In 1963, Foucault published "The Birth of Clinical Medicine". From 1974 to 1976, Foucault opened a series of lecture courses on "Unnormal People" and "Must Defend Society" at the French Academy. In 1975, "Discipline and Punishment" was published. In 1976, the first volume of "The History of Sex" was published.
The reason why "A Clockwork Orange" is linked with Foucault's writing is that they both discuss many similar issues, which involve various major issues about power, ethics, human nature, and life that have been formed since the Western Enlightenment. It can be said that Foucault's writing and "A Clockwork Orange" are footnotes to each other.
(1) The formation of a medicalized society or the medicalization of punishment. Foucault believes that since the 17th century in Western society, many original ethical, moral, power or legal issues have gradually been medicalized. Taking the rise of criminology as an example, determining whether a criminal has a mental illness has become an important basis for determining the standard of punishment. A person's tendency to commit crimes can be detected from various medical indicators. Therefore, punishment and treatment are gradually intertwined at the same point, that is, the purpose of punishing criminals is not merely to deter and declare the inviolability of kingship, but to "cure" and reform. Prisons have become a place of "reconstruction, re-behave", and another academic term is a place of "re-socialization". In the movie "A Clockwork Orange", the new Minister of the Interior promotes the so-called "Brodsky" therapy, trying to replace prison reform with psychotherapy. This therapy uses a certain kind of drug, combined with continuous visual and auditory stimulation, to make the subject have a physical instinctive rejection of violence and evil, so that every time the subject tries to take a violent behavior, the body will automatically stop it. Its behavior. This principle is reminiscent of Orwell's "stop of thinking" transformation mentioned in "1984", that is, when any idea against those in power arises, thinking will automatically stop it. However, "brodsky" therapy is different from "mind stop" in that it adopts "body" against "thinking", which is contrary to the practice of Descartes's "body/mind" dichotomy under the Christian tradition, in which the mind controls the body while letting the mind control the body. The body forms a Bourdieu-style "habitus" to control people's social behavior. The film’s fictional therapy seems absurd, but it keenly captures the medical tendency of punishment and expresses it in a surrealist way. It cannot but be said to be very profound.
(2) The issue of power. The so-called "medicalization of punishment" is actually a new form of power mechanism. Power no longer flaunts its majesty through ritual guillotines, but permeates every inch of our skin and every corner of our thoughts in every possible way, watching us, checking us, and dissecting us. The metaphor of "a clockwork orange" can well illustrate this characteristic of power. An orange controlled by a clockwork, like other oranges, has a yellow peel and a sweet and sour juice. It has all the material properties of any ordinary orange. However, he is controlled by a clockwork. This clockwork is directly connected to a huge social power machine. Isn’t every one of us citizens a clockwork orange? Alex is the biggest victim of the huge social power machine. As the writer said to Alex, A Victim of the modern age. He was born in a British working-class family. Sociologist Paul Willis once studied the adolescents born in British working-class families in the 1960s in the book "Learning to Labor". Their family backgrounds set huge cultural barriers for them to integrate into the "mainstream culture", and in the end they mostly grew into rebellious youths like Alex and his companions in "A Clockwork Orange". Alex's rebellion eventually put him in jail. He was finally selected to be the subject of an experiment, through treatment to modify his criminal tendency. However, the doctors and those in power are not concerned with Alex himself, but with the results of this experiment to expand his political support. But when he was released from prison and returned to society, the world had already lost his place. He was squeezed out by the family and beaten up by old beggars who had bullied him and his companions who framed him. In the end, the opposition writer who was previously interrupted by Alex used music to torture him and used him as a weapon against the ruling party, forcing him to "hawk into the sky" to death. However, he did not fall to death, lying quietly on the hospital bed to receive condolences from the Minister of the Interior. He defrauded him of a smiling face and a handshake to restore the voter approval rate lost by the ruling party. But who has really cared about Alex's life and death? All people care about their own political interests. When Alex appeared in front of the camera with a stiff face, we clearly saw a clockwork orange manipulated by a social power machine.
(3) The issue of freedom. Rousseau said that everyone is born free, but we are locked in heavy chains when we are born. How should a Clockwork Orange, imprisoned in a power machine, liberate itself? In the movie, the priest in the prison once opposed the "brodsky" therapy for prisoners, thinking that people are human because they can make choices. The new treatment deprives people of the right to choose, but forcibly injects a series of so-called "correct" standards of behavior into the human body. If the country can decide everything about you, then what is the difference between this and fascism. When the ambitious politicians and revolutionaries in the first half of the 20th century tried to create "new people" through the dictatorship of the state, what we saw was not eternal freedom and "goodness" being cultivated, but endless imprisonment. And the deprivation of freedom. The last scene of the movie is very meaningful. The Secretary of the Interior takes a fork and feeds Alex bit by bit while promising to give him the best medical care and high-paying job. A totalitarian country takes care of its citizens like a benevolent father. From the cradle to the grave, you don’t need to worry, everything is arranged for you. All you have to do is use your freedom to exchange everything. Someone will feed you bite by bite, but you can never walk on the ground.
Foucault said in "The Anti-Fascist Art of Life", "Don't be obsessed with power." It's a simple sentence, but it has a lot of meaning. In the article "What is Enlightenment", Foucault reviewed Kant's essay "What is Enlightenment" that has survived through the ages. Kant once believed that it was human cowardice and laziness that prevented humans from fully using reason. We need to use our own rationality and morals to constantly question the shackles imposed on us. Foucault has proved to us through his lifelong research that the abuse of Western rationality will only lead to the emergence of a certain fascist dictatorship. Human resistance and freedom will be swallowed up by the overflow of instrumental rationality. Our resistance has even become a strengthening of power. Important aspects of the mechanism. (See the first volume of "Sex History"). However, when we face this huge and cold steel cage, is it still possible to seek freedom? Foucault never provided us with a detailed program of action. However, he believes that as long as we still adhere to the critical spirit of Kant's constant questioning, and at the same time extend this questioning to all aspects of our lives, we still have the possibility of achieving freedom. "A Clockwork Orange" also failed to provide us with a way out of the prison. The surreal scene at the end of the movie makes people see more sadness: a group of well-dressed gentlemen and ladies are waiting on the roadside, in the snow, Alex and a blonde are in xxoo. The human libido is always hidden under the appearance of well-dressed clothes. It seems that human society can only have two ways out: Either become a world of animals that prey on the weak; or become a well-dressed power machine.
View more about A Clockwork Orange reviews
