Michel Foucault
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Michel Foucault (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian, known for such works as Madness and Civilization and The History of Sexuality.
He held a chair at the Collège de France, giving it the title "The History of Thought Systems" and taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1975 until his death in 1984. He is known for his critical studies of various social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, education and the prison system, as well as his work on the history of sexuality. His work concerning power, the relationship between power and knowledge and "discourse" in relation to the history of Western thought, has been widely discussed and applied.
His work is often described as postmodernist or post-structuralist by commentators and critics, although he was more often associated with the structuralist movement during the 1960s. He was initially happy with this description, although he later distanced himself from structuralism and always rejected the 'post-structuralist' and 'postmodernist' labels.