"A Clockwork Orange" has taken on many identities in popular culture; from novelization to cinematic phenomena, it offers a universal reflection of philosophical insight. Following the “horrorshow” delinquency of Alex DeLarge and his gang of “droogs,” this allegorical fable details the pure torture at the root of the more invasive modern disciplinary approaches of the prison system. In metaphoric definition, the “clockwork orange” of Burgess’ dystopian London is representative of what the government’s disciplinary system attempts to turn Alex into: a programmable mechanism, thinly disguised with the vibrant outer layer of a living, breathing human being (Burgess, 25). Marking itself amongst a wider philosophical thought, famously helmed by Michel Foucault, Burgess’ novella breathes life into their mutually held belief of the inhumanity surrounding panopticism. In the rising age of the disciplinary society of surveillance, technology holds central relevance in this mutilation of humanity, turning instead to the psychological breakdown of the human person in order to make “normalized,” torpid reflections of themselves. Draining said “deviants” of the right to their own humanity (Foucault, DAP, 220).

The “clockwork” metaphor has long been a tradition of Western science, both physically and socially. Dreams of predicting and controlling human behavior, served as models for the nightmarish possibilities presented within both Foucault and Burgess’ works (Gehrke, 270). The punishment of modern societies is intended not merely to confine or isolate, but to control and normalize the deviant individual. The aims of this form of “rehabilitation” are increasingly (and dangerously) psychologically based, vying to normalize the deviant’s thoughts and behaviors in order to “help” them become a “normal,” “productive” member of society. This form of punishment is usually cited to be the more “humane” approach, while this psychological retooling is thought to be merely a consequence of enlightened prison reform (Foucault, DAP, 199-200). However, there is a question that must be asked, “At what cost?”

According to Foucault, this “gentler” modern prison reform uses far more invasive techniques of social control than any of the earlier, physical, pre-modern forms of punishment. It not only punishes the body, but also, controls the body and the mind. Therefore, in this way, the deviant is forced to become the statute of order that the institution wants them to be. Helping form, what Foucault refers to as the disciplinary society (Foucault, DAP, 217-218).

The disciplinary society was not intentionally constructed; it is simply the contingent historical product of various, independently developed “technologies” of power that just so happened to come together (Foucault, DAP, 217-218). The most notable of these being the disciplinary power, of which was aimed at keeping an individual under constant surveillance in order to not only control their behaviors, but to warp said fear of constant surveillance in order to “create” a more civil citizen (Foucault, TSAP, 191).

Disciplinary power serves as a form of social control aimed at the succeeding in the “normalization” of deviants in order to increase their productivity by vigorously controlling their behaviors through the use of knowledge, training, surveillance, examination, and normalizing judgment. This form of control roots itself within the realm of bio-politics—a politic of living actively concerning itself with intervening within human life, rendering it more “productive.” The disciplinary power uses this framework rather than simply allowing people to live their lives. Following the troubling trend of domination, using repression in order to control a population, all in the name of a more “productive” society (Foucault, TSAP, 191).

Burgess’ novella follows closely to Foucault’s highlighted principles. Alex’s narrative follows the constructions of Foucault’s understanding of the evolution of deviant discipline. From Alex’s role as gang leader to his stay at the psychological center to his eventual releasing back into the world as a “changed” man, Foucault’s philosophical ideas find prominent social audience (Gehrke, 274).

To begin, our most striking similarity lives in the parallel with Foucault’s comparisons between the staggering growth of the power within social control when one compares the pre-modern forms of physical punishment and that of the psychological. Foucault explains that before the modern prison system the method of dealing with deviancy was to exact pain upon the physical body. (Foucault, DAP, 3-6). Throughout the novella, Alex asserts himself with the use of violence. The entire opening of the narrative involves violence in order to reflect a sense of dominance, from Alex asserting himself as group leader to his gang’s eventual overpowering of him. These acts of violence work to display Foucault’s argument that physical power relations weren’t singularly defined, but instead required multiple confrontations. Despite Alex’s eventual loss, this helps mirror the affirmation that physical power exacted upon the body is not used in terms of claiming property, but strategy; that its effects of domination are not a form of “appropriation,” but instead of a perpetual battle of strategy. That the abuse of the body is not a sealed away conquest, that the tables may turn in returned physicality, allowing the ability for the abused to possibly break away from their bondage. Even if the abused may lose their returned attempt at confrontation, at least they never lose any actual bodily ownership (Gehrke, 274-275).

