The Hstory of Sealey plenures that bos sought fer and earch wat com Prtinetalsesulites that are tolerated or encouraged Droximties that serve as surveillance procedures and func- fm a mechan intenaeatlon contacts that operate ‘sinductrs. This the way things worked in the caseof the family, rather the household, with parents, cide, snd Insome instances, servants. Was the nineteenth-centary fam ily really a monogamie and conjgal cll” Pechaps tom cer lsinextent. Butt was ao a network of pleasures nd powers linked together at multiple points and according to trans formable relationships. The separation of grown-ups and children, the polarity establish between the paren bed oom and that of the children (it Beeame routine in the oure ofthe century when working-class housing construc: rene neta) he vintve cagtrention of ae a fins, the strict instructions ast the care of nursing infants {@nateral breast-feeding, hygiene, the attention fused on infetile seal, the supposed dangers of meetrtation, the importance attached to puberty, the methods of survel- lance suggested to patents the ethoriations, secret, ad fears theproence both valued and fred -ofcervant all, this mde the fail, even when brought down tote smallest dimensions, a complicated netork, strated with lil, conjugal relationship, and then fo project the later inthe form at forbidden desire onto the children, cannot account for this apparatus whic, in eatin vo hese sexalies, was Jessa principle of nhibition than an ining and mullpying ‘mechanism, Educational or psychiatric institutions, with their iege popuations te hierarchies, tet spatial rangements tee surveillance systems, constitute, along. Side the fay, another way of istibting the meray oF powers and pleasures; but they too delineated areas of ex treme sexual saturation, with privileged spaces of rituals suchas the elasroom, the dormitory, the vist and the con- Stllaton. The form of oncojugal,noamonogamous sex taliy were drawa there and establishedThe ReresineHoposhes ” Nincteenh-century “bourgeeis” soiety—and it is doube- tess stil wih us-—was a society of blatant and fragmented everson. And tis was not by way of hypoersy, for not Ing was more manifst and more pralix of more manifestly taken over by dacouraes and istitions Not tec, Me ing tried to erect ton rigid or too general a barrier against sexuality, society succendd only in giving ise to a whole peers outbreak anda long pathology of the sexta insint, [At asue, ater, the type of power i Brought to bear on the form of the law, nor the effects of the taboo, On the contrary it ated by maltiscation of singular sexualities. It {id not Set boundaries for sexuality it extended the various Terms of sexuality. pursuing them according tines of nde tite penetration. Ted wot calade scaly, but inte in the body asa mode of specification of individuals. It did fot seek to avoid itt attracted ie varie by means of Spirals in which pleasure and power reinforced one another did ot setup a bari it provided places of maximum saturation. It produced and determined the sexual moss ‘Modem society is perverse, notin spite of puntanism oe scifi hactlch roe hgpoeny isin art fet, and diet, perverse. ‘nasal fc, The manifold sexusies—those which ap pear wth the dierent ages (Seualtis ofthe infant othe ‘hil, those which become Fxated om pariulr tases or practice (he senanity ofthe iner, the gorontoptia he Feiss, those which, i a difse ane, invest relation- ships (the sexuality of doctor and patient, teacher and su ent, psyehiatst and mental patient) those which haunt Spaces (te sexuality ofthe home the Schoo, the pon) — ‘Hf the sauce of ent proedres of power We nt fotimagine hall hese things hat were formerly tolerated tracted notice and recived a pejorative dsination when the time came to give 8 regulative role tothe one type of sexuality that was eapable of repreducng labor power and ‘the fore ofthe fanny. These pelymorplous consis were ‘sctally extracted fom people's bodies and from thei plas fut, revealed, isolated, intensified, incorporated, by rul- Uarious power devices. The growth of perversions nots Victorians Ie isthe real product ofthe encroachment of & ‘ype of power on bodies and their pleasures Is possible that tres, and thas doubles not discovered any original vies [Bur it as defined new rules for the game of powers and Estare of thie game Directly, This implantation of multiple perversion isnot ‘mockery of sxuahty taking revenge on power that bat Uhvast on i an excenvely repeesve law. Neither ae we dealing with paradoxical forme of pleasure that tum back on ‘The implantation of perversions i an instrument-effct: iis ‘through the isolation, intensiction, and consoldation of Pleasure branched out and multiplied, mensued the body, land peerated modes of conduct. And ascompanying this ‘aorochenent of power, satered series igi, be ‘ame stuck oan age apse, a typeof paste. A pre tion of sexualities trough the extension of ower an optim [pve surface of intervention this concatenation, partic Tey since the nineteenth century, Bas been ensured and relayed bythe countless sconomie ntarste which, withthe bsp of medicine, psychiatry. preston, and pornography, have taped into oth ths analytical mulplication of pleas sre and this optimization othe power that contro lee tre and power do not cancel or turn tack against ‘one another: they seck out, overlap, and reafore one an ‘ther They ar linked together by compen mechanio and ‘eves of excitation and incitement.The Reresive Hypthss ° ‘We must therefore abandon the hypotess tha modern india societies ushered in a8 age of incre sexual Fepreniun Werhave nc only wines vibe explo of "orthodox sexsi, Dotan th he portant oie locally dependant on procedures of prohibition, has care, through a network of itreonneting mechanism, the pro Irate of specie plesures andthe mulpcaton of arate sentient sai that no soy has Ben more Dron never have the apencin power een such cae {eign inorance of th thing they prohibited 8 they were determined Yo have nothing todo rth it ut tthe oppe Site that has become apparent, test ler general review ff the ats: never have hee existed moe eater of power, ‘evermore station manested and verb, never mo Cireular contacts and linkages, never more sls where the Intensity of plessures ano the pertsency of ower exch tod, oly 1 spre ekewbere PART THREE _ Scientia SexualisTsapote that he it opts wl begat 1 sna tat le vl acess to wo {unt ow he dun on srs becn mip rater Shaya ad tar bas ae wh ab ad fronton se, ins mee yesh Tr tation ao plan of an enie Sta oe ‘aye oly dete role By speaking about 0 mach, Ey ocoeing Ht tipi, prod ad pce pep wht one Bae eh one oa rng, ‘Ely ws apy to opr se sre dnouie, Spear Un Pe a te dcr ot serie dorore of schlay and troensacet Cec oiethe iat wa peatne abot Weecultake Sif ings tht eo he ptlig pecans edad Maly noc proces ogee ite Sova, tn ato Su oa and eee {hex hat one cine espa aout rom he reed tos in at one made wp of evaons ice, en Hs Tyo elo speak of x ul corer a primary wth aban, pave xpos, holga scents aid ogra sy imperavesof mraly woe lion it ened der the ge fhe mete or, Cin fo pes the ath, i admed up peop othe et nla of cal ig it sch an agiry day fel eine ob aed nor eer aed ne re eon fet andthe on saya ey an, anges s The History of Sexuality for the whole society; strange pleasures, it warned, would cxentualy result in nothing shor of death that af indvidu- Ss generations, Me species sel it thus became associated with an insistent and inisereet_ dial practice, glibly proclaiming its aversions, quick to fun tothe rescue of aw and pubic pinion, more serve wth espe to the power of order han amenable to the require: ‘ments of th Enoluntaily nave inthe best of ass, more ten intentionally mendacin, in complet wath what i denounced, haughty and coquetsh, i established a entire pornography ofthe morbid, which was characteristic o the Jindesiet society In France, decors lke Garr, Poll, ‘and Ladoucette were its unglorifed series and Rolla is oe. But beyond these troubled pleasres, it assumed other powers; se self up asthe supreme authority in mater: of hygiene necessity taking up the old fears of venereal fiction and combining them withthe new themes of ase Sis and the great evolionist myths with the recent insti tions of public health it claimed To ese the physical vigor tnd the moral cleanliness ofthe soil od t promised t0 tliminate defective individual, depenrate and bastardzed Populations Inthe name ofa biclogial and historical ur enc, ius the eacioms ofthe tate, which a the time Were bathe horizon. Te grounded them i “teath ‘When we compare these discourses on human sexuality with what was known atthe time about the physiolony of {imal and plant reproduction, we ae struck by the icone [rat Ther feeble content from the standpoint of elemen: tary rationality, ot 10 mention sient, earns them & place apart inthe history of knowledge They form Strangely muddled zone. Throughout the nineteenth cen tury sex seems to ave been incorporate nto two very Sistinct orders of Knowledge: # balgy of repredaction, Which developed continuously ascording to a general sen tie normatiity, and a medicine of Sex conforming to aute ierent als of formation. From one tothe the, there wasScena Seats ss ‘0 seal exchange, no reciprocal structration the ral ofthe stan and quite fictitious guarants a blanket guarantee Under cover ef which moral obstacles, exonomis oF politcal options and traditional fears could be recast in «sient: Sounding vocabulary. Its es if a fandamental resistance locked the development of s ratoally formed aiscourse seeming human sek, is correlations, and its efecs. A tscoorse was not t tte the tath ut 0 prevent i very femergence Underlying the diference between the physio ogy of reproduction and the mecca theories of sexy, w= would have to se something other and something more thas fr wicven siutie developct rw pst i he Fr of rationality; the one would partake of that immense wil 6 router which hac eneained the stalchren! elon tie ascourse ia the West, whereas the other would derive ftom a stubbora wil fo onknowedge “This much is undeniable the lured discourse on sx that eas pronounced inthe ninetcenth century was imbued with eed delusions, But alo with syotmatc blindnewe: a ‘efsal tse and to understand, bt arther—and hin she {rucil pinta cial concerning the very thing that ws. trough to ight and whoee formulation was urgent aie: ited. For there canbe no misunderstanding that sa based fm fundamental relation to truth. Evacing thi rth, Dar fing acess ot, mashing these were so many los tactis ‘ehh, at i by euperimponition and through 4 latins Setar, gave paradoxical orm to fundamental petition 10 know: Choosing not to recomnize was yet another vaeary of ‘he will wath. Let Charea's Saltire serve as a xa plein this regard it was an enormous apprat or observ Hoa, with examinations, tteeopations, and expetnents but it was also a machinery for incitement, with is poblic Presentations, its theater of itu crises, corel staged With the help of ether or aml nea, interplay ofc “6 “The Hisry of Seay ogues, ptpations, laying on of hands, postures which the ‘oetor listed or citrated witha geste or « wor is Ierarhy of personnel Who kept watch, organize, pro- Yoked, monitored, and reported, and who accumulated an immense pyramid of observations and dossier It the ‘content of this continuous inttement fo dscourse and 10 truth thatthe rel mechanisms of misunderstanding (mécon- haisance) operated: thus Charest's gesture iterrpting 8 publi consultation where it began t© be too manifestly « ‘Question of "that and the more frequent practice of det ing from the succession of dossiers what had been said and demonstrated y the patient regantng se, but also what had een Seen, peavoked, soiited by the doctors themselves, Ahigs that wore amt ently cited rom the pbc ‘bservatns The important thing, this afi, 90 hat these men shut their eves oe stopped thee ears, or tha they sree mistaken: ti ater tht they contected aro a propos of sok an immense apparats fer praucng tr, hemi this ruth was fo be mate atthe las moment. The {and pleasure, of law and taboo, but also of truth and false hod, tha the truth of sex became something fundamental, set or dangerous, previous or fru: i honda Sex was constituted asa problem of tuth. What sews to be Situated, therefore, i tthe threshold af «new earionlty tenoseascovery Was arkea by Frewd—oeSomeate ese but ee progressive formation (and also the ransformations) (sient ge note penn Semen ee ee sd oe ‘een eu he Speen ce ho hs SCs econo mgaScie Sexual ” of that “interplay of truth and sex” which was bequeathed {o us oy the mnetenth century, and which we muy Mave ‘odie, but, licking evidence 0 the contrary, have ot rid were only possible, and only had their