Foucault’s work explored how institutions (like prisons, hospitals, and asylums) and discourses shape our understanding of normality, madness, sexuality, and identity. He famously examined the ways in which power operates not just through laws and governments but through everyday practices and systems of knowledge.

 

Some of his most important works include Madness and Civilization, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality. Foucault challenged the idea of objective truth, emphasizing instead that truth is produced within relations of power.

 

His thought encourages us to question how our society defines what is “normal,” who holds authority, and how historical contexts shape our ways of thinking.