Michel Foucault and the Cultivation of the Self

A detailed Summary of Michel Foucault and the Cultivation of the Self

Michel Foucault: The Cultivation of the Self

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) spent much of the later part of his studies on the idea of the care of the self and cultivation of the self. He defined such care as using one's own reason to ascertain who one is and how he can be his best. Foucault takes several perspectives on this theme, from medical to phenomenological, to develop his focus on finding out who one is, the goal of the care of the self. Human's failure to attain and nurture this self results in the decay of this self.

Foucault saw his writings on this and other concepts as part of a philosophy known as the art of living. The art of living in this sense means one whose main purpose is to be like no one else. As such, he felt he was directly useful to the public because he created new possibilities for life. His care for his own self allowed for the possibility that he could aid others in doing the same. He was trying to develop a way for one to work on himself, which would let one "invent a way of being that is still improbable". Foucault did not address himself to a broad audience; rather, he used his project of the are of the self as a model for oppressed minorities who had no voice of their own.

"From within language experienced and transversed as language, in the play of its possibilities extended to their farthest point, what emerges is that man has 'come to an end', and that, by reaching the summit of all possible speech, he arrives not at the very heart of himself but at the brink of that which limits him; in that region where death prowls, where thought is extinguished, where the promise of the origin interminably recedes."

Despite the difference they present the common goal of the self-directed practices of the principle of conversion to self. In the activities, one must remember the chief objective one should set for oneself: to be sought within oneself in the relation of oneself, which should not be dispelled by idle curiosity. In escaping all the obstacles, this conversion also serves as a path by which one rejoins him.

Foucault takes a medical perspective on this practice of the self. He implies that one should regard himself as not only imperfect, ignorant, and requiring correction and training, but also as one who suffers certain maladies that need to be competently treated. For Foucault, everyone must discover that he is in a state of need, that he needs assistance. The biological diseases are apparent through physical suffering. In contrast, "diseases of the soul" can go undetected for quite a while; they pass unnoticed and even blind those afflicted by them. A "health practice", constituted by everyday life, makes it possible to know all the time what was to be done and how to do it. It implied a medical perception of the space and circumstances in which one lived. Foucault goes on to state that a certain change in one's environment may have ill effects on the body because one would imagine an entire web of obstructions between the individual and his environment. Medicine was framed by an overall context of concern for the body, health, circumstances, and environment.

The other premise is that suspicion of change, of progress; every advancement had to be bought. His project, however, was essentially individualistic in that he did not adhere to change and rather rejected it. For many years he regarded change (something radically new) with suspicion.

The cultivation of the self begs a more general question in order to explain some diverse phenomena. Foucault felt the need to distinguish three things: a) the individualistic attitude, the degree to which an individual is independent of his social and institutional groups, as well as the absolute value given to him in his singularity; b) the positive valuation of private life, the emphasis placed on familial and domestic relations; and

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Approximate Word count = 1776
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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