Michel Foucault

About the author

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) stands as one of the most influential French thinkers of the twentieth century, whose work reshaped how scholars across disciplines understand power, knowledge, and social control. Born in Poitiers into an upper-middle-class family, he studied philosophy and psychology at the École Normale Supérieure and the Sorbonne, coming under the influence of Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser. His major works — including The History of Madness, The Birth of the Clinic, and The Order of Things — transformed fields from criminology and feminism to cultural studies and critical theory.