effects, against the buackground ofthis strange endeavor t tell the truth of ex [An endeavor that des not date rom the nineteenth cent, ven if it was then that a nascent cence lent i a singular discourses where knowledge of ex seems to have strayed for such le me. Historical, tare tave been two great prooedues for pring te tuto so ‘On the one hand the svietn—and they ae numerous Cina pum, Ini, Rome the Arse Modo sstoe trick endowed themselves with amas ert, the eras Sn, truth ie drawn fom pear el, underood asa Pcie and scam a experts; laure ot con. ‘Sered ination toa absolute law ofthe permed ad fea and torent elation to nel expec at enue, ested interme a nt, qa [rite ration its eererations in he Body an thes “Moreover this knowlege mast he delete back int the ‘ext price tal an oer ta shape as though fom Srihari secs Ta dh way thee ore 2 Tiowteg tnt mint rman ec, ot eens of ce sen of nary tha ight stack t te aj, Du eae Of the eed old inthe greet reserve since acsoring {© train, i wold lowe is fesivenes a i vie By being cage. Consequently he lao tthe maser tho hoe te sctet of para sporancy oly he ‘orking lone, cn rant heat n an eae manner Indaetheculntion aft itso wich hegre Gieipies prog ith vnfig sil an sei The 8 “The History of Sexy fects ofthis masefl a, whch are considerably more eterous than the spareness 0 its prescriptions would Ted See to inmging are said to tvaeigere the one fortunate enough to reodve its piles: an absolute mastery ofthe brs «saga in livousess to time and imi, the ‘On the face of tat least, our culation ponetes 0 ort crotia. En return it's undeubedly the only cvization to practice slots onus cr ater, the ony hon to ave developed over the centuries procedure fr tling the truth of sex which are gated 0 form of knowledge poner Sily opted tothe at of alin ad the ak Secret Ihave in mind the confession ‘Since the Middle Azes a least, Western societies have fn forthe prdcton of rth: the codation ofthe sara: iment of penance by the Lateran Counc in 125, with the ing importance f aceasalryproedres in criminal ost, the abandonment of tests af git worn statement, duty Judgments of God an he develope of methods oer Togation ad inguet the ieresse participation ofthe royal ‘ministration sn the prosecution of infractions a the exe Dense of prseedngs ening private setlement, the St ting up of tna of Inguinal this helped to zve the consion cena roe inthe order of clad religous, powers Ihe evolution of he word owe ao the legal Tanti it designated i self emblematic of thin develop. ment: fom being a guarantee of the stats, Seat, and ‘value granted To one person by another, 1 came to gaily Someone's acknowledgment of his ations and hove Fora longtime the individual was vouched for by the ref ‘monweal (family, allegiance, protection); then he was Suthenteated bythe discourse of th he was able o biped {0 pronounce conering himslt. "The tutu coneScien Seruals » ‘was inscribed atthe hear ofthe procedures nvidia toa by powee Ta any cas, next 1 the testing rituals, net tothe tes mony of witnesses, and the lemed methods of ebservaton and demonstration, the confession became on ofthe West's ‘most highly valued techniques for producing truth. We have since become a singularly eonissns Society. Ine confession Ins spread its fects fe and wide I play parti janice, inthe most ordinary ffir f everyday life and inthe mest. Solemn rites; one confeses one's erimes, ones sin, one's ‘thoughts and desires, one's lines an troubles, one goes shout tling, with the greatest prcion, whatever i mst ‘iicue to tll One eaters public and in pits, (0 fone’ parents, one's educators, one's doctar, to those one over ne adit 0 onache plestce ond i pain thiogs ‘it would be impossible otto anyone ele the things people tite books about, One confeies—or is forced to cones When its not spoatancous or dictated by some ineral limperative, the confession is wrung fom person by vior for entacted from the body, Since the Midle Ages, torture Tin accompanied tke» dhdow, an sipped i won could go mo further: the dark twis* The most defenses tenderness andthe bloodiest of powers havea silar need lof confesion, Western man has Become a confessing abil Whence a metamorphosis in literature: we have passed (hua a planet bested nd ace heroic or marvelous nretion of trials” of bravery os bor ta lerture dred scoring ta the infate tak curating from the dep of ones, in between the Word, ‘truth whic the very form of the confession holds Out ike 1 shimmering mirage. Whence too this new way of pil- ‘ophizing: seeking the fundamental ration tothe tue, 000 « “The Hitry of Seusty ‘Simply jn onself—in some forgotten knowledge, or in @ ‘xan primal teace—ut i the self examiatin tha i through a mulitude of Reeting impressions, the basic ce tates of consciousness. The obligation 10 confess i now relayed through so many diferent pit, 20 deeply in {ried in us, tha we no longer peeve i as the eet of 4 power that eonsteains us; a the contrary, it Seems 0 us to surface; that if i fl todo, this is because coastait hols rin place, the violence oa power weighs it down, and ican foally be arcuate only the price of hind of Hbertion. Coafeson fees, bul power redes one 10 si lene, teat doesnot belong to the ser of power, but shares ‘av oigna aout with teeedoar: radoaal thems in ph Iesophy, which a “pliical history of rath” would have to ‘overturn by showing that truth isnot by nature fee—nar ‘ror servie—bot that ts production is throughly imbued ‘with relations of power. The confession isan example ofthis ‘One has tbe compltels ten i thi intra ese of ‘confession in det oatibate fundamental role to censor ‘Ship, to taboos eegarding speaking and thinking ne has to these woes which have spoken s ong in our eviization— repeating the formidable injunction to tll what one i and thet ate ue, wets eatts an wit hs Bg {en what one i thinking and whet one thinks he is ot thinking—ae speaking to us of freedom. An immense labor fo which the West Ras sabautted generations In order 10 produce other forms of work ensured the ccumulae tion of eaptal—men’s subjection: their constiuion as sub- jects in both senses of the word, Imagine how exorbitant ‘ust have seemed the order given to all Christians a the Fegning ofthe thirteenth contry, to knelt eet ance {ear an confess to al their ansgessons,wichou iting Single one: And think ofthat obscure pana, seven cent: ‘eater who a wome to rejoin the Serban sesistance deepSova Senuats ot inthe mountains; hs superiors asked him to write his fe story; and when he brought them a few miserable pages, fenoled inthe night, they did Hot ook a them tony id to him, "Start over, snd ell he tut” Should those much yoke of conesion? From the Christian penance to the present day, sx was privileged theme of conesion. thing that wax hidden, me told. But what if on the contear,t Was What, ma quite perlular way, ne sonfered? Suppor: the obligation to ‘onceal twas but another aspect ofthe duty fo admit to it (conceaing it all the more and with greater care as the confession of it was more important, Fequring a stricter ritual and promising more decsve effects)? What if ex in that was placed within an dorleting system of eonfession? ‘The transformation of sx into dscoutse, which I spoke of ‘ater, the dieseminaion nd reinforcement of tergenc- ‘ous seats af perhaps two clement ofthe same deploy- tent they ste ned together withthe lp ofthe cera ‘clement a'aconfsson that compels individuals to articulate {hei crvtl prolinty-—nn attr haw orem Ye Geren truth and sex wre linked in the form of pedagogy, bythe ansmisson of «precious knowledge from one bay 0 an fer, ex served ar 8 medium for nitions nt aaah For ust sin the confession that truth and sex are joined, ‘vidual secre But thistime ts ruth that Serves asa medium for sex and its manstatons. “The confession fatal of scours in which the speak- ing subject i also the subject of the statement it aso a ot confess without the presence (oe virtual peesnee) ofa partner whois not simply the inelecutor but the authority Iho requires the conesion, prescribes and appreiates it {tnd intervenes in order 1 jag, pis, forgive, console, a ‘The Hisry of Seay and ceconcl tual in which the teu i corroborated by {he obsactes and resins it hs had t surmount inorder {obeformulatd; and fnaly, a tual ia which the expression lone independently of ts external consequences produces ‘nisi moifcations in he person who arias it txonertes, redeem, and puriles hime it unburdens him of 1s weongs, brats him, and promises him salvation. For centuries the trath of sek was atleast forthe mest prt, {ue up in his dscursve frm. Moreover. this form was fot the sama that of education (sexaledaton conned ‘self o general principles and rules of prudence); nor was i tie, which the at of seal enlightenment oF deflowering merely rendered taughabl or wolen?). As we bave seen, fr." By vite of the power suture immanent i fe the ‘confessional dicourse cannot come from above, ai the ars from below, aan oblgstory acto rpcch which under some ‘imperious compulsion, bres the Bonds of diseretion of tetloce What sory ie prosuposes aot owing co Se Sigh prc of what thas tosay and the smal umber those sho are worthy ofits enc, but tts obscure faint Jay uthrty ofthe magstery. no byte rain i tans mits, but by the bond, the basic intimacy in dicours, be. the other ind, the sgeney of domination does nt reside the one who speaks (or it he wbo is contained), but {he one who fens ana says nothing: not the obe WMO own and answers, ut in the one who questions ad isnot supposed to know. And this discourse of truth ally takes ft nol inthe one who reves But he On rom ‘whom itis wrested. With thee consid ruhs, we are long way from the learned nations into pleasure, with thet technique and thet mystery. On the ofer and, mebelong to a scity which as ordered se’ dificult know fcdge, not acceding to the tatsmision of sere, But fsround the slow surfacing of conSdenial statements "Th confrsion wand il rrainy the general standard governing the production ofthe true dscoure om ex Tt as Lndergne a considerable transformation. however. For a Fong time, it remained fomly entrenched in the practic of penance. But with the nse of Protestantism, the Counter Ketormation, eigteenth-cenury pedagogy, ana nineteenth- century medicine, it gradually lost its ritualistic and exch: Sit lovallation i aprnd it har boon employed in a whl Series of relationships: childeen and parents, stunts and ‘educator, patents and psychiatrists, delinquents and ex- perts. The motivations and eet fs expsted to prodace Fave varied, as have the forms bas taken: interrogations, onset, aucpraphielnaratvey lees they have been recorded, transcribed, assembled into doer pubs Fished ad cornmented an Bat mare impotent, the eae ‘Sot lends itself fot to other domains, a east 0 new ways af exploring the exiting ones Tt iso longer @ question Simply ef saying what was done—the Sexual ted how itwas done; but of constructing, n and around te act, he panied it the images, desires, modulations and quality ofthe lessuce that animated st For the fat time no doubt. Society has taken upon ise o solicit and hear the imparting of individual pleasures. {A ciseinaton, then of proedure of contssion, a mul tiple lesiation oftheir constraint, wide oftheir do- onstiuted Fora long ime his uehive demateriaaed ast was formed. I regularly disapeared without trace (has Suing the purposes of the Christan pastoral) until med cine, psychiatry, and pedagogy began to sold it: Came, Saizmann, and’ espeilly Kean, Kram-Ehing, Torley, “Molle and Havelock Elis cattlly assembled this whole o “The History of Snaiey pitiful, prc otpouring fom the sexual mosaic, Wester Secieties thus began to Heep an indeite record of these lished a System of clasication. They described thei every- ay efciencis a well as thir cities or exasperations ‘This was an important ime. tis ry to make ight ofthese ninetcenth-centary psychiatrists, who made a pint of polo- firing foe the horors they were about to let speak, evoking Sim clin ot abesatvnn ute gente ens but Tam more inclined to applaud ther serousnass-they had a feling for momentous events twas atime when the most Singular pleasures were called upon to pronounce dacouse ff tuth concerning themselves, a discourse which had (0 ‘model itself after tha which spoke, not of in and salvation, Utusan ie premnr—tn antne f eee, seus enough to make ones voce tremble for an improbable thing was then taking shape: a confessional scence, n scence ‘whirled Manynided exon, st for Hs abject what was unmentionabe but admitted to sonethles, ‘Te siento discourse war seandlized, orn any ease re- peli, when 1 has 10 ake charge of this whole ascourse From below twas also faced witha theoretical and method: logical paradox: the long discussions concerning the pos uty ot comsuruung a ssence ofthe sujet the vay ot inuospetion, lived experince as evidence, or the presence of consciousness fo self were responses otis problem that ‘sannerent in the functioning of tn in oUF soit: can one articulate the prsucton of rath according to theo juri ‘oreligious model of confession, and the exertion of cont ‘Tose who believe that st was more rigorously cde nthe nineteenth century than ever before through a formidable ‘mashanism of blockage anda detiency oF course can say what they please, There was no deficiency, but ther an excess, a redoubling, to much rather than not enough ds: ‘ours, im any cate inteerence betwean wo modes ofproduction of truth: procedures of confession. and scientific Scurvy “And instead of adding wp the errors, nave, and morale sss tat plagued the minetentrcentry discourse of truth concerning set, me would do better oleate the procedures by hich tat wl fo knowledge regarding Som which cha ‘cterizes the modern cident, caused the ital of confex- ‘Son f function within the noms of scienticreulariys how {id this immense and traditional extortion ofthe seal con fest come to be constituted in scent terms? 