In this remarkable book Michel Foucault, one of the most influential thinkers of recent times, calls us to look critically at specific historical events in order to uncover new layers of significance. In doing so, he challenges our assumptions not only about history, but also about the nature of language and reason, even of truth. By analyzing the methods of observation that underpinned the origins of modern medical techniques, Foucault is able to identify "that opening up of the concrete individual, for the first time in Western history, to the language of rationality, that major event in the relationship of man to himself and of language to things." The scope of such an undertaking is vast, but it is Foucault's skill that, by means of his uniquely engaging narrative style, his penetrating gaze is able to confront our own. After reading his words our perceptions are never quite the same again.

米歇尔·福柯（1926-1984）出生于法国维埃纳省省会普瓦捷。曾任里尔大学助教、瑞典乌普萨拉大学法语教师、波兰华沙大学法国文化中心主任、突尼斯大学哲学教授，1972年就任法兰西学院思想体系史教授。福柯对包括精神病学、疯癫史、性、临床医学等在内的人文科学诸领域进行了广告而卓越的研究，他的著何作如《精神病与人格》、《词与物》、《疯癫史》、《性史》、《临床医学的诞生》等对于当代人文科学的研究都有着巨大的国际影响。