10 Philosophy Books 4 Your Perusal (Pt 8): The Care of the Self

Michelle Foucault

The History of Sexuality, Vol. 3: The Care of the Self 

Ethics. Identity. Selfhood. Self-Discipline. Discourse. That’s how you could sum up the latter part of Foucault’s project, if of course you could sum up Foucault's opus. However, like any good philosopher's works, you just can't sum it up. It is always being put to new and different uses. (Which reminds me of the old quote: "The history of philosophy is just one long footnote to Plato.")

Plus, reading Foucault can sometimes make your head do this.

Anyway, once interested in the genealogy of society, madness, and order, Foucault moved on to the development of the subject, a.k.a. the person, a.k.a. the human individual. It is in The History of Sexuality, Vol. 3: The Care of the Self that Foucault seriously delves into how discourses make us and how we use discourses to make our “selves.” 

Foucault contended that technologies of the self must be comprehended as inextricably connected to his notion of governmentality: the guiding rationales individuals and social structures use to regulate and police norms of thought and behavior. Foucault endeavored to show how the modern sovereign state and the modern autonomous individual co-determine each other’s emergence.

While Foucault was particularly interested in sexuality and the discourses surrounding sexuality and sexual identity his work has been influential in psychology, theology, gender studies, organizational communication. We will talk about some of those later. First, however, some of Michel.

“As a context, we must understand that there are four major types of these "technologies," each a matrix of practical reason: (1) technologies of production, which permit us to produce, transform, or manipulate things; (2) technologies of sign systems, which permit us to use signs, meanings, symbols, or signification; (3) technologies of power, which determine the conduct of individuals and submit them to certain ends or domination, an objectivizing of the subject; (4) technologies of the self, which permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform I themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.” (1988)

Foucault’s opus indicates the importance of, and interrelationships between, identity, power and knowledge. For Foucault power does not reside is a particular person or institution, but is engendered instead in discourses, practices, and procedures of everyday life and becomes apparent when it is exercised. Power is everywhere in social relations, and is exercised at all levels of an organization and society through various discourses and processes. Human beings are made subjects – or socially constructed – through various disciplinary discourses. The control of the self is a form of control through the discourses of power/knowledge.

As Foucault (1993) noted, in order to study power and the individual one must examine governmentality, the contact points of the “techniques of domination and techniques of the self” (p. 203). Governing people…is not a way to force people to do what the governor wants; it is always a versatile equilibrium, with complementarity and conflicts between techniques which assure coercion and processes through which the self is constructed or modified by himself (p. 203-204). Discipline therefore is not simply imposed from the outside, nor is it always complete, otherwise there would be no place for reflexivity. For Foucault, governmentality is not negative, but productive. It socially constructs subjects, reality, objects and rituals of truth.

While subjects are constructed through discursive processes, they are never powerless, but are active participants in creating the identities they desire by relying on various discourses. They can rebel and resist. (Remember Camus?) Individuals have the ability through these technologies of the self to reflect upon, shape, govern, and be responsible for their selves within these discourses and resources of power, to transfigure themselves to achieve a condition “of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality."

I am an organizational communication scholar and I've been heartily influenced by Foucault. Given the dynamic complexity of interrelated power relations, organizational scholars turned to the concept of struggle, an ongoing, interactive, unpredictable, definition-creating activity that moves beyond the static power/resistance model of domination. Similarly, because power resides in networks of relationships, subjects freely call upon differing discourses in order to enact strategic games, and therefore, play games of identity. In organizations these issues of identity transcend personal, organizational and occupational lines. 

Here are some of my favorite Foucault works and those who have made use of Foucault: 

Ashcraft, K. L., & Mumby, D. K. (2004). Reworking gender: A feminist communicology of organization. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Deacon, R. A. (2003). Fabricating Foucault: Rationalizing the management of individuals. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.

Martin, L. H., Gutman, H., & Hutton, P. H. (Eds.) (1988). Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault. London: Tavistock.

Herrmann, A. F. (2008). Narratives and sensemaking in the new corporate university: the socialization of first year communication faculty. Unpublished dissertation, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.

    

Michel Foucault's "History of Madness" in English, is the complete version of the English translation called "Madness and Civilization", which since it was abridged, produced some serious misinterpretations. Foucault shows how the idea of "madness" from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to the present, has undergone several transformations of meaning.  It is excellent...