1. Through a clinical codification of the inducement 10 pak. Combining confession with enmintion, the rel story withthe deployment ofa set of desiperabe signs and symptoms the interrogation, the exacting questionaire, tnd hypnosis, with the recollection of memories and free sstociaton: all were ways of reiseribng the procedure af ‘onferson in eld of wenically acceptable servations. 2. Though he postulate oF a general and difsecousalit: faving 10 el evrything, being able to pose questions about ‘everything, found thir jutieation in the principle that en ‘owes sek wath a inexhaustible and poiymorphous causa power. The most duorete event in ont’ sexual behavior — Sshether an accident ora deviation, «deft or an excess sas deemed capable of entailing the most vated conse: ‘uenees throughout one's existence; there was searcly a ‘ala or physical disturbance to which the inex cea try didnot impute at least some degree of ser etilogy From theta tts fcilren to he phe of als te spoplesis of old people, nervous mals, and the degener- Shans ofthe rae the medicine af that era woke enti network of ental causality to explain them, This may well Sppeat fantastico us, but the pipe of sex asa “caus of any and eterything” was the theoretical underside of eon fesion that had 10 be thoreugh, meticulous, and constant, « ‘The History of Sexuality and at the sme time operate within 4 sieniie type of practice. The limitless dangers that Sex carried with 1 js- [ed the exasstine character of the nqution to which was subjected 2 Through the principle ofa latency inns 0 sexual. it was necessary to extract the truth of Sex through the techoigne of confssion, thi wae not simply Ice tne Aiticlt to tl, or stricken by the taboos of decency, but because the ways of sex were obscure, it was elusive by tnd its caval power was pry clandestine By iterating ‘io the bepanings ofa Sientie discourse, the nineteenth century aired the scope ofthe conesion tended no longer tobe concerned Solely with what the subject wished to hide, but with what was hidden fom himsel, being nea able of coming to light except gradually and throuph the labor of confession in which the questioner andthe ques ‘scent sexuality made it possible to link the focing of 1 dificult confesion to.n sentife practice. It had to be ‘acted, by fore sine involved something that ted £0 stay hidden 4. Uhrough the method of interpretation. 11 ope aa to cons, this was not merely Bese the person to whom one confessed had the power to forgive, console, and diet, Bot esate the work of producing the rath was obliged to pass {rough this elatoaship if it was to be scenically val dated. The rath dino rede solely i the subject who, by confessing, woul reveal wholly formed twas constted in ewo stages: resent but incomplete, bind to its n the cone who spoke ould ony rach completion jn the one ‘who asimalted and recorded it I was the later’ uncon to verify this obscure truth: the retlation of confession had fe becouplal wih ihe dsipherment of wt sid, Techo listened was not simply the forgiving master, the judge ‘tho condemned or aout; he was the maser of truth, His ‘nasa hermancute funtion, With reard tothe confession, Us yomcr ment only to domand i bfne wa ado dzcde what was 0 fallow ater it, but also to constitute a tdcourse of truth on the bas of ts deipherment. By 20 longer making the confession x tet, but rather sgn and by ‘making sexuality something to be interpreted the mineteenth ‘atury gave itl the pow af ening dhe procedures ‘of confession to operate within the regular formation of ‘cient discourse 5. Through the meicalzaion of the effcs of eonfesion ss therapeutic operations. Which meant fist fal that the Sexual domain was no longer accounted for simply by the notions of errr or i, exces oF transgression, But was placed under the rule of the normal and the pathological (etic, forth matter, were the rapaston ofthe Free ‘ators a characteris sexual morbidity was defined for the st ime; ex appeared aban extremely usable patho logical ela surface of repereussion for other ailments, but also the foes of specie nosography, tha af isin’, ‘ermore that sex would derive its meaning ands nsesity from medical interventions: it would be required by the doo tor, necessary for lagna, and efetive by nature inthe ‘ure. Spoken in tm, to the proper party, and by the person ‘eho wts both the bearer of and the one reponse for the truth healed Let ws consider things in broad historical perspective: breaking with the raion of he or erotica, au sot hat outed elf with a site serve To be nore presi ithas pursue the tak of producing tue discourses concern. ing se, and this by adapeing—not without dificuly—the « “The Hatry of Sealey ancient procedure of confession tothe rls of siete di ‘course, Paradoxically the sien sexuals that emerged in tf cbligatory and exhaustive confession, which i the Chis. tian West was the fst technique for producing the uth of fx. Beginning inthe sintcenthcontry, thie se gael detached sll rom the sacrament of penance, and vn the fuidanc of souls and the diection of onssinoe—the ars Situ emigrated toward pedagogy, lationship between ‘dus an children, amily relations, medicine, nd pyehin- try Tnany case nearly one hundred andy yearshave gone info the nahing of compen smslaey or rodent dlscourses on sex: deployment that spas a wide segment ofbistory in that connects the ancient injunction of cone Sion linia isting neds Lis dis deploy cit dt ‘nabls something called “sexuality” t0 embody the truth of Sot and its pleasures ‘Sentai te correlaive ofthat slow developed carve practice which constitutes the seen xual: The ‘sel Features of this sexuality are not the expeesion of |rreprecetation tht mor oles distorted by eo, oF ‘fa misunderstanding caused by taboos; they orrespond 10 the functional requirements of scours that most produce hsteuth Situated atthe pont of intercon ofa techasgue ‘of confession and a sientife dicuriity, where certain major mechanisms had tobe foend for adapting them to one ‘tothe (he Istening technique, the postulate of causa, the principle of Inteney, the rl of interpretation, the impr ative of medication, sexuality was defined as being “by nature” domain susceptible to pathological processes, and hence oe cling for therapeutic or normalizing interven ions: eld of meanings 10 decsher the site of proves ‘concealed by specie mechanisms focus of indefinite causal Felations, and an obscure speech (poof) that had to be fereted outa listened to. The “economy” of dicoures— thei inns technology, the necessities oftheir operation,Scie Sexes ° the tactics hey employ, thee of power which undris them and which they tanst—thi snd Rot asst of ‘presentations, what determines he esenti ete: of shar hey have toa). The iktoy of suai tba the Speole ofrtr-most rst be writen fom the cw Teint of history of dncouree et us put forward general working hypothe, The society tht emerged in the nnctcnthcetary bourse, Saptaist,orngusra Soe) cal what You wile ne edromt et with funtamceal etal of ecogusen. On the conrey, pot ito opeetion a entire tery for producing tre Gicoures concerning Nor ely id it Speak of ex and compel everyone to doo; i alo se ut formulate th nfm tho sx. Av suspected sex ot barton suntan secret Asif nested tis produ thn a haf wesc eb need ot only nan exinamy of laa bat nan ode syste of lnowledze Ths scx rally became an objet of eet ‘opine geeal and dgulchng meaning hat pores ‘rcondot and ourxistene inp of ures the pont Gr wena wha sl pats ec ag i ote fragmento cakes thal we each carry ities eter sesicton, anes sera; mise ene er thar never ead” And sin hb “quo fox both senses a5 interrogation and prebeatzaton, aod the Sato eoneson ana nterton no ala fea) {me process cmere the one nay condoning the ote Sevan at spat deh Sieh ret {nd obious tte own mater, we serve for curve the fantom of tling the tut of Hs tuy reveal and Akciphred at ast) and me dood tha tcl ou rt or rater, the dp Bud trath of that eth abot our ‘Sou Wotel ts rth by ccphrig what telus ‘out that eth it telsur ur ow by detvering op tha art cy The History of Sexuality ‘te that ewcape Feo thi interplay there has ele, ‘ver several centres, a knowledge of the subject; + knowl fede noes much of his form, but of that which divides him, ‘termine him gerhans. tahove al cases hin 10 be Sgnorant of himself. As unlikely as his may sem, it should ‘ot surprise us when we think of the lng history of the ‘Christian and juriccl confession ofthe shits and trensfor- mations this frm of kaowledge owe, so smpertant i the ‘West, hts undergone: the project of a since ofthe subject dns paved in ver narrowing circles, around the question of sex. Causality inthe subject, the unconscious ofthe sub> Jeet the teu ofthe subject in the other who knows, the Knowledge he holds unbeknown to him, allthis found a ‘opportuity to deploy lel in the discourse of sex. NOt, however, by reson of some natural property itherent in sex itself, but by virtue ofthe tactics of power immanent in his Scientia sexual versus areata. no doubt. Butt should ‘be noted tha te areca didnot dsappeat altogether fom Western civilzation nor asi alwaysbeen absent from the movement by which one sought to produce asience of Scuulty. Inthe Carsan comesio, But expecta 1 he lirection and examination of conscience, inthe search for Spiritual union and the love of God, there was a whole seis ‘of methods tnat ad machin common wit an rote art {guidance by the master along a path of intation, the inten- ‘cation of experiences extending down t0 their physical ‘Components, the opmeation oy ete y the discourse tat ‘Sscompanied them The phenomena of possesion adc Stasy, which were gute feguent inthe Catholicism of the ‘CoumierReformaron, mere undovedly eects tat had got ‘outside the control of the ert fechnigue immanent in this Sule science ofthe eth And we must ask whether, since {guise of ts decent postvsm—has not functioned, at lest f0‘Scone Secuas ” 1 cetin extent akan or roa. Perhaps this peodction ‘of rth timid though it was bythe scien mode, tulip itensed, and even crest i owe iin Pleas Tris ten sid that we have Bon Incapable of egg any new pemusce We tare ata rete = Aiea ind of plese pleasure i the rth of psu theplemurof knowing tat rath of dacoverng and expo ing the ciation of scing ad eligi of captting snd caporing hers by i of soning iin see ing ‘toutin te apen the pci ples of he re course on plese. "Pc noo ponent ats aco ak Anoicge abut exalt ate not tobe sug in the ea, {romero ney men fs hath cent umanit drm of complete and ouroing exit, and nly notin the res fogs and he good feings ‘st binergy (ewe re bur sapece of ts normang ua. tion), but this malipcaton and itnsfeton of lee rc ones rut ft raat se FC lesa volute, writen nd read; the conselations tnd ‘eights oftaving nc words erpretat: athe woes ld {o onc and to ole so much croy, 0 any cont Anos ofered nthe fice of sandal saint not without tembling a litle—ty the obliation of rth he Insert to whoever abet ea them hort the mae "pen say the ws conse ofthe Incr term) hich the West has cee een orn or sve centre al thi constues something ike the Tan amen fn era tha este atte Confession andthe lence sex Mest we concie tht Mt Sen seruls box tn exaordnany sue frm ot ‘roa, and tha the Western sblimsted veson of that Sinn et tun? Or mat we spp tat hse pleasures are only the by-products of sexual science, n The History of Sera bonus that compensite for is many sree and stains? nan case the hyphens of & power oF fepreson eX te by our society on sx for economic reasons pear 0 ‘neque adequate if me ae to cxpnn ths hetero ‘ofrcement snd