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Foucault, Michel. "Abnormal. Lectures at the College de France 1974 - 1975". Verso, London, New York, 2003. Hbk xxvi, 374pp, notes, indicies. £25.00 ISBN 1-85984-539-8

I was extremely pleased to be able to read and review this book as it represents additional information for those of us who are both interested in Foucault's intellectual development and the themes he discusses in his books. This book collects lectures given by Michel Foucault during his tenure at the College de France and are both a useful record of those lectures and give us additional insights into how he assembled his thoughts around the major themes of the body, sexuality, madness, prison, medicine and power (both secular and clerical.)

A great deal of care has been taken to ensure that these are faithful to the spirit of the lectures but the editors have wisely removed and corrected the transcriptions to make this a proper "book" as opposed to pure transcription. This does not, however, sanitise Foucault's words or remove the rhetorical flourishes or humourous asides. Indeed, it proves what an impish sense of humour Foucault had and helps show why these lectures were so popular.

As for the subject matter, short of summarising each of the eleven weekly lectures in turn, is actually quite difficult and they are quite breathtaking in their scope. For those familar with his work these represent the ground between the earlier "Madness and Civilisation", "Discipline and Punish" and "The Order of Things" and the later books themed around the History of Sexuality and are contemporary with the books about Pierre Riviere and Herculine Barbin. 

Foucault does not, in these lectures, take us on a philosophical journey through the definitions of  the term "abnormal", but rather by means of various strands - psychiatric, medical, legal, religious and so forth, shows how the category of the abnormal individual (in particular, but not exclusively, within France) came to created from various power / knowledge structures and processes. Thus he describes and analyses the transition of a society which focused on the "monster" or King Kong as he describes him in the 18th century, someone who defies through both body and action, neat classification in medical and legal terms through a variety of legal - medical - psychiatric changes, as illustrated by key cases and texts, to the abnormal individual, or "Tom Thumb" with his panoply of various syndromes, conditions and so forth.

One of the key changes he seizes upon is the problematization of masturbation. Here he goes back into the religious prohibitions and sins from medieval Christianity, describes the various changes that the Church (and Foucault deals mainly with Catholicism here, rather than the morass of Protestant churches, France being mainly, but by no means exclusively, a Catholic country) produced in its approach to masturbation and how this eventually fed into the eighteenth century where the first secular descriptions of onanism are published, resulting eventually in both in technologies for its suppression (weird mechanical devices) (no rampant rabbits here!) and procedures for its surveillance within an increasingly nucleated family.

One aspect that will appeal to those of a Fortean temper, is his discussion as to the transition from witchcraft, through possession to visions. I'm not too sure I'd agree with his neat systematisation of these related subjects as they seem to run in parallel rather than succeed each other chronologically, although I'd agree with his comment about them representing different relations of power / knowledge. Like much of the book there is a lot here to digest and understand, and I suspect it will take a couple of readings to get to grips with it all. It's not so much the terminology or the way he talks about the subjects that is the problem, more a question of these being by way of reports of investigations and theorisations "in progress" being briefly summarised for a live audience. They were probably more fun to listen to than to read, but how many came away properly understanding what "the great master" had spoken we shall never know!

The lectures, as printed, are in quite easily digestible chunks, so this book would make an excellent starting point for those interested in these subjects who have yet to tackle Foucault's books. And for those who have tackled them then this will be an essential addition to the library, although whether that is public or private will, of course, depend on your finances. The notes make for somewhat alarming reading for those of us who haven't been keeping up to date with the latest volumes of Foucault's texts, as it seems the Foucault industry is showing no signs of drying up just yet, especially as the French editions of his dits and ecrits appear to have numerous pieces that have yet to be published in English.

Recommended if you're interested in the genealogy of power and in micro-politics, and religion, and medical and legal history.

8/10

Richard Alexander