....and it might make your head do this.

Indeed R2-D2 Is in Star Trek

It used to be that "seeing was believing." Given the millions of ways images can be manipulated, I find myself more skeptical about what I see all the time. Some things are just over the top.

However not all images are so blatant. Take this one for example.

The altered image on the left was part of George Bush’s political campaign in 2004. He is digitally taken out by copying and pasting existing soldiers over the podium. Later, campaign managers would admit to the altering of the image. 


In another famous disappearing act, you'll below note that Trotsky disappeared from this famous photo with Lenin.

Of course, it isn't always about making people disappear. Sometimes they pop up out of nowhere, like the black student did in this brochure for the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Diversity is so important, they had to make a black guy up!

Of course we all know that women can never be slender enough for some advertisers, so we end up with this disgusting image:

Some manipulation is more subtle. For example, the slimming down of Katie Couric:

Or how they fixed this woman's teeth:

(Foucault would have a lot to say about how these lead women to distorted images of the self and how they then attempt to discipline themselves. That, however, is best left up to others.)


However, after doing my own research and looking at the film over and over again in fast mo, slow mo, regular mo and pause mo, it is true. R2-D2 is indeed in Star Trek. I didn't believe the picture when I first saw it, but indeed, the folks at Lucas' Industrial Light and magic put that little robot in there.

R2-D2 RULES!

“My soul…kinda stings”: Spike's Vampiric Redemption

(Please note: This is a work in progress...)

First, let me tell you a little bit about Spike. Before he became a vampire, his name was William Pratt. Interstingly, while many scholars have spoken about Spike’s name, none that I have seen specifically addresses his last name Pratt: which is a British euphemism for a jerk, to put it nicely. He was born in 1870s Britain. He was a struggling poet, often mocked by his peers who called him "William the Bloody" behind his back because his poetry was so "bloody awful." He was sired by his soon-to-be long time lover Drucilla. He got his nickname from his use of railroad spikes when torturing people. Fast forward through all the evil and nasty things he did as a vampire with fellow vamps Darla, Drucilla and Angelus.

In season four Spike is captured by a group called “The Initiative.” They embed a microchip in his brain, rendering him powerless to hurt humans. Obviously for a vampire, this is a horrifying experience. The dilemma is that Spike finds himself on the side of good (or at least unable to be pure vampiric evil) not because he wants to be, but because he has no other choice. Here is the first connection between what happens to Spike and Foucauldian power. The power is suggestive of Bentham’s ideal prison, The Panopticon. The Panopticon included a tower at the center that provided through a two-way mirror an unobstructed view of all the prisoners.

The power of the panopticon is external. Someone is watching you. Guards, wardens, etc., have power over prisoners, so prisoners behave. However, the panopticon was brilliant in another way. Since prisoners realized there was always the possibility they were being watched, they regulated themselves, rendering the exercise of power by others unnecessary. It was no longer necessary to use external power to discipline the prisoner, rather the prisoner now disciplined himself through self-surveillance, self-discipline, self-monitoring, exerting power of his own identity and actions. Foucault calls these activities “the technologies of the self.”

Foucault said his goal was “to create a history of the different modes by which in our culture human beings are made subjects.” Human beings are made subjects – or socially constructed – through various disciplinary discourses. For example, an individual may be constituted and see herself as a sinner or a saint through religious discourses. Through the discourses of science, and the means by which humans began to be studied – through surveillance, observation, measurement and documentation – the individual is constructed in a particular way, and in fact becomes a subject.

At this point, in Spike’s case panoptic power impacts his identity through the microchip that is put in his head, which renders him harmless as a vampire. Naturally enough there are many references to impotence here by Buffy and the rest of her “Scooby Gang.” His interaction with the Scoobies shows how the chip caused them to think of him differently. In response, he takes his first steps on the road to redemption. He is forced to find a new identity in order to gain attention and remain relevant. He is forced into the role of (ambiguous) good guy. Although he relishes that he can beat the hell out of demons and such, he hates what the chip has turned him into. He cannot be a monster. He cannot be a man either. He’s ambiguous, a shadow, liminal.

