The Fetishization of the Panopticon

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The Fetishization of the Panopticon

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By: Kailey Giordano
UCLA Honors Department (History of Modern Thought Cluster)

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In this paper, I investigate the transformation of the Panopticon from the time of Foucault to the present. After said examination, I conclude that while Foucault discussed the Panopticon as a centralized power structure, since his time the Panopticon has been not only decentralized but also commodified and fetishized. The Panopticon has evolved from a specific social interaction between overseer and subject to a term widely applied to any technology of surveillance that internalizes an external power and renders this internalized power capable of operating on its own. First, I briefly synopsize the history of punishment and situate the Panopticon within this history. I then include a description of Bentham’s Panopticon and examine the anxiety of being seen to reach a fuller understanding of how the Foucauldian Panopticon was intended to function. Next, I…