Foucault's Panopticism as Applied to DuBois: The Ideal Model of Power? Anna Nguyen College

As a type of power that is vital to the function of institutions, discipline works to control the thoughts and actions of individuals to fulfill a specific agenda, such as preserving public safety or maximizing profits. Although numerous variations of power exist, institutions idealize the efficiency of panopticism, a psychological model of discipline. By discussing the manipulation of the human mind, Foucault’s “Panopticism” advocates for this “visible and unverifiable” (201) power which increases the efficiency of institutions and DuBois’ “Of Our Spiritual Striving” analyzes the use of psychological discipline to address "problematic" black people (4). Group mentality, the idea that the disciplined party will act as a group, either to resign themselves to a life of insignificance and inefficiency or to become productive members of society is an integral aspect of panopticism. DuBois’ work seems to highlight panopticism’s dependence on group mentality as a potential vulnerability, but through the application of Foucault’s lens to DuBois’ work, one realizes that DuBois’ work portrays how this perceived vulnerability actually strengthens the disciplinary system by making it more efficient, which is important in refining...