Foucault’s core insight: power and knowledge are not separate—each produces the other in a continuous loop.
“Truths” (often inaccurate, partial, or constructed) become instruments of power by defining what counts as normal, sane, criminal, or desirable. These truths shape subjects, discipline bodies, and regulate behavior.
Yet power depends on them for legitimacy and effectiveness; without accepted “truths,” coercion alone falters. Lies, myths, or provisional knowledges sustain domination precisely because they are believed—or at least acted upon.