Paul-Michel Foucault was born on October 15, 1926, in Poitiers, the son of a respected family of doctors, and died on June 25, 1984, due to an HIV infection. After completing his schooling in Poitiers, he studied philosophy and psychology in Paris. In 1952, he began his professional career as a psychology assistant at the Faculty of Humanities in Lille. In 1955, he was a lecturer at Uppsala University in Sweden. After holding directorships at institutes in Warsaw and Hamburg from 1958 to 1959, he returned to France in 1960, where he worked as a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of Clermont-Ferrand until 1966. During this time, his dissertation "Folie et déraison," which is titled "Madness and Society" in English, was published in 1961. In it, he examined the history of madness and the emergence of a distinction between mental health and illness, as well as the associated social mechanisms. In 1965 and 1966, he was a member of the Fouchet Commission, appointed by the government to reform the higher education system. In 1966, "Les mots et les choses - Une archéologie des sciences humaines" was published, which was translated as "The Order of Things," in which he analyzed the history of science from the Renaissance to the 19th century using his discourse analytical method. After a period as a visiting professor in Tunis from 1965 to 1968, he worked at the reform university Vincennes from 1968 to 1970. In 1970, he became a professor of the history of systems of thought at the prestigious Collège de France. At the same time, he gained attention for his diverse political engagement. In this context, the study "Surveiller et punir," or "Discipline and Punish," was created. From 1975 to 1982, he traveled to Berkeley, Japan, Iran, and Poland.

Foucault's main interest lies in exploring the polymorphous techniques of power.