The shift begins when Alex is sentenced to a forty-year sentence and finds himself within a prison reminiscent to that of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, providing a very visceral representation of discipline as the control of the human machine (Foucault, DAP, 201). The tower at the center of the prison easily keeps all six wings under constant surveillance, creating the omniscient idea of control. Stripping Alex of his clothes, as well as his most noticeable form of identity— his name (Burgess, 86). Alex submits to and learns the detailed regime, reflecting what one may refer to as a model inmate. The domination places Alex in a position of submission, as his role of prisoner is continuously pressed upon him by the guards and wardens, the intended violence to result in the circumstance of retaliation is made exceedingly clear by the placing of themselves above in rank. However, Burgess challenges this form of panopticism upon Alex, relating it to be merely physical, hardly psychological. While physically he obeys all that is required of him in prison uniformity, he can still play and recount his violent and sexual desires in the confines of his own mind (Gehrke, 277). He escapes the panoptic gaze through his imagination, where he can continue to be passionately engaged in his violent work (Burgess, 88-90). In the strict prison system, Alex demonstrates that resistance is possible (Gehrke, 277).

However, it is when Burgess builds upon the extremities of Foucault’s vision of the disciplinary society that we see the psychological consequence. The shifting of the “traditional” prison model to the medical model in the form of the Ludovico Technique, is what will send Alex over the edge and truly illustrates the intent behind Foucault’s argument against evasive tactics in prisoner reformation. This shift serves as a parallel to the trends of medicine being implemented towards the diminishing of deviancy and crime. Foucault explains that in the twentieth century there came to be a belief that to solve crimes, there was a requirement to first solve the psychology of crime (Foucault, DAP, 251-252). Burgess imagines the failure not only of the “traditional” prison system, but that of the basic psychological methods as well. Foucault’s original thesis surrounded that of the panopticon and the ability to create power through the taking over of the mind by ways of observation. However, Foucault’s ideas are heightened and pulled to their extremity through the lens of Burgess’ bio-political dystopian London-- these original tools of preventing deviances have been further developed by doctors and policy makers from the lens of deviancy and crime serving as psychological disturbances in need of “curing.” (Gehrke, 277)

The doctors treat Alex like a child, coddling him—bringing him his meals and speaking to him in reassuring utterances. The treatment facility is a far cry from the tower at the center of the prison yard. However, the Ludovico Technique itself is what sets off Alex’s psychological unhinging. The doctors strap Alex to a chair on a daily basis, forcing his eyes open in order to continually watch video depictions of violence and sexual misconduct for hours on end, while a drug is administered to him, causing him to feel horribly ill whenever the images come across the screen (Burgess, 109-118). The Ludivico serves as a fictional form of aversion therapy— putting Alex’s body through an illness so great he wishes for death. Conditioning him so thoroughly to the point where, drugs or no drugs, any sight of criminality physically pains him. Forcing Alex into the mold of a “model” citizen, painting him out to be a “productive” member of society, when in truth he has been so alienated from his own humanity, he can’t even listen to his beloved Beethoven (Burgess, 127-128).

Alex’s whole persona is painted over in order to create a government tool— stripping him of the natural right of free will. In turn, making him a victim to all those who find him at their disposal of revenge. He can no longer protect himself, let alone resituate himself to the “pre-modern” deviant correction of violence. He becomes a slave. Alex is no longer a subject who acts with and upon others, but instead is an object for others to act upon. Alex is now a pawn, manipulated by the sciences and the state in the name of peace and public safety (Gehrke, 278-279). So psychologically tortured he attempts to take his own life by the novella’s end (Burgess, 188).

Merely drained of his humanity for the “greater good,” Alex’s fictional treatment poses itself as a warning to modern science. Forcing state as well as the medical field to look at the ethical consequence of stripping humanity of their natural born right of free will. Burgess uses literature to pose Foucault’s philosophical argument to the masses of popular media. Begging the question of the true inhuman nature of our modern prison constructs.