The World is One Great Hospital

Abstract

This article attempts to locate the origin of Foucault’s work on biopolitics and biopower in his writings on medicine and medicalization.  Though the concept of biopower is most closely associated with Foucault’ genealogy of the dispositif of sexuality, this essay sets aside the question of sexuality and examines more closely the archeology and genealogy of the medical dispositif to which Foucault dedicated a significant portion of his work throughout the 60’s and 70’s, in order to locate therein the lineage of his thought on biopower and biopolitics.