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Foucault - The Key Ideas: Foucault’s personal life

By Paul Oliver

Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers, France, in 1926. His father was a doctor, and the Foucault family were, in material terms, secure and had a fairly comfortable middle class existence. During World War II, Foucault was a teenager in Poitiers, and this must have been a time of uncertainty and some anxiety for him. His parents expected Michel to follow in his father’s footsteps and to become a surgeon.

However, he wanted to pursue an academic career, and expressed a wish to attend the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris. Foucault was eventually successful in obtaining a place at the Ecole normale and studied philosophy. During his undergraduate period, his developing homosexuality became evident. It was also during this time that he was under psychiatric treatment for a period. He was known as a brilliant student and after graduation obtained a number of academic and cultural posts both in France and overseas. His books gained him a growing reputation. He became known in particular for his studies of the way in which knowledge in various fields changed throughout history. He eventually became a professor at the prestigious Collège de France. In later life, he was a visiting professor at the University of California, and participated in the gay scene in the United States. He died of a complex of illnesses related to AIDS in Paris in 1984.

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