ABSTRACT
In this interview Michel Foucault discusses the “perverse effects” of the social security system in France. He describes this phenomenon as producing both an attack on autonomy and institutional dependency through either integration or marginalization. Foucault speaks here about the issue of the right to “health” and the regulatory criteria used to establish the norm from which this “rational” economy of protection is carried out. In this context Foucault examines the meaning of the word “subjected” in the discourse of social security. The problem raised by this system is the value of life and the ways in which one confronts an infinite demand. This interview was conducted by Robert Bono; it was published under the title “A Finite Security System Confronting an Infinite Demand” as an appendix to the collective work (with the CFDT) Sécurité sociale: l’enjeu (Paris: Syros, 1983). The translation is by Alan Sheridan.
