Abnormal. A course of lectures delivered at the Collège de France in the 1974/75 academic year

The course of the 1974/75 academic year "Abnormal" coincides with one of the peaks of Foucault's research activity and reflects a shift in the main direction of his scientific interests from the archaeology of discursive formations to the genealogy of the dispositifs of knowledge and power. Using 19th-century forensic psychiatric examinations and texts related to the practice of post-reform Catholic confession as primary materials, the philosopher discusses the formation of a new – normalizing – power. The notion of normal and abnormal individuals is placed by him at the center of the history of normalizing knowledge, which arises in early psychiatry and gives rise to the concept of sexuality. Foucault explores the formation of this concept within the framework of the medicalization of childhood and analyzes the procedure of recognition in Catholic pastoral care, thus paving the way for his last book – "The Confessions of the Flesh." The course allows us to trace the movement of Foucault's thought at the intersection of several historical and philosophical paths and at the same time serves as an example of insightful and witty scientific prose.