Late in Season four in the appropriately titled episode “The Yoko Factor” (4020), Spike rebels against the Scoobies, reverting to a more overtly antagonistic role in teaming with Adam: a part human, part machine, part demon Frankenstein. However, Spike's mischief is just that, an impotent churning in frustration at being neither demon nor human, neither fit for real villainy nor acceptable for heroism in the group. His siding with the Scoobies made him a permanent outcast in demon society. Now he is an outsider with the Scoobies. Spike is truly a vampire in no man's land, at home nowhere.

Caught between his origin as a vampire, and his desired destination of humanity, yet welcome in neither place, Spike has become marginalized. The situation is most poignant for the vampire as having been bred of humanity, he can see himself dispossessed of the defiling traits he now bears and yet know he will not regain his full humanity. Spike is the poster-boy for vampire marginality. He has exhibited the full range of motivations and inner turmoil of an individual assaulted with a stigma, dealing with it and thriving, only to be stripped of that modicum of acceptability by the government installed chip, yet barred from return to his former life as a human by the stigma of soulessness.

This frustration can lead to self-hatred and self-derogation: a potent elixir for the brewing of hate and violence. Which is where Spike eventually goes. But first, it must be noted even with the chip in his head Spike is making progress toward humanity. While the chip keeps him from harming humans, it is NOT forcing him to do good deeds, or help the Slayer. Spike, meet the power of the “technologies of the self.”

Discipline is not simply imposed from the outside; nor is it always complete. If it were there would be no place for reflexivity. For Foucault, governmentality is not necessarily negative, but productive. It socially constructs subjects, reality, objects and rituals of truth (1978a). While individuals are constructed and they are subjugated through power relations, they are never powerless. Power relations run through every field, “because there is freedom everywhere” (Foucault, 1987b). Subjects are not deprived of "agency or the capacity to change; in fact, [being a subject] makes them all the more active by extending their reach to include what was assumed to be so obviously necessary, so natural, so taken-for-granted, that it was inaccessible: their subjectivity, their identity, their sexuality, their bodies" (Deacon, 2003, p. 280).

Individuals have the ability through these technologies of the self to reflect upon, shape, govern, and be responsible for their selves within these discourses and resources of power, to transfigure themselves to achieve a definite condition “of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality” (Foucault, 1994, p. 225). In other words, Spike reflect upon himself and ask, “What type of being do I want to be?” “What must I do to become the being I want to be?” This disciplining of the self is enterprising, a continual project of self-construction and creation that can be extrapolated to explain Spike is trying to become a man.

Rose (1998) observes the "enterprising self will make an enterprise of its life, seek to maximize its own human capital, project itself a future, and seek to shape itself in order to become that which it wishes to be. The enterprising self is thus both an active self and a calculating self, a self that calculates about itself and that acts upon itself in order to better itself" (p. 154).

Much like in Dostoevki’s character of Raskolnikov, Spike is coming to recognize within himself the potential for goodness and to set himself on the path to salvation. He has comassion for Joyce – Buffy’s mother – who has a terminal illness. Throughout season five he protects Dawn, Buffy’s little sister, who is the key that keeps the hell dimensions doors closed. If opened hell would literally invade our planet. A bad thing! He fights and is tortured by the nearly omnipotent demigod Glory to protect the secret. He does it because to do otherwise would "destroy her [Buffy]. I couldn’t live her being in that much pain" ("Intervention," 5018). When asked why he, a vampire without soul, is protecting Dawn, Spike’s answer is simply "I made a promise to a lady." He assists people who have been hurt by the troll Olaf. In season six when Buffy is brought back from the dead, it is Spike who realizes she clawed her way out of her coffin. He – being the only one who had to do that – shows utter empathy and sadness. And being ‘undead’ herself, Spike can now kill Buffy – but doesn’t. Spike feels deep remorse and compassion for Buffy and Dawn when their mother dies.

Oh yeah! He also fell in love with Buffy along the way and they’ve been having violent but consensual sex.

Buffy ends the relationship and Spike is heartbroken. He tells Buffy: “I know you’ll never love me; I know I’m a monster, but you treat me like a man,” and for that he is grateful. This is what is most important to Spike—not being treated like a vampire, which is what the undead should desire. Being a man—being human— is his goal, whether he has fully accepted that or not. Spike has expelled his vampire nature as the intruder, has sacrificed that self to save his soul and recreate the unity of the community, as evil becomes good. Spike’s ability to love gives him at least a piece of moral agency, and his ability to suffer makes us sympathize with him. The audience is on his side long before he gