the Great Confinement
E642617
Foucauldian concept
concept in social theory
concept in the history of psychiatry
historical concept
The Great Confinement is Michel Foucault’s term for the early modern European practice of mass institutionalization of the poor, mad, and socially deviant, which he interprets as a key moment in the historical construction of madness and social control.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| the Great Confinement canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7109294 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the Great Confinement Context triple: [Madness and Civilization, centralConcept, the Great Confinement]
-
A.
The Prison
The Prison is a distinctive rock formation within the Quiraing landslip on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, known for its dramatic, fortress-like appearance.
-
B.
The Captive
"The Captive" is a lesser-known Gothic work by English novelist and dramatist Matthew Gregory Lewis, best remembered for his sensational horror style exemplified in "The Monk."
-
C.
The Captive
The Captive is a controversial 1926 Broadway play, adapted from Édouard Bourdet’s French drama, that became historically significant for its early depiction of lesbian themes and the resulting censorship battles.
-
D.
The Forgotten Prisoners
The Forgotten Prisoners is a landmark 1961 article by Peter Benenson that exposed the plight of political prisoners worldwide and led to the founding of Amnesty International.
-
E.
The Barrier
The Barrier is a massive Antarctic ice formation historically known as a formidable obstacle to early polar exploration.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the Great Confinement Target entity description: The Great Confinement is Michel Foucault’s term for the early modern European practice of mass institutionalization of the poor, mad, and socially deviant, which he interprets as a key moment in the historical construction of madness and social control.
-
A.
The Prison
The Prison is a distinctive rock formation within the Quiraing landslip on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, known for its dramatic, fortress-like appearance.
-
B.
The Captive
"The Captive" is a lesser-known Gothic work by English novelist and dramatist Matthew Gregory Lewis, best remembered for his sensational horror style exemplified in "The Monk."
-
C.
The Captive
The Captive is a controversial 1926 Broadway play, adapted from Édouard Bourdet’s French drama, that became historically significant for its early depiction of lesbian themes and the resulting censorship battles.
-
D.
The Forgotten Prisoners
The Forgotten Prisoners is a landmark 1961 article by Peter Benenson that exposed the plight of political prisoners worldwide and led to the founding of Amnesty International.
-
E.
The Barrier
The Barrier is a massive Antarctic ice formation historically known as a formidable obstacle to early polar exploration.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Foucauldian concept
ⓘ
concept in social theory ⓘ concept in the history of psychiatry ⓘ historical concept ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
absolutist state formation
ⓘ
classical age of reason ⓘ moral discipline of populations ⓘ regulation of labor ⓘ urbanization in early modern Europe ⓘ |
| carriedOutIn |
charitable hospitals
ⓘ
houses of correction ⓘ hôpitaux généraux ⓘ workhouses ⓘ |
| coinedBy | Michel Foucault ⓘ |
| contrastedWith | medico-psychiatric model of mental illness ⓘ |
| describedIn |
Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique
ⓘ
linked to:
Madness and Civilization
Madness and Civilization ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
boundary between reason and unreason
ⓘ
exclusion of unreason ⓘ |
| geographicScope |
England
ⓘ
France ⓘ Western Europe ⓘ other European states ⓘ |
| interpretedAs |
key moment in the historical construction of madness
ⓘ
mechanism of social control ⓘ response to idleness ⓘ response to poverty ⓘ response to social deviance ⓘ |
| involves |
internment of beggars
ⓘ
internment of prostitutes ⓘ internment of socially deviant people ⓘ internment of the mad ⓘ internment of the poor ⓘ internment of unemployed people ⓘ internment of vagrants ⓘ mass institutionalization ⓘ |
| precedes |
emergence of modern psychiatry
ⓘ
medicalization of madness ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
bourgeois moral order
ⓘ
classical age rationality ⓘ history of madness ⓘ history of psychiatry ⓘ history of social control ⓘ rise of disciplinary institutions ⓘ |
| startCentury | 17th century ⓘ |
| theoreticalFramework |
Foucauldian archaeology of knowledge
ⓘ
genealogical analysis ⓘ |
| timePeriod | early modern Europe ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: the Great Confinement Description of subject: The Great Confinement is Michel Foucault’s term for the early modern European practice of mass institutionalization of the poor, mad, and socially deviant, which he interprets as a key moment in the historical construction of madness and social control.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.