The History of Sexuality : The Care of the Self (History of Sexuality)

Rating:
Summary: The End of an Era
Review: Introduction
The third and last volume Le Souci de soi or The Care of the Self M. Foucault's history progresses to ancient Rome. In the middle of all the "sexual discourse," M. Foucault does have some fascinating things to say concerning "the culture of the self." M. Foucault sketches the emergence of subjectivity -- how it evolved into an mindset, a way of behaving and set all over ways of living. Foucault considers how society develops and inculcates through techniques of objectification. Sex became a social practice within the realm subjectivity that gives rise to inter-individual relations. These exchanges and communications would at times become an occasion to create social institutions.

The Final Piece
In May 1984 M. Foucault delivers this Le Souci de soi or The Care of the Self, the final manuscript (of the third volume of his history of sexuality) to his publisher Gallimard. Two weeks later, on June 2, he collapsed and was hospitalized. For two years he had found himself suffering from frequent semi-debilitating illnesses. M. Foucault had AIDS. The end was sudden; on June 25 M. Foucault died. Along with the rest of the losses -- a brilliant thinker -- was the planned series of either 5 or 6 books relating to the history of sexuality. Le Souci de soi or The Care of the Self was to be the last. His funeral attracted hundreds of mourners. These included celebrities from all sectors of Parisian cultural life, many of who were deeply moved. Didier Eribon recalls this in his fine biography "Michel Foucault" (Also available on Amazon.com and I highly recommend it as well):

"Le Monde carried an article by Pierre Bourdieu on its front page. 'There is nothing more dangerous,' wrote Bourdieu, 'than to reduce a philosophy, especially one so subtle, complex, and perverse, to a textbook formula. Nonetheless, I would say that Foucault's work is a long exploration of transgression, of going beyond social limits, always inseparably linked to knowledge and power.' The sociologist ended with these words: 'I would have liked to have said this better -- this thought that was so bent on conquering a self-mastery, that is, mastery of its history, the history of categories of thought, the history of the will and desires. And also this concern for rigor, this refusal of opportunism in knowledge as well as in practice, in the techniques of life as well as in the political choices that make Foucault an irreplaceable figure.' Inside were two pages filled with testimonials and analyses; here Veyne discussed the work of his lost friend: 'Foucault's work seems to me to be the most important event of thought in our century.'" (Eribon, 1991: 328)

Despite thorny intellectual disputations, M. Foucault was a compassionate character. Several colleagues looked upon him as a special accomplice. New researchers like myself simply see him as an inspiration and portal to new spaces of thought. The sad irony of this piece, Le Souci de soi or The Care of the Self is that it stands as the bookend of one of the greatest of his already vast oeuvre.

Conclusion
Last few comments on Le Souci de soi or The Care of the Self: Foucault brilliantly brings to light the previously unexamined assumptions and hidden undercurrents and structures as well as techniques of the past. This book is no exception. However, as a caution, The Care of the Self shares with the inspirations that it draws from a sense of coherence. The arguments are artfully constructed but the book seems to fall short in places. Foucault seems oblivious of the ordinary folk he seems to be describing. It all seems to revolve around the elite -- the philosophers and literati of that Greco-Roman era. It falls short in the examination of the every day. As if pontificating from a distance, the master of the "gaze" peers into the past and sometimes fails to break through the veil. Foucault's interest in sexuality is based also on solipsistic examination. Greeks and Romans were far less interested in sex in relations of right and wrong. Both Greeks and Romans were interested rather in how to put sexuality to use in order to achieve a healthy balance. "The Care of the Self" is far softer than "The History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction" and less technical than "The Use of Pleasure" (both also available on Amazon.com). Foucault writes concerning the "problematization" of sex and the growing vilification of sex, which will have its effects up to the present day. This is where the book is its most powerful -- Foucault is one of those thinkers whose work sheds light and brings to presence our modern day dilemmas. We can learn much from him.

Miguel Llora

Rating:
Summary: Exposes the Seeds of Contemporary Practice
Review: This is my favorite volume in The History of Sexuality. In The Care of the Self, Foucault traces the shift towards a greater concern over sexual praxis which initiated a more severe ethical code from the one found in the Greek antiquity of his The Use of Pleasure. It is here that Foucault shows us the seeds of moral anxiety that would permeate later Christian sexual ethics. However, Foucault makes clear that this is not the sexuality found in the Christian era--there are still several substantial differences.

So what is the nature of the changes presented in this volume? First is the newfound and pivotal concern for the self nearly absent in the writing examined in the preceding volume. The Greeks seemed concerned for the self only insomuch as an untamed, desirous self would have no right to rule over others within the domestic or political sphere (Use 70-72). These political conceptions of the good, moderate citizen, in conjunction with any special birthrights, were to dominate the life of the individual men (I use this word literally) who would make up a Greek city (Use 72). But within the first two centuries of our own era, there was a new concern for the self and a general disconnection of its relation to the political sphere (Care 67-68). It was through the care of the self that one would discover how to relate to the political realm, and this would be regardless of class strata or other "external" difference (Care 87-94). In many ways, the development of more personal practices of the self would more definitely shape the greater moral code--this code would be more relativized, more individualized.

But this would certainly not mean that men could absolutely develop their own ethical code without regard to the discursive features of the period. It was not absolutely relative to the individual in question. The second theme, thus, was a shift in emphasis in practices related to the body, boys and marriage. In all of these realms, there was an increasing idea of the frailty of the fiber--morally and physically--of the self. For instance, the Greek's valorization of sexual moderation shifted nearly to idealization of sexual abstinence in Roman writings (122). What was once an anxiety over the effects of too much sexual activity became an anxiety over sexual pleasure generally--due very visibly to the new emphasis on the care of the self for the self's own sake (123).

Within this thematic of shifting values the question of marriage and of relations with young men was re-cast. Marriage became a much more personal institution; the idea of love, mutual care and fidelity began to dominate discourse on marriage. Where before the husband was not expected to have sexual relations exclusively with his wife (Use 180), it was now a weakness if he did not (Care 175). Marriage was idealized as the most perfect, most complete formulation for sexual relation. Therefore, Foucault writes, when the love of young men was posed, it would often be contrasted with this more "perfect" marital relation and held against a valorization of intentional virginity--ideally meant until the more excellent marital union might be realized (228-32). The love of young men became a weakness of the self in this ideational restructuring.

This is perhaps where I would call into question Foucault's hermeneutical method. While he makes it very clear that he is only analyzing an elite medico-philosophical discourse from the period (235), he does not mention exactly what this means: what he is leaving out. Martial's Epigrams, for instance, was a contemporaneous personal exposition into as many sexual acts and practices as one might imagine. Further, Garland's poetry from the same period speaks of a love for a boy held above any other love one might find in the earthly realm. Foucault can only (albeit convincingly) speculate that the early Roman discourse he is uncovering matriculated into the formation of the Christian Roman Empire (235), and that it was not, for instance, an inconsequential reaction to the varied "decadences" one might find in these other literary works. There is simply not a lot of methodological certainty about why or how this elite and small conversation between philosophers and medics diffused itself so completely into the later empire.

Nonetheless, I still think that this is the most exciting volume of Foucault's history. Its presentation is more complex and subtle then the almost schematically frigid The Use of Pleasure, and its articulation is more intentional and deliberate than the broad strokes of the Introduction. Moreover, this volume, I believe, shows us the very first seeds of the discourse that would eventually insist on an essential sexuality revelatory of the truth of the self: the idea of sexuality we all live with today.