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.

米歇爾·福柯（1926-1984）齣生於法國維埃納省省會普瓦捷。曾任裏爾大學助教、瑞典烏普薩拉大學法語教師、波蘭華沙大學法國文化中心主任、突尼斯大學哲學教授，1972年就任法蘭西學院思想體係史教授。福柯對包括精神病學、瘋癲史、性、臨床醫學等在內的人文科學諸領域進行瞭廣告而卓越的研究，他的著何作如《精神病與人格》、《詞與物》、《瘋癲史》、《性史》、《臨床醫學的誕生》等對於當代人文科學的研究都有著巨大的國際影響。