tence at premnay (hry bas ducoered a proliferation of cours carey Inlored the requiementsof omer the saiieation of the nly of tulatig bt of stimulating and provolig of forming tit focuses of atertion, dco, end plese ‘Sabsimen of stem of eitmateKnowedge and of an conomy of manifold pleasures Weare dealing not neatly so touch wh x gave eka cations ni Ge eration of ale network dcoure, special knowl tgs pleasures, and powers. A swe snot'a movement ‘Sani ropon but onthe contr,» procer that spreads itover the surface of things and bodies arouses, draw it tel the uth: an etre glitering sexual array, elected n'a myriad of discourses, the obstiation of powers and the inteply of inowedge and ploare ‘Al san illusion, i wil be sald, «hasty impression behind which mor cerning gze wil surly dicoer the ase peat machinery of epenson, Beyond ese ew pon plorecences, ae we not sre ofa once moe the somber ew that alway says a? The answer wl hae to come ot three centuries; the mannerin which the dacoures hat ake ‘ine thee object have mllipid, andthe reso for which vee have come to attach nary fabulous rie tothe tuth they claimed to produce. Perhaps these stoic analyses wil end ty dating what this cursory survey aseme fo ‘Stages Bur the postulate I started outwith, and would ikeScena Seats n to hold to along 8 pus, is tha thse deployments of Seren en sec ony snd dot snd fc epreon ay ce fd nd overngMetea! tole hae cca setus, tlevhre an one the dito fo tap athe ten tue pa ea oem they produce knowledge utiiy nue indus per Se cn octet em gt ceo, Sle Spt option nd dare noe the rbd fc of mrction‘r ance Sep pont ht uments wl ow oe hc tae rang oma ee ‘ott te “piel coy” wl ow _PART FOUR The Deployment of Sexuality“The aim ofthis series of ste? To ranseibe into history the fable of Les Bijoux incre ‘Among is many emblem, our svity Wears that ofthe talking ex. The sex which ome extches unawares and es: ‘endlely repin. One day certain mechanism, which was ‘elite ta could make elf vile, cantare this Sexand ine game tha combined pleasure with compulsion, and consent with inguin, made tel the tah about itself and ter as well. For many years we have all been living in the realm of Prince Mangoeu under the spl a insatiable dese to hear i speak and be spoken about, to vent all srt of magical eines that might fee 0 Sandon is retin, Asif were cst for tobe abe to draw fom that litle pice of ourselves not ony plessure but knowledg, an a whole subtle merchange fom On the other: knowledge of pleasure, a pleasure that comes of ‘nowing pleura knowledge pear and wf that fo ‘usc animal we accommodate had elt such Sly ted cars, such searching eves, s ited tongue and ming, a 0 Know much and be quite wilig tl, provided we ea ployed ite sil in urging itt speak. Between ach of ws ling our se, he West has paced x heverendng demand Or truth itis up ous to extrac th rath ox, since this rath is beyond grap: wp sont tol ws owe tah since secs what hold iin dass But sx hidden fom us, enceaed by anew sense of daeney, Kept under bis by {the rim neces f bourgeois seit? On the contrary. it ‘shines forth itis incandescent. Several centres go, was * ‘The History of Senay Placed atthe center of «formidable pein to know A Aoublepesiton, nat wearecompeledo know bow things ave with it, whl is suspected of knowing how things ae itrus Th the pace of afew centres, a certain tiation bas led us to direst the question of what wear, t0 se. Not x0 ‘ch to sex a representing naire but sex a story, 8 Saniicaon ana dscoure, We nave paced ourselves undet thesign of sex, but nthe form ofa LogicofSex athe than 1 Phy. We must ake no mine ere: withthe great ‘eres inary oppositions y/o, es ape, atinet/ reason, drives/consciounes) that seemed to refer ex to Dre mechanics devoid of reason the West hus managed not {nly oF mot 0 me, co anes Sex to Held of Tavonalty, which would not be all that remarkable an achievement, Seeing how accustomed we are o such “congue snc he Sick tut bring Un natn enrely-—ur bale oar ‘mings ou individuality our istory—under the sway ofa “logic of concupionce and dese, Whencrr itis x question ‘sour mamtr key Te hasbeen several decades ince gene. ts ceased to conceive of ie sa organization seagely “cupped than ational capacity oreproduc teh they Sec inthe repredvctive mechanism that very element whi introduces the bologiea dimension: the mast ot ony of ‘countesiheoreticians and practitioners ofthe esh-whose Spproach was hardly “scene,” it true—-made an the ‘tpg of on impeiou and inl ex. Sem the expla ration Tor everything. Ts pointes to ak: Why then is sex so sere? What is recenlyreland is hol! somewhat, flowing sto gueston it perhaps, but always in the contest of and hough ts ‘apes? In ral this ieston so often repeated mown (ayn in but the recent frm of considerable aration andThe Deplyment of Sexaalty ” secular prescription: there is where the truth is go se if you ean uncover it. Acheron momtba: an age-old decison. Ye wie men. Nghe earned ha thik out ond kt Hw, ond where dal npr? Semon of ety wna What heen to me then Seach our and te me wher, hom when ‘And why 1 happened oh Iti reasonable therefore to ak fst of al: What i his injunction? Why this great chase after the truth of es, the truth in sex? Th Dido's ae, the god genie Cuca Usovery x he bottom of his pocket, im the midst of worthless things— Sugarcoated piste tiny ver ring whose sone, when tumed, maker the sexes one encounters speak He gives it 10 the curios sultan. Our problem to know what marvelous fing confers a simi power onus, a om which master’s finger it nas been paced; what game of power Wt makes posible or presuppies, and how it stat each ome f us has rcomes sort of tient and improdent sultan with rrpet to his own sexand that of other Iti tht magical ing hs iewel which is so inscreet when it comes to making ethers Spesk, but so ineloguent concerning ane’ own mechanism, at we ead to render loguacious i its tur; is what we have fo alk about We mst wrt the story ofthis wl 0 truth, this petition to kaow that for so many centuries has relentless oot. What ii that we demand of se, beyond it patible lente, that male sprint? What this patience o eageres to conta as the secret, the ‘Gtk gn Bip, i Ser Te Magi he cy ‘The History of Sexaaty cmnipstent cts, th hidden menning, the wreriting fo? ‘And why was the task of discovering this diMiull tuth finaly turned ito an invitation to eliminate taboos and that it had to be enchanted by this promise? Or had this knowlege become so colin political, economic, and canal terms In order to subject everyone to Its Fle, it was necessary to assure them, paradoxically, that their Hieration was a tae? nord to situate the snvestigtions that wil low, et ime put forward some general propositions conceening the ‘hjestive, the method, the domain to be covered, and the priodzaions that one can acceptin a prowsory Way:I Objective ‘Why these investigations? Fam well aware that an unce tainty runs though the setches I have drawn thos fr, one that threatens to ivabdate the more detailed inguses that have projected: Ihave repeat stresod thatthe tory ‘ofthe an centuries in Wester soles dd not manifest the movement ofa power that was essentially epresive. based fy argument on the diqualiication of that notion wile feigning ignorance of the fact that » critique hat been ‘mounted rom another quarter und doles more rad ‘il fishion:meriique conducted atthe level f the theory of ‘ste point nf face the nseton that sev fe note prosed” is not altogether new. Paychoanalst have Been ‘Sing the same thing for some tine. They have challenged the simple Hite machinery That comes to mind when One speaks of repeesson; the ide ofa rebellions energy that must Wihrottad has appeared to them inadaguate for desiring the manner in which power and deste are joined to one tothe, hey consider thm to be linked ina more complex and primary way than through the interplay of a primitive, ‘nd living energy weling up from below, and Higher cade seching fo standin way, hus one shold ask think hat dsr is repressed, for the simple reason that the Tawi what constitutes both dere and the lack on which it is predated” Where there i dese, the power Téation is already present: an ilusin, then, t0 denounce this elation a ‘The History of Seu for 8 repression exerted after the event; but vanity wel, to go qiestng afer 2 desie that is beyond the rech of ‘But, in an obtinately confised way, I sometimes spoke, ss though T were dealing with equivalent notions, of pres: Son and eomesimes af las of prnhintion conoethin Trough stubhoranes oF neglect, led to comer every- ‘hing that can distinguish thee cheortcal implications. And {grant that one might jutiably say t0 mer By constantly referring 10 psitive technologies of power, you are paying 4 double game where you hope 10 win oa all counts; You onfave your adverariee by apposring to take the ‘veaker postion, and, discusing repreaton alone, you would bave us eieve wrongly, that You haved yourself of the problem (Claws and yt yo hoop the xen prctslsomequense ofthe principle of power-a-law, namely the fact hat there isno escaping fom power tha itis alwaysalready present, ‘natating thet ery thing wich ee attempt to coer it with As to the idea of 3 powerrepresion, you have 7 tained its mos agile theoretical element, and this inorder tocritiie you have retained the mos sterling pola consequence ofthe Kea of poweram, bat ony in order to reserve it for your own we ‘The ai othe ingles that wil flow ko move ls toward a"theory” of power than toward an “analytes” of power that i, tovard a definition ofthe specif domain Forme by eelatons of power and wards deternaion ot the instaments that Will make possible is analysis. How ‘ve, it seems tome that this analytics can be costed Sly ii Tos ie completely trom s certain reprenntation ‘of power tht T would term—it will be seen later why— *jrdio-dncusve.” Is this conception tht gover bth the thematics of repeesion ad the theory of the law a8 ‘onsitutive of desire. In other words, what distinguishes the analysis made in tems of the repression of insinets fom har made tes of hela of desi I leay the way inThe eplayment of Sexuality 8 which they each conceive ofthe nature and dynamic ofthe rive, not the way in which they conceive of power. They both rly om a common representation of power which, de pending onthe use made oft andthe position i accorded ‘ith respect to dese, eds to two contrary resus ether to the promise ofa "iberation."if power is seen as hving only tn external hold on dese, of, i its constitutive of desire "sel, fo the mfemabon: you are alvays-aieady tapped. Morcover, one must not imagine tat this representation is ecllrt houe who are concerned with the preter ofthe Felatons of power with Sex. In fac its much more peers ‘one frequently encounters it in politcal analgses of power, land iti deeply rooted inthe story of the Wes. ‘These ae some of is principal features =the negative relation, Wt never establishes any one tion between power and sx that i not negative: ection, ‘excision, refusal, lookage, concealment ‘sex and pleasure are concerned, power ean “do ‘Sy nntathen: wha it peices, anything ahenors and ‘aps it overlooks element, ntedes discontinuities, sepa: rates what joined, aad mars of boundaries. Isefects ake the genera form of limit and ack, “Phe insistence of the rule. Powe is esentilly what placed by powerina binary system: iit and ili, permitted {and forbidden Secondly. power prescribes an “order forsex that operate at the same une aes form of ineligibility sex {sto be deciphered onthe bss of ts relation tothe lw. And Analy, power aes by lying down he rule: powers ld on sex is maintained through language, of rather through the ‘ot of discourse that erat, from fact that i arcuate, a rule of law. speaks, and tha the rule. The ‘ure form of power resides inthe function ofthe enilator 4nd its mode of action with regard to sex of a jundio- Siscurive character rs The History of Sexy festing the tripe distinction of forming a unitary regime, of denttying is will with the law and of ating through mech nisms of interdiction and sanction. The slogan of this ime, parr in Kein with the function i lim {oy established peace asthe prohibition of feuds or private ‘ess and justice aba way of suspending the private sting ‘or lawuts, Doubles there was ore ta ts development of reat monarchcinsitutions than a pore and simple juni ‘ice Rat wich wat the lanpinge a power, the eprecete Son it gave of ise, andthe entire theory of public aw that ‘was consrcted inthe Middle Ages, o rconsteucted rom ‘Roman law, teas wines tothe fact Law Was nt simply 1 weapon skilfully wielded by monarchs: it was the mo- frei eget made of manifestation tnd the form a ‘ceptabiity. In Western sci sine the Middle Ages, the ‘exerci of powers