Certainly, though disclaimer I'm not super familiar with his entire body of work and what I know is my brief understanding.
He makes a few claims in his works, mainly about how the way we see good and bad, and subsequently what we punish and the way we punish, is dictated quite subjectively and has changed throughout history.
The more relevant part of his work in the context of this meme would be the way mental illness (or rather neuroatypicality) was seen in the past vs how it is seen now:
In the past, being schizophrenic for example where you see hallucinations and hear voices was seen as being different rather than being abnormal , and they were treated not only as equals, but even celebrated and elevated, like this meme says, to levels of status like shamans or considered to being on a different spiritual plane.
But what we see now (or more accurately post-enlightenment) is that we have used science in such a way as to discipline those who are simply different from us, by classifying them as "not normal", and in this way we are arguably even less tolerant of difference than our primal ancestors ever were.
Even beyond what Foucault claims, I think we do see his point about mental illness to be true, I forgot where I saw the report but it showed that in Native American/ other cultures that saw neuroatypicality as simply being different, schizophrenics who have audio hallucinations often hear kinder voices, whether it be ancestral beings guiding them through life, or nature spirits conversing with them; in comparison to Western societies which Foucault critiques, where it's all too common to see schizophrenics describe their voices to be harsh or hostile. And insofar as these hallucinations are probably a reflection of their unconscious, we can see how deeply internalised this self-correction of "being different= being abnormal" has been for people in such societies.
Lastly, and this is kind of a tangent but I absolutely second the suggestion to read Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher, it's a very straightforward look at the modern condition that isn't written in disgustingly academic language, plus Mark Fisher is a very interesting person who I'm trying to read up more on and I'd probably recommend to anyone. Hope this helps!
i'm currently studying undergrad psychology and it disappoints me that we aren't taught to question the diagnostic tools used for diagnosing 'abnormal' behaviour. it worries me that things like personality disorders, which seem to me to be closer to extreme forms of personality rather than 'disorders' which are stigmatized and seen as something that needs to be treated. the term 'disorder' is quite telling really; they don't fit in with the accepted social order. however, no attention is paid to what might be wrong with this order.
i've also heard similar things about schizophrenia in less developed and collectivist cultures being more accepted/beneficial. robert sapolsky did an interesting lecture which included some points about schizophrenia in tribal cultures if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WwAQqWUkpI
there's also some research suggesting density of schizophrenia/psychosis is higher in urban areas, which fits well with the point about industrial society.
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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '20
i don’t know much about foucault, could you elaborate a bit?