The essence of Foucault's ideas on the subject, is that "far from being a source of meaning, the subject is in fact a secondary or byproduct of discursive formations." This is, for Foucault, where power is to be located. The traditionally held viewpoint that human bein

"Do the workings of power, and in particular those mechanisms that are brought into play in societies such as ours, really belong primarily to the category of repression? Are prohibition, censorship, and denial truly the forms through which power is exercised in a general way, if not in every society, most certainly in our own?"

· L. McNay, Foucault: A Critical Introduction, Polity, 1996

"Love your liberty, which you have when you can act and do so. Take care of yourself; know 'yourself' by transgressing your limits; practise liberty."

"But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act."

gs are possessed of a universal and essential being, and the manifestations of this presupposition throughout numerous political, ethical, social, religious standpoints, is merely one example of the power exerted through discourse, through language:

From this basic ideal stems the Greeks' ideas concerning sexual conduct, which, unlike those of Christianity, serve the purpose of caring for one's own self rather than the demands of an external deity. In fact, it is interesting to note that the Greeks "...were not much interested in sex. It was not a great issue. Compare, for example, what they say about the place of food and diet..." Sex, like food, in ancient Greek society, was considered a force liable to become excessive and domineering. Homosexual love was also considered liable to become problematic, but, in accordance with the principle of 'take care of yourself,' it was that excessive behaviour in this area was likely to promote the spread of disease, the detriment of the body and the pollution of the beautiful, and although permitted "...the practise of aphrodisia was not something that honoured the most noble qualities of mankind." Socrates, for example, was proud to abstain from all sexual activity, and widely regarded by his contemporaries for it. While sexual activity, both hetro- and homosexual, was widely practised, the philosophers of ancient Greece concentrated on developing an ethics of abstention. In Foucault's words, unlike modern morality, "The moral reflection of the Greeks on sexual behaviour did not seek to justify interdictions, but to stylise a freedom - that freedom which the 'free' man exercised in his activity." The tactics of the Greek philosophers is something Foucault considers important in developing in contemporary society - a theme which I shall return to in conclusion.

On a social level then, prohibition and censorship in discourse had necessarily to be accompanied by a release, a discourse which offered transgression from everyday morality. The confession had a central role in creating, and thereby controlling, sexual identity. In the twentieth century, confession is manifested through psychoanalysis, psychotherapy; the overwhelming desire to 'confess' is illustrated no more clearly than by the immense popularity of television programmes such as the "Vanessa," or "Ophra," or "Ricki Lake" shows both in the UK and the United States, where ordinary members of the public share their personal relationship problems, which often involve matters of sexuality, with an audience of millions. 'Lifestyle' magazines, of both the male and female variety, (and especially those aimed at younger generations) consist primarily, and are sold mostly upon, their revelations by average men and women of sexual fantasies, fetishes, perversions. The cult too of the 'problem page' allows an interaction between readers nation- or world-wide and represents confession on a grand scale. "Western man," says Foucault, "has become a confessing animal." The ideology behind such phenomena believes this type of confession to be somehow intrinsically 'liberating'. Foucault would disagree. These discourses, these transgressions, share t

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