always been formulated i terms of "A tration dating back 10 the eighteenth or nintenth cary hae assed ye to lane shelite manarcie power on the side of the unlawful arbitrarinesy suse, ox Price, wilfuiness, privileges and exceptions, the edition entumuance of accomplished fess. BU this st overiok a Fundamental historical tat of Wester monarchies: they ‘elves though theories of Taw, and they made their mech nisms of power wor in the form of law. The oi reproach that Houlammers rected a the French monarty—that iced the law and jure to do away with ght and fo ring ven the ancrncy—a cally warranted hy the fc ‘Through the development of the monarchy and its insti tions this juridico political dimension was established. I is “The History of Sexy by o/means adequate 10 aesribe the manner im which power was and is exersed, but tis the code according to Uhich power presents itself and prescribes that we conceive fai The history ofthe monarehy weat hand ia hand with the covering up of the fasts and procedures of power by Jwndhnpattial Aiconrse "Yet despite the efforts that were made to disengage the juridical sphere fom the monarch institution and to fee {he lial fromthe jurdlal, the vepresentatnon Of wmer remained caught witin this system Consider the to Tl- Towing examples Citicism of the cightenthcentury mo- nrchicinstftion in France was not directed agin the jriceo-monareie sphere a such, but was made on behalf of a pure and rigorous fuidiel sstem to, which all the ‘mechanisms of power could conform, with no excesses of iregulrtes, ab opposed 10 a monarchy which, notwith- Standing iis own avertions, continuously overterped the Tegal framework and set self above the laws. Pola ei- cm avalled el certo, of all he uric thinking that ‘nn accompanies the development ofthe monary, order to condem the ater; bt it didnot challenge the principle which eld hat law had 1a be the very form of power nd that power always had tobe exercised inthe form of la Another type oferticxm of political institutions appeared in {heninetenth cnt, a mh moe nial ir in tha It was concerned to show not ony that real power escaped the rules of jurisprudence, but that the legal system elf wat ‘merely a way of ering wolenes, of appropiting that olen forthe benefit of the fem, and of exploiting the Aissymmetris and injustices of domination undercover of fener aw ut ths eigueo is learned out onthe ‘sumption tat, ideally and by nature, power must be exer (ed in accordance witha fundamental lawfulness. ‘At bottom, despite the diferences in epochs snd objec- tives, the representation of power has remained under the tell of mnarchy Ty pli thovght and analyse we‘The Deployment of Sexaaly » hve at cut ff the hen ofthe king Hance the impartance thatthe theory of power ives othe problem of Hight and Violence, law and legality, feedom and wil and especialy te sare ana soveregry even sf the late Is questioned Insofar as i's pesonied ina collective being and no longee ‘sovereign individual). To conceive of power on the bass of these problems isto concsve of i in terms of historical form that charters of ou societies: the jundial mon- ily. Charters yt ansitoy, For wile nay form have persisted 10 the preset, it bas gradually been enerated by ite ew mechanisms of power that ae pea {ly iredusle othe repeesentation flaw AS we shale, these power mechanisms are, at lest in pat, those that, Ueginng i the eighteenth ccnp tok chgge fentence, men a6 living Bodies, And ii is tue thatthe Juridical system was useful Tor representing, albeit in a onexhaustve way, a power that was centered primarily round deduction rlerement) and death iis ute i Songruous withthe new method of power whose operation ‘mot ensured by right but by technique, aot by iw but by rnoemalizaton, sot by punishment but by contol, meas that are employed oma evel and n forms that go beyond ‘he stat and its apparatos, We have Been engnged for cet- tein typeof sity in which the joie neresingly Incapable of coding power, of Serving a its system of repre: sentation. Our historical giadlent carn us forther and fu- ther aay trom reg of law that had already begun f0 reside ino the pasta atime when the French Revolution land the accompanying age of constitutions and code Seemed. 1o destine fora future that was at hand is this joriical representavon that i sil at work in recent analyses concealing te elaonshp of power (0 ex [Bu the problem it not to know whether des is alien t0 rnwer, whether i pir tn the law a fen though to Bethe case, when ino rather the nw that is prclved as constituting it. This question beside the point. Whether ” “The History of Sensaty ese i this otha, in any case one continues to conceive ‘fitinreltion toa power that always juridical and disure the in One remains attached 0 a certain tage of power law, of powersoverignty, which was traced out by the Ueorettano night and the oc sition. his image that we mast break fice of that of the theoretical privilege flaw and sovereignty, if we wish to analyze power tithin te sone and strc! oti ofa Ope tion. We mus contract an analytics power that Tonge tas law asa model and code concerning the Historia eationships of power andthe di Surin Sex I ealz, cular projet inthe bens that ‘hall ty to id ourselves of junds and negstiverepresere tation of power, and cease to conceive oft in term fa, promt, ery, and sovereign But Row ten 60 me Analyze what has ocurred in reent story with regard Yo {his thing—seemingly one of the most forbidden areas of out Ines bodes cx” How ot By wy of prooe ton and Blockage, does power gin aces to 1? Through ‘which meshunss, of atc, or devices? But let ws ase ‘Power in meer societies snot infact governed sexuality {hough law and soverignty, let us suppese that historical nays mas fevele the presence of vertabe “Tecmo ‘049 of ex, one that is much more complex and above all ‘mich more postive than the mare elect ofa "tense could {this bem te ase, doe ns example—wch can ony {considered a privileged on, since power seemed inthis ‘nsance more than anywhere to fintion as probiiion ‘Trot compel one To cover principles tor analyang power ‘which do er drive from the system of right andthe form flaw? Hence iis a gueton of forming diferent gid cf ‘strc! destpnerment by starting rom erent theory of‘The eplyment of Sexaaty ” power: and. atthe same time. of advancing litle by tie Toward a diferent conception of power through «closer ‘examination of an entire soil matra, We musta the ame time conceive of ex without the lnw, and power with fut the king a Method edge regarding sx, notin terms of repression or law, bu i terms of power. ut the word power is apt to lead 10 8 urbe of unundertaninysniuncerstanings with re ‘eet tots ature, it form, ands nity. By power, do not mean "Power" asa group of institutions and mechanisms that ensure te subservience ofthe cizens ofa ive Sate By power, 'do not mean, ether, a mode of subjugation which, in'contras 10 violence, has the form of the rule Finally, I do not have tm mind a general system of domi ration exerted by one group over another, system whote fete, through successive derivations, pervade the ere Social ody. The analysis, made in terms of power, must not assum thatthe sovereignty of the tate, the form ofthe law, tr the overall unity of «domination are siven atthe outset rather, these are only the terminal forms power takes. I fcems to-me that power must be understood in the fist inuance a the malplicit of orcerelsiona immanent the sphere in which they opeate and which constitute thee own ‘organization asthe process which, through ceaseless sage {les and confrontations. transforms tengthens, oF revert Them; asthe support which these force relations Bnd in one another, thus forming a chain or a sstem, or on the com from one another and last, as the strategies in which they 2The Deployment of Seay 2 take ect, wnose general desig or nsttusonalcrystaiiza tn i embodied in the state apparatus, ia the formulation tion of possibility, on aay case the viewpoint which permis ‘one 1o understand its exercise, evn ints more “peripheral” ffs, and which also makes i possible 1 use is mech: anisms as a rid of intligibility ofthe social order, must not be sougn im the primary ensence ofa central pom, sh 2 unique source of sovereignty from which secondary and de Sendnt forms mould emanate the moving beste oF fore lations which, by vit of thee inequality, constantly ‘engender states of power, but the latter ae always lal and Uunsiable The omnipresence of power: not because it asthe privilege of consolidating everyting unde its invincible Unity, bur Beene ie proce rom one moment 10 the nex, at every point, or rather in every zlation from one prt to another Power fs everywhere; not bootie # em braces everything, but because ft comes from everywhere [And "Powter," tofu a itis permanent, repetitious, inert, ‘and selfrepfoducing, is simply the overall eect thi emerges from all these mabilties, the concatenation that ‘eho ac of der ad necks fn arnt rest thet move: ‘ment, One need o be nominate, no doubt ower ot Strength we are endowed wit; tithe name that one ati ‘testo a complex strateicalstustion na particular society. ‘Should we ur te expression around, then and say hat politics is war pursued by other means? IF we sll wish to anti aepaatin Bees wat al ply peste we should postulate rather that this mulilicy af force rela tin cae ddim pat never totally ster i he form of wa," or inthe form of “politics this would imply two deen strategies (but the one always liable to stch tothe other for iterating these unbalanced, heeropene ous, unstable, and tense fore relations. o The History of Sealey Continuing this ine of discussion, we an edvance aoe: tain numberof propositions —Power is mot something that is cquied sized, o shared, Something that one holds on to or allows to slip avay [ower exercised from inumerble pont, in he iter. ‘lay of nonegalitarian and mobile celains Relations of poser ae not ina position of exteiosity with respect to other typeof telatonships (economic proc: ‘eats, knowledge flationships, sexual relations), but ace Immmanent i the Inter they are the mimediate ects of the divisions, inequalities, and. diseqibsiums. which occur inthe late, and conversely they are te intra rot in supestractural positions, with merely role of rohit oF accompaniment; they have dec pe {exve soe, wherever they come into pa) Power comes from below that 5, there i bo binary and allencomnassina opposition between rulers and ruled at ‘herootof power relations andserving as general mati no sch daly extending from the top down and eact- Ingon more and more imted groupe tothe very depthe ofthe social body. One mus suppose rather thatthe mani- {old clationships of force that take shape snd come into ply in he maine of practi fin, Hid ‘groups, and institutions, are the Basis for wideranging ‘Mls of cleavage tat run through the social body 38 8 ‘whole These then form a general ie of force that tay- ss the loeal opposition and links them together, 0 be sure, they alo Being about eedstibuions. realignment. homogenization, serial arrangements, and conerzences ofthe force relations. Major domiatios are the hege- ‘monic fects tht are gustained by al thee confront "—Power relations are both intentional and nonsujetve If met they ate nelle, sis noe because sey are sefle of enther instance that “explains them, bu rather because they are imbue, through and through, with cal culation: there is no power that is exercised without a Series of ai and objective. But ths oes not mes hat ft raul fom the choice of decision of an individual abject late ot lok forthe Readguartors that pesidet ‘vert atonlitys either the caste which governs, nor the groups which cone the sate apparats, nor those ‘who make the most important ecoaomie deesions direst the entre network of power that fonctions in a soe sad makes 1 Taeton) the rationality af power ischarse™ terized by tates that ae often quite explicit at the re ‘Src level where they aft meted the lel ey ‘of power tates which, coming connected 0 one a ‘otber, attracting and propgating one another, but nding ‘herr see of sopport ana ther condtom elsewhere, end forming comprehensive systems: the loge is perfectly ‘that noone is there to have invented them, and few who an be said to have frmolated them: a implicit charac- {edsc ofthe great anonymous lest unspoken state es which coordinate the loquacious tactics whose “in ents” wi Geahntiahers ate ulen wie! hyposta. Where there ip power, there i resistance, and. yet, oF fenteiority in relation o powec. Should tbe sid that fone ih alays “inside” power there is 90 “escaping” it, ‘one fsbjet othe law in any ease? Or that, tory being {he cue of semon, power te nae of tory, lenge ‘emerging the winne? This would be to misunderstand the