A review by jilltxt
Passion of Michel Foucault by James Miller

4.0

Well. I'm a lot more skeptical about Foucault and his theories after reading this. His draw towards death, torture, limit-experiences, sado-masochism and violence was, well, if true (and it seems to match other accounts) disturbing, as are many of his actions and statements. It's not the consensual sado-masochistic sex in San Francisco bath houses that upsets me (although statements he made that suggest he knew he had HIV while continuing to have unprotected sex are worrying, but who knows) it's his lust for violent revolution, his arguments for violence instead of law during said revolution, his arguments that adults should be allowed to have sex with 12-year-olds because of the children's right to autonomy, his hiring of his lover instead of a better-qualified woman because "we don't like old maids" or his argument that being raped is no worse than being punched in the face. I mean, I read and was shocked at but also sort of philosophically moved by those awful descriptions of torture in Discipline and Punish, but this man also taught a whole university course on a murderer who brutally killed his own mother and siblings to "set his father free". There is literally no way I would be able to think the way Foucault thought. And that confuses me since I've read and enjoyed much of his work since I was an undergrad, and I still use his ideas in my own research. Should I? Maybe not. I'm glad I've read this book but not entirely sure what I'll do with my new knowledge about the researcher who is LITERALLY the most cited man in the world.