From biopolicy to psychopolitics: The subject and the opinion of power in Byung Chul Han

The subject, which is the smallest building block that creates the social structure, and the power mechanism that makes the state functional, which is the strongest structure that regulates the life processes of the whole of subjects, is undoubtedly one of the most basic study subjects of social sciences. Michel Foucault and Byung Chul Han; They are thinkers who have taken an important place in social and political sciences, interpreting the era they live in, in particular notions such as the individual, power, political tools, and the policies of power. Biopolitics and psychopolitics, which form the backbone of their arguments, are political tools that belong to the thinkers' own terminology, and will also enable us to examine the transformations we have experienced from the 17th century to our time in the context of political and social theory. This thesis study has been prepared by considering the arguments, theories and literature studies of two different thinkers and carries out the comparison of two different periods through the subject and power correlation. The same correlations of these different periods exhibit quite radical transformations in the flow of the thesis. While implementing the disciplinary power model policies of Michel Foucault through the biological life processes of the subject, namely his body; On the other hand, the neoliberal power that Han draws its analytics from, carries out its policies through the spirit, interiority, that is, the psychic of the subject. Power in both different periods; It has transformed into a form that exerts dominance over the subject, uses its power openly or secretly, sacrificing some basic principles in order to preserve the legitimacy of its own structure and to ensure profit maximization in every space and condition. These specific transformations that emerged from the period Foucault began to observe to our age, namely Han's observations, create quite pathological effects on the subject and reflect the manifestation of a social disintegration.