strictly elational character of power relationships. Their ‘existence depends ona lily of pont of resistance: ‘thse pay the role of adversary, target, support or handle in power reais These pints uf essence ae pcs ‘veryweein the power network Hence ere ism sale %% The History of Sexuality locus of great Refusal, no sou of eevlt, source of all rebellions or pare aw ofthe revolutionary. Instead there 5 plurality of vsnaneey, cal Of thea «api ewe resistances that are posibie, necessary, improbable others that are spontaneous, savage slaty, concerted, zn panto ibens all eters tat ue quik tocumpwomie, Interested, of sacrificial; by definition, they can only exst inthe stratepe Bld of power relations. But this doesnot ‘ean that they are only reaction or rebound, forening With respect tothe Basie domination an underside tha i in the end always passive, doomed to perpetual defeat. Resistanos do nor erve fom a few heferogenenss pin ples; but neither ar they alte ora promise that is of recsity betrayed. They are the odd term in relations of power; they fe uscrbed In the latter as ah reduce ‘posite Hence they to0 ate dstibuted in ieregulas fash Tom the pins, kno, or focuses of resistance ae spread ‘ver ime and space vying dense, a mes mo ing groupe or individuals in a dfniive wa, inflaming ‘erttn pits ofthe body, certain moments ini, certain types of tenavior. Ave there no gret radical ruptures, asi binary divisions, then? Occasionally, yes. But tore olen one i dealing with mobile and transitory Poms of resstance, produsing cleavages ina sory that ‘Shit abou, fracturing unites and efletig regrouping, Furrowing scros indivi themselves, cating them 8p and remoiang them, marking of reducible Fegions 12 them, in thie bodies and minds. Just asthe network of ‘power relations ends by forming a dense web tit pases through appartises and nstuions, without being e8- ‘actly localized in them, $0 (00 the swarm of points of Fesstance traverses social statifcaos and individual tnties And it dowbless the strategie eoifaton of these points of sistance tht makes evolution possible, Semen silat fo the way im which the stat ris on the asutuional integration of power eelatonshishe Delgment of Sexwaliy or 11s inthis sphere of fore relations that we mus ry to analyze the mechanisns of ower. In this way we will cape thom he system of Law-and Sovereign which has captivated political thought for such along time. And fit is teu that scandal of his “eyniism—who conceived the power of he Prince in terms of force lationship. perhaps we need 10 20 lone step further, do without the persona ofthe Prince, and ‘esipher power mechanisms on the Basis of a ratgy that fs immanent m fore relationships ‘To retum to sex and the discourses of truth that have taken charge ofthe question th the ‘Sot: Given a speci state structure how and why sit that power needs o exablish a knowledge of sex? Neither the {qstion: What overall domination was served by the con: cern, evidenced since the eighteenth entry, to produce rue ‘ducoures on sex! Nor: What aw pended over Dota the ‘egulaiy af sexual behave andthe conformity of What was fat aboet i? Ite rather In a pec typeof eiacoure on Sein spec form of extortion of eth, appearing histor fall and in specie places (round the child's bod. apropos ‘of women's sex i connection with practice restricting births, and soon), what were the most immediate, the most focal power reatons at Work” ow dh tey Mare poste thews nds of discourses, and conver, how were these ‘courses and to support power raatons? How wee the ‘ction ofthese power elatons modified by thei ery exer ‘Sse, etalling a strengthening of some terms and a weaken ing of others, with effects of resstance and eounterinves. rent, 50 that there has never exited one tye of stable ‘Ujogaton, given once and for al? How were these power Teltions linked to one another according t the lowe of & fret strategy which in eetenpect takes om th aspect of 2 ‘itary and voluntaist polities of ex? In general terms rather han rfersing all he ifesimalvoleoes that ate erted on se, all he anxious gazes that are dieted at om ‘The Hitory of Serlty a llth ding plates wane usconesy i ade int a Jmposible as, to the unique frm ofa great Power, we ust immerse the expanding production of discourse on ex ‘i tne nei of mulple and mobile power relations. ‘Which lead us to advancs in 2 preliminary way, four ‘les to fellow. Bu these ae not intended a methodological imperatives; at most they are cautionary presenpions. 1, Rule of immanence (One must aot suppose that there exists a certain sphere of sexuality that would be the legitimate concer of fre and Ainteaod wnt inguin mete ito he wee of ext anisms of prohiition brought to bear by the economic oF ‘ideological requirements of power. If sexuality was con sutured a an area of investigation, this was only because ‘elations of power had established ia possible objet; and conversely, f power was ale to ake iba target, hi Wak because teonmgues ot knowledge and procedures of a: course were capable of investing it. Beeweentechnigues of Knowledge and strategies of power, there is no exterior. ven they have speci roles and are inked together onthe tus oftheir diference, We wll stat therefore, from what rmiht be called “oeal centers of power-knowledae: fr ex- Ample, the felations that cbtia between penifens and Confessor, ofthe fatful and thir dretos of conscience tered, dierent forms of disourse—se-examination, ques ‘soning, admission, sterpreations, smeriews-—were the Sic of Lind of icesant hask-andforth moverent of forms of subjugation and schemas of knowledge. Silay, the body ofthe child, under survellance,surounded i his tradle his bed or his room Sy an entire watch erew of Dafens, nurses, servants, educators and doctor all aten- Hive to the least manifestation of his ex, has constituted, patGvulay since he eightech century, andes “eal oe ter" of powerdnowledgehe eploment of Susy ” 2. Rules of continual variations ‘We mat not Ink for who has the power inthe oer of sexuality en, adults, parents, doctos) and whois deprived Fit (women, adolescents, children, patents; aoe for who thas the right fo know and who is forced 0 emai gnorat We most sec rater the pattern ofthe modieations which the catnip f free imply bythe very natu of et proces. The “distributions of power" and the “appropea: floas af knowledge” never represent only intantannas ttle taken from process ivolving, fr example, a cummula tive teinforcement ofthe stongest factor, or reversal of ‘elaionshi, or ag, simultaneous iereae of fo terms. Relations of power owledge arena tate forms of dst teenth-entury grouping made vp of the father, the mother, the educator, andthe doctor, around the ehld and his sex, was subjected to constant modifeation, comin shite Oneofthemor spectacular results ofthe later was strange several whey bmp wih Le cls exit a ces roblematized within the relationship established between tions to ep the child under observation, of warnings of future danger) limately it was in the relationship of the ‘aychintrin othe child that the sexo ofa them felves was ealed ito question 3. Rule of double conditioning No “oot center," no “pater of eransformation” sould function if trough series of sequences, it id ot events ally enter intoan overall trategy. And inversely nostratery ould achieve comprehensive els iid not gun sport from precie and tenuous relations serving, ot ats point tt appiation or Anal outcome, buts prop and anchor point There sno discontinuity between them, aif one were ealing with two diferent level one microscopic and the 100 The History of Sexual ‘ther macrosopi) but neither i there homogeneity (a if theone were only the enlarged projection or he miniatures: ‘oof the other rather, one must concave of te double conditioning of a strategy by the speci of posible tac tis, and of tacts bythe strate envelope that makes them ‘work Ths the father inthe family isnot the “representa tive” ofthe sovereign or the state; andthe later are not ‘broections ofthe father ona diferent sale, The family does ‘ot doplcte society, jut as society does ot lntale the amily But the family organization, precisely to the extent ‘that it was insular and heteomorohous with respect the fother power mechanisms, was used to support the great “manewers” employed forthe Malthusan contol of the ‘beta, the populations incitement, forthe medial- ‘ation of se nd the payehiazation ois nongenital forms. 4, Rul ofthe tactical polyalence of disnures Whats ssid about sex must nt be analyzed simply as the surface of projection ofthese power mechanisms. Indeed it Isinaiscoure tnt power and knowlege ae jned ogee ‘And for this very reason, we must coneive discourse a 2 series of discontinuous segments whose tactical fanction is ‘ener vam nr staple 19 Be move presse, we must Dt imagine a world of discourse divided between accepted ds- course and excluded discourse, of between the dominant ‘scours and tae dominated ong, But as a multpiaty of tiscurive clements that can come into playin varios strate eis this istibution that we mst reconstract, with the {ings suid and those concealed, the enunciation cequred and those forbidden, that it comprises, with the variants and Aierenteets—according 1 who i speaking, his postion of power, the institutional ones ia which he happens o be Sitated—that i implies; and with the shits an eu tions of identical frmulas fr contrary objectives that it also Includes Discourses are not once and forall subservient 10‘he Deploment of Sexuaty w power or ee pagina it, any mare than iene aw We ‘ust make allowance fr the complex and unstable proces whereby discourse canbe both an instrament and an fet ‘of power, but aoa hindrance, a tumbling block, «pont of esstance and a starting point fran opposing strategy. Dis Coure tanta and penducce per, reoforee ty but tlk undermines and exposes it, render it fragile and makes t posible to thwart it. In ike manne. silence and secrecy fre shelter for power, anchoring is prohibitions, bt they th loosen ts holds and provide fo relatively obscure areas fr tolerance. Consiaer1or example the mSLoy of What Was nce “the” great sin aginst nature. The extreme discretion ‘fhe tere deslng with sodom—that uel cof ate for}—and the nearly universal eicence in talking aboat i ‘made posible a twofold operation: on the oe hand there sas a extreme severity (punishment by fre was meted out Well into the cighteath cemury, without there being any nail protest capes tefove the wide of the ve {ry} andon the other hand tolerance that must have been widespread (which one can dedace indie rom the ine (quency of judicial sentences, and which one glimpses more ‘ict through cera statements concerning wees of ‘en nat were tnougn io ens tm ne ariy ori he cour), ‘There is no question thatthe appearance in nineteenh-en tory poychity, jrepradence, and erature of «wholes Fie of discourses onthe species and subspecies of hemosexu ality, inversion, pederasy, and “psychic hermaphrodisma” ‘made posible a Strong advance of social controls into this rea of perversity" bu italso made possible the formation ‘em behalf to demand that ts egimtey or “naturalty” be ‘cknowledged, often inthe same vocabulary, sig he same Categories by which it was medically diaguaifed. There ot, on the one side, a dscouse of power, and opposite it nother Ghcourse that nk counter to it Discourses te tactical elements oe blocks operating inthe field of force relation; there can exist diferent and even contradictory Glacourscs thin te seme steep they eum, On te com tray, culate without changing thee Form fom one 3 tote opening sig. We mast moc the dive fom, or what moral division they accompany, of ‘what idology—dominant or dominated~—they represent tute productivity (what repo! ects of power and Kowiedge they ensure) and ther srateicl integration (what conjunction and what force eelaonship make thet ilaton nary in en ede of the ais fromatins that =u Tn shor tsa question of orienting ourselves to concep Siow of power which replaces the prvege ofthe aw withthe sinwpoto othe option, the pegs of probit te {he viewpoint of tactical efcacy, the privilege of sovereignty vit the analysis of « maliple and mobile feld of force ‘elation, wherein freaching bt sever completely Stabe, ‘ets of domination are produced. The satel mode, father than the model based on lav. And this, ot out of & Speculative choiee or thorevea preference Bu ease In fact i one ofthe esenia rats of Wester societies that the force relationships which for along time had found txpressom in war every form of warfare, gay be- ame inesed inthe order of pital power.Domain Sexaanty must not be desrbed as @ stubborn anv, by nature alien and of necessity dsoheient 10a power which xbauat a tying to swat en fl to contol ‘entirely. Te appeats rather as an expecially ease transfor ont for relations of power: between men and women, young people and al people, parents and etspnng Teacher and ‘dents, priests and lity, an administration end pop ‘on Seem nat the ron intractable element i power ‘elation, but rater one f those endowed with the retest rumen: uel forthe greatest numberof maneuvers id capable of serving a8 8 pwn Of support asa nchp, for the most varied strategic, “There eno sng albencompattng strategy, vali for all cf sce and uniformly bearing on all the manifestations of tex For example, the ide that there have been repeated temps, by various means, to reduce allo Sex 0 epro- Auctve function, sts heterosexial and ult form, and i ‘matsnonalIeptiacy fl tote inte scoot the man fold objectives ime fo, the manifold means employed in the ferent sexual politics concerned withthe two sexs, the dierent age groups and socal clases Tia fat approach to the problem, i seems that we can the eighteenth century, formed specie mechanisms of [knowledge and power centering on sex. Thse didnot come 103 nto being fully developed at that time; bu it was then that ‘they tok ona consistency and gatped an eeciveness nthe order of power, as well ws a productivity inthe order of knowledge, so that iis possible to describe them in their reltive autonomy. 