Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977

This collection of interviews and essays charts the development of the genealogical method, moving beyond Foucault’s earlier focus on archeology to examine the reciprocal relationship between power and knowledge. He argues that truth is not a transcendental discovery but a product of historical systems of exclusion and constraint. Through analyses of the prison system, the clinic, and psychiatric discourse, Foucault details how "regimes of truth" function to discipline the human body. He specifically challenges the repressive hypothesis, suggesting that power is not merely a negative force that forbids, but a productive mechanism that creates social categories and identities.

Social scientists and students of political theory read this volume to understand how institutional structures influence individual behavior and self-perception. The text serves as a manual for identifying the invisible mechanisms of control within democratic societies. Readers walk away with a vocabulary for deconstructing authority, specifically the concept of "power-knowledge" as a single, inseparable phenomenon. By engaging with these transcripts, the reader learns to analyze how specialized scientific claims function as instruments of social management and political administration.