Michel Foucault: a produção de “verdades” sobre o corpo na modernidade.

Abstract

This research is based on the political thought of the french philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984), regarding to the relationship between power-body-discourse-truth. The body is brand by power relations, which circumscribe and mark it, presenting the ways in which individuals relate to rules and norms: the body exists in its historical temporality. In this perspective, the objective is to analyze how, from Modernity (17th-19th century), the relationship between power and discourse caused the production of certain “truths” that aimed the control of the body and population's behavior. According to the author, in Europe, in this period, there were changes in power relationships, which led to the emergence of “biopower” (power that is exercised over life). In this perspective, the discourse is at the foundation of biopower, constituting the limitations on the actions of individuals, through normalization processes. These processes are realized by biopower dispositifs, which are exercised through disciplines and biopolitics. This power was centered on the control of the body and behavior, aiming that individuals subjected themselves to power, without resisting it. However, this research exposes that Foucault includes freedom as a condition for the existence of power relations, characterizing the dynamism of these relationships. Thus, freedom as an ethical-political practice shows to be important in the constitution of individuals as subjects subjected to power dispositifs, providing to individuals the practices of freedom. For this reason, the power dispositifs are not able to be fully effective in interpersonal relationships: freedom allows individuals not to be completely submissive and may constitute their own ways of relating to themselves, their bodies and other subjects.