1. A hysterzaion of women’s bodies: a href process swcicy the feisty sly eee wd ir Gualifed-—as being thoroughly saturated with sexuality, tterey it was iterated into the spere of medical prac: ‘ees, by reason ofa pathology intinsieto whereby aly, ‘twas placed in organic communication with the sca body (ovhose repute fecundity it was supponed to ensure, the Family space (of which it had tobe asubtanil and fone: ional element), and th Hf of children (which i produced ted had to guntnte, by viet of « bolgice moral emp bility lasting through the entire period of the children's ducation:the Mother, with her negative image of "nervous ‘rots soto te ma te a of i Byteie 2 A pedagopzation of children's sex: adobe ssertion ‘nat practi al ede indulge or are prone toile insetual activity; end that, being unwarranted, at he same tie “natura” and “contrary aru,” thi sexual activity posed physcal and moral, individual an ellective dangers; ‘hieen were defined as “peiminary” sexual beings, on tis ‘ie af con ot within mien tanger ding ine Parents, families, educator, doctors, and eventually sy- ‘hologsts would have to take charge, n'a comtiauous Way, sexual potential: this pedagopization was especialy evident inthe war against onanism, which nthe West ated nearly 3. sociolzation of proreative behavior: an economic so- ializaton via all the inctements and restrictions, the “so- ‘a and fsa! measures brought fo bear on the frtiity ofhe Deployment of Sexasty tes couples: apolitical socialization achieved through the “re Sponublzation” of couples with regard to the socal body 8 {whole (which had tobe limited or onthe contrary rein- ‘gorated), and a medical socalizabon carries cut by at- tebuting a pathogenic value—for the individual andthe pe cex—ta birth-control practice “A piyeharnzation of perverse pleasure: the sexual in- stinct Was isolated as a separate biological and psychical Instinct, clinical analysis was made ef ll the forms of nomales by which could be aired: it wasasigned ale ‘sf normalization oe pathoogiaton with reaper tal be Inavior, and Sally, a corrective technology was sought for these anomalies, Four figures emerge from this preoccupation with sex, ‘which mounted throughout the nineteenth century—four ronlged jc of knowedgs, which were also targets and anchorage points forthe ventures of knowledge: the hse fal woman, the masturhting child, the Malhosian coupe dnd the perverse ult. Each of them crtesponed 10 one of ‘hese suategies which, each in iss own way, invested and ‘made use ofthe sexof Women, children, and mea. ‘What wat ot ninth states? A crag gait sexuality? Or were they art af an efort to gan cotta of itt An attempt to regulete it more efectively and maski ‘moreindiscret, conspicuous, and intractable aspects? Away ‘of formlatng only that measure of knowledge abut it that was aoeptable or tefl? In actual fat, what wa invaved father, was the very production of sexuality. Sexual must ‘ote thought ofa kind of natural given which power ties {hold in check, o san obscure domain which kaowiedse ‘wis gradually 1 uncover. I isthe name that canbe given tore Manel vans nt a fartive tality tat ioe to rasp but peat surface network in Which the sila tion of bodies, he intensieation af pleasures, he incitement to discourse the formation of special knowledges, the ‘nother, in accordance with few major strategies of know fdge and power Tile granted doubs that claions of sox gate ris, in every soctety, to a deployment of alliance: system of marrage, of Fation and development of kinship ties, of ‘Panamiion of aanse and possesions Ths deployent of alliance, with te mechanisms of constraint that entured ts tsislence andthe complex knowledge it often required ort fone of ie importance ax economies prcencs aad yaa Structures could no longer ely oni sam adequate instr: ‘ment of sufcint support. Parculaely from the eighteenth ‘tty onvard, Western teen eresed tnd deployed = ‘ew apparatus which wax superimposed on the previous one, and whic, without completely supplanting the late, helped {oraoeiteimportance Lam sping of he deployment of Sexually: ike the deployment olan itconnes up with the circuit f sexual partners, but in's completely diferent sway The two oytems canbe contrasted term by term. The cployment of alliance i built around system of rules ‘defning the permitted and the forbidden. the ct and the ing to mail, polymorphous, and contingent techniques of power. The deployment ofalance has ts one of i chief {ijetve to tepid he neyplay ef slain ads tain the lw that goveens them; the deployment of sexuality, ‘on the other hand, engenders a coniaual extension af areas find forms of canto Fon the Gl wl ix pestnen ete Tink between partners and definite statutes, the second fs ‘concerned withthe seasations ofthe body, the quality of Impercepiblethewe may be. Lary, if the deployment of alliance is frmly fed tothe economy due tothe role it ean py ion o elton of wealth the deploy ity is inked to the esonomy through numerThe Deplymnt of Sexuality i cous and sbile ay, the min one of which, however, ithe deployment of alice i attuned to» homentss of the seca, which t has the fonction of aitsning eee its privleged ink ith the law whence tothe fact thatthe inspoman phase frit is “eprduction" The deployient of iy Bas its reason for beng, notin reproducing ise, but in proliferating, innovating, annexing, cresting, and Conirolng populations in an increasingly comprehensie Sy We nermpalld then, to ssnp te ofr ype ‘Ser whic ran counter tothe neon which he theme of & Sexuality repressed by the modern forms of cey i bed SexunityS Ud oceent dies af power hn been ex andi aan increasing rate sine the seventeenth entry {he rangement tat fas sonnei not governed 9 reproduction, it hasbeen finked fom the outset with an ‘of knowledge and an element in relations of powe. i not exact t0 say thatthe deployment of sexuality supplanted the deployment of ance. One can imagine that ‘ne day it wl ave replaced i. Buta things stand at pre- Sent, whe does fend to coverup te deployiiet ofa ance, it bas neither obliterated the later not rendered it tsan Monnet, al ine ara nd thea (ofthe deployment of alliance ha the deployment of sexta iy'was constructed. Fst the practice of penance, then that ofthe examination of conscience and spiritual direction, ws the formative nls as we Have ee what wa ase 1 begin thatthe tribunal of penance was se inser ait was the basis of lations the questions ped ad odo with the inure allowed or fbn ably, atonal tl ens eatons witha person probit by bod tate {he ogimate oe Mghinate character ofthe at ssi 108 “The History of Sexsalty ‘pplication in seminaries, sezondaty school, and conven, ‘here was «gradual progression avay fom the problematic ‘st rlatons foward & problematic of the "Meth that iy of ‘he body, sensation, the autre of please, the more secret forme of enjoyment or acquiescence. “Sexuality” was fai shape, born of a technology of power that was original focused om alliance Since then, it has not ceased to operate in conjunction with a system of alliance on which it has it came to he valved in the course ofthe eighteenth cent, made i possible forthe msn elements ofthe deployment of Sexuality (the feminine body, nani precy he regula on of Births, and 1a leser extent no doubt, the specs tion of the perverted) to develop aloag its two peimary tdimensions. the hurband-wife anit and the parenteidren fn The family, ia its contemporary fom, must not be Understood as «sci economic, and political structure of Alfisoe that excludes of at least resins sexuality, tt diminishes it as mch ss possible, preserving only its wef functions. On the contrary its oi to anchor sexual and provide it with a permanent support It ensures the produc tion of sexuality that isnot homogeneous withthe prii- lege faliance. while making i tine fr the syieme af tliance foe imbued with anew faci of power which they ‘mould otherwise be impervious to. The family the inter- jundical dimension in the deployment of sexuality, and it oaweys the exenomy of please and the intensity of ensi- one tn he opie of altace “This interpenetration ofthe deployment of alliance and that of sexuality in the frm ofthe fail allows us to under- Maal tes fat: hat wet glee sey the family has become an obligatory lous of aes, feelings, love; that sexuality has its pileped point of development in ‘meas tht forts reeon sexuality since tromPhe Deplyment of Sexuality ro the sar It maybe that n societies where the meshaniims of alliance predominate, proton of incest function {sdovbiles the exigencies ofthe later which matin and prolong its existence, incert—for diferent reason altogether {and in completely diferent way—cccupies a central ple, Fis constantly tiny solicted and vefosed, nan object of obsession and attraction, a dred secret end an indspens- ‘ble pivot. tis manifested aa thing tha inset frbedden of alianc; but iti also thing that is continuously de- ‘anded inorder for the family tobe hotbed of contant fexual incitement. If for more than a century the West has Alaplayed such a seong interest inthe prohibition of incest if more or les by common acon it has been seen a Sci ‘universal and one of the points through which every society isobliged to pas on the way to becoring a cle, perhaps this is because st was found to bea means of self-defense, not the implications of this deployment of sexuality which had heen stupa which, among iti many Benefits Ba the disadvantage of ignoring the laws and juridical forms of ance. BY asserting that all societies without exception, fine consequently our on, were Samet ts ue Ks, fone guaranteed that this deployment of sexuality, whose strange effects were beginning to heft» among thm, the ‘Mfective intensification of the Family space would no be hleto escape rom th grand and uniensjstem a aliance ‘Thus the inw would be secure, even nthe new mechanics of power. For thi i the parndox ofa secety which rom the nologies of power that ae foreign tothe concep of law: i fears the effets and proliferations of those technologies and attempts to recode them frm ofl fone conser the ‘reldofal culture tobe prohibited incest, then erulty as ben, from the dawn of time, under the sway of aw and right BY devoung so uc efor to an endless feworking Of the tanscultural theory ofthe incest taboo, anthropology ‘ns proved worthy ofthe whole modern deployment af ex ality andthe theoretical ditcourses generates ‘What has aken place since the seventeenth century can be Interpreted in the flowing manne: the deployment of sexuality which first developed on the fringes of familial inwitutios (nthe direction of eonscence and pedagogy, for example) gradually beeme focused onthe fay: the en, lnreduibe, and even perilous efers it held in store fr the Aeployment af line (an sarenes this danger ss ‘evidenced inthe crim offen directed at the indretion ofthe directors, and in the entice controversy, which oc- urrea somewhat ltt, over the private ce ube NSUEE- onal or fami education of chien’) were absorbed by the family, family that was reorganized, restricted no out, and in any case intensified im comparison withthe Functions it formerly exercise in the deployment of alliance. Inthe fay, ports and catives became these agents of deployment of sexuality which drew is outsie sopport from doctors, educators, and later psychiatrists, and which ‘began by competing wit th relations of alae But 3008 “psychologized” of “psychatrized™ the later. Then these ‘the