Foucault's "Panopticism"

Foucault talks about the Panopticon as a machine for seeing/being seen. This is a machine that works on the basis that one party is able to see the other party at all times while the other whose "seeing" is a type of trap is able to be seen at all times. Foucault mentions that "it is a way of making power relations function in a function, and of making a function function through these power relations" (207). This is a type of self-enclosed mechanism based on the ability to see versus being seen. Foucault mentions that this Panopticon idea relates to other social structures such as hospitals and schools, not just prisons. So, how does this relate to the autobiographical impulse? When describing oneself in an autobiography or autobiographically, is not that person functioning as the one who sees (himself/herself)? Also, as we have discussed in class, when writing about oneself, there is the intention of an audience. Therefore, the autobiographical self is also the one who is seen. On another level, the idea of being seen and exposed might lead one to conform to societal pressures. This influences the way in which one communicates about oneself - not just the way one chooses to describe the self, but also what one chooses to cut or add in or elaborate on about the self.