ig wife the indiferent mother—or worse, the mother beet by murderous obsesone—the impotent, sade, perverse husband, the hystencal oF NeurastieNe gi, tHe precocious and already exhausted child, and the young homosexual whores marrage or nels his wife. These ‘were the combined figures ofan alliance gone bed and an normal sexuality, shy were the means by which the ds turing factors of the later wore brought iat the former, pit atin oe mayThe Deployment of Sealy m and yet they alo provided an opportunity forthe alliance ‘sistem to aber is preronatives inthe order of sexality ‘Then a presing demand emanated from the family: « plea for help in reconciling these unfortunate conics be- {ween teauality od alate; and, ceught i the pip this deployment of sexuality which had invested it from Without, contibuting to its solidiction sat is madera ‘orm, the fry braadast the long complaint of 1 Sex: al sullring to doctors, educators, psychi, prints tnd pastors 10 all he “experts” who would nen Tt wa 4 iP i had suddenly discovered the dreadful seer of ‘what had always been hinted at and inculcate in it the family, the Keystone of alliance, was the germ ofall the misfortunes of sex And lo and behold, fom the mid inccenth century onward, the faaly engaged in sarc Jing out the slightest traces of sexuality tn its midst, ‘wrenching from ise the most dificult confessions, sole: iting an audience with everyone who might know some thing about the matter, and opeing itself unreservedly 10 nde: examination The famsly was th erystal in the de ployment of sexuality: it seamed 1 be the source ofa sex Salty which ie sotually only reflected and difsted. By ‘ete ofits permeability, and through that process of © fection 10 the outside, it became one of the most val ble facial components af the deployment, ‘But this development was not without its tensions and problems. Chareot doubulessconsttated a central figure in {his a wel For many years he was the most noteworthy of all hos to when amis, burdened dow as they were With nd treatment. On receiving parents who brought him thet shildren, husbands their wives, and wives their husbands, from the wor ove, hs Bt concer was to Separate IMC “patent fom his family, and the better to observe hi, be would pay as ite atetion 3s possible ro what the fanily 1 ‘The History of Sexulty bad to say He sought to detach he per of exo rom the sem of alliance, in order to del witht ely {Brough «medial practi shoe tc and atone) ‘tre garated bythe nerlogial model. Medicine tus ‘sued fn esponsty, according to the rls of pe itis to concern temele tha an event ask ad ‘major danger Moreover, Chart noted on several cc Sonn how ul Ww fea oped" the pct ‘hom thy nonethele had brough tthe dota, how they Ind sige othe ental ost where the sujet wa beng ‘epeout of ew and i wm hich hey wereconsamly Interring with he dirs werk, Their worry war ows ‘ated, powever the thera only intervened in rr 0 ‘tum to them indaduals who wete sel compat ‘ith th family sem and whl his intervention manip Ine he seal body hd not atorz te later to deine ‘atin expt curse Ones ot peak these “ge {alcaun 3 went the praso—muttere in muted Ve tick the ent ious as of urine overeardo ay in Tio rom te mouth of Charon This was th cone in which schemas sto work tut not without sbanily modiing he ater af anne ts and eassranas In the begining ma ave gen ‘eto dats and ali for pushing Charen to the extreme, i nderook to examine the sexality of i ‘das ouside fay contra broght th sexs to light without covering over agin with the newrologcl ion in the sats itmadeo them Ba ete cveying, ernst gwen aPhe Deplyment of Sexuality hs rrychosmalyis, whos echnical procadre seemed to place {heconession of sexuality ouside fay jurkdcton, rs Covered the law of allianc, the involved workings of ma ‘age and hnsi, and incest the Ber of hi ety, a {bapa fe fraton andthe byt i egy $Tegurtaos that oe would die porentectden ela ‘inship a he root of evenone' sexuality made it possible “ere when everyting seamed opt oe eee po: cto Hep the deployment of text coupled othe appear to e, by nate into the lw twas conse Oly touch the aw. Parents dont be aad to bing your children to analyte it wl each hrm that nay ese you whom they Tove. Children, you rely shouldnt com Pisin yo re not orpany tat you sayy recover fn your innermost sles your Obst Meher or the sovet- tion an of gous Pahers te trmgh the tat 3 gin Seer ode: Whence after so many rene he eo Inout consumption faa inacetes where the deploy. ‘Rent of aiance anaes Sede seg eng For this one of tbe most sift apt fh ete "try of the deployment of ery: nd bogings in the technology ofthe “Res in stasical Chasiny, Basing Sul on the allance system and the rules tat gv fred th te. ut today fl reverse fneton i hat itd o peop up the od depeyment of ance From the Afalianc and sexuality mertnvlved na slow procs that ha thm ring aout one anoter uni more than hee Centric inter, hr poitons were ever nthe Catan pectoral the aw oallance coded he exh which sot fein covered and ese a rarer tht wl Jondia in character, wih ppchoamais seat ve Mepend state locat aon hy stain hem wath ooare ence the domain we ms analy in the erent tas sua wl ow the presen volume ka Spent ot seusity: formation on the bass of the Christin notion Strategies that mere deployed i the nineteenth century the Sexualzation of children, the hyteiction of womea, the tonsa strategies that wen! byway of family wih most be viewed nt asa powerul ageney of potion, Bu as 3 “The fist phase coresponded tothe need to form a “bor force (henge to avoid any usces expenditure,” any wasted energy, so tht all fret were reded to labor capacty Sone) and to ensure its reproduction (conga, the rego Intedfabscation of children The second phase cote: sponded to that epoch of Spitkapalismas th which the “exploitation of wage lator dacs not demand the same violent faut physical constraints asin the nineteenth century, and Where the poe af the body dos Not eequte the esto of Sex oF its festriction solely 1 the reproductive function it ‘ic instend on 8 motile stanaclng into the contrled SSreuite ofthe economy-~on what has ben alld hyper repressive dexublimation Tae plies oss aes iti we ote law aes but brings into play an eae technical machinery, sf what is inolved isthe production of sexuality rater than the repression o sex, then oUF emphasis has tote placed ese- where: we must shift our analysis away from the problem of “iabor capacity" and doubtless abandon the difseeneret fey tat underlies the heme ofa sexuality represed for eo.4 Periodization ‘The bistry of seal syposes two ruptures one les tocenteritoa mechanisms of repression. The est, cccuring in the course ofthe seventeenth century, was characterized hy the advent ofthe great probibiiors, the exclusive promo- tion of adult marital sexuality, the imperatives of decency, te oblgaany comalico the lay, the vaeton to Silence and mandatory reticenes of anguage. The second, 4 twentel-cotury phenomenon, was really lek a rupture than an infexion of the curve this wus the moment when the mechanisms of repression were sen as beginning f loosen ‘hei grip, one pated Irom intent sexual ators toa Fl tive tolerance wth regard to prenuptial or extramarital rl tions the asqualifcasion of "perverts diminished. their ‘condemnation hy the law wat tn port eliminated; « g00d ‘many ofthe aboos that weighed onthe sexvaity of chien ‘We mus atempt to trace the chronology af these devices: tion of previous techniques. But there is also the calendar af thir ulization to consider, the chronology of thi i Sion an ofthe eects (of subugation and vesstance) they produced. These multiple datings douteles wll not coineide th the great rapretive cle that i erin ita teewcen the seventeenth and the tmenith centuries, I Thechronoogy ofthe eeniques themselves pos back is he “The History of Sexuality ne way. Tc nt of fost mst en the ferent rst of uta Cen, oe Selsey th oan, Soe piconet mse na tha een Ecol any te me oes, sn ce fd ny ht tele wih pele fem he ‘Sientmcrny on she Rett an see Chaise arta npr stan and» hn wim mii be ele te “won etl fe Sx ht ot oo wan pro Se Calman Potent mtd ef aman fo “capes” aniston is dca wet Citi nth inns Tas ch eae oe Seat hrough gS ef ese cboraion etl itheund sh cnt cota cme fed io fressomcopa of symosong te mig sts ‘Kromo de Lge eh an ir snd Welean ego inte oe. ites dng these pointed of he ghee cxnnryan sn ie ove ob emia, Sister scone ew cio se nw inthat forthe mo pat espe the leila ln that gy npr he eas ot {Broth petery mem es tae tena Cnc acne a sacle totem: cat rset tee tesa themches und tulne: New to forthe et at Sods ne ha eho. i ‘ce sete tote sl ploy “Tomrn_ antl tat denopaghy. whose cine wasThe Deplomert of Sexuality w procreation” (as those "deadly seres™ were lter to be fall) designate thre prsileged areas ofthis new technol ‘ogy. Theres ao qui tat in each ofthese areas, went buck to metho that had already been formed by Christin Ay, but o course not witout moatsing them: the sexual of children was already probiematized in the spit penny of Christianity {interesting toot that Mall Hes the fst teatse on sin was writen In the Afteenth czntury by an educator and mystic named Gerson and that {he Onan collection compiled by Dekker in the eightsnth entury tepeats word fr word examples set forth by the ‘Anglican pastoraly the ightccnthscatury.sidiine of ‘nereesand vapors took upin turn a eld of analysis that had lready een delimited when the phenomens of possesion foment grave eis nthe all foo increctproctces of conscience dzeton and spntl examination (nervous lof hywera isnot unrelated to the ear distion of "ob Sessed" women and the campaigns apropos ofthe birthate took the plas of the contol of conjugal relatione—in 4 dierent form and at another lvel—mhich the Christian penaee nad so persistently Sought f etaish through 15 amination. A'siuble continuity, therefore, but one that the ecology of sex was ordered in elation to the medisl insituion, the exigency of normaly, and—instead ofthe ‘question of death and eveasting punishment —the problem fife and ies. The fesh was brought down tothe level, OF he sigan ‘This mutation took place at che raen of the nineteenth century it opened the wat Tor many other transformations that derived rom it The rst ofthese et apart the madiine ‘of sx from the meticin ofthe body; i isolated seal quired derivations, infirmities, or pathological process, 18 ‘The History of Sexuality Heinich Kaan's PyohopathiaSerualis published in 1846, ‘abe used aran indeaor these were th years that aw the correlative appearance of a mein, an “orthopedics.” Specine se ma word, he opening up ofthe great medico- prychological domain of the "perversions," which was ‘esti to take over fom the old moral eatepoies of de- twuchery and exces. In the same period, the analysis of heredity was placing sex (sexual relations, venereal Seats, ‘atrimenial lanes perversion) ina poston of log fal responsiblity with regard othe species: not only ould Sex be flected by its own sass, it could also, iit was not Sntote tanonit diwases oe eecate kets hat would Mit fture generations. Thus it appeared tobe the source ‘fan entite capital for the species to raw fom. Whence the ‘edie bat aso pote projet for organizing 4 ate ‘management of marriages, births, and hfe expectancies ex nd i fertity had 10 be administered. The medine of perversions and the programs of eugenics were the two geet Innovations in the technology of sox ofthe second half of the Tnovations that merged together quite well, for the theory of "dageneescenes™ made it posible Toe them to fseceaiyvfer bach to ne amuchery i epi aw heredity that was burdened with various malin (it made litle diference wheter these were organs, futons, or pec) ended by producing asexual pervert (look nt the etelogy ofan exhibitionist ora homoseusl: you will ad Sheminlenc mentor. thie narent nine it ‘with senile dementia), But it went onto explain how asexual perversion resulted inthe depletion of one’ ine of descent “The series composed of perversion herediyrdegenrecence formed the lid nucleus ofthe new technologies fx. And JRC it aor be imagined thar this was aohing more than medial theory which was Scientia lacking and improp erly moralistic. Its application was widespread and is imThe Deplymet of Sexaalty is radence egal medicine, agencies of socal contol, the ut teilance’of dangerous or endangered chile, al fe: toned tor along ume ‘on the bass ol” "depen rescence” and the herediy-perversion system. An entire {orm of state-directed racisn furnished this technology af sex with a formidable power and far-reaching consequences, ‘And the strange positon of psychiatry atthe end of the sineteenth century woud be hard to comprehend i oe id rot see the rupure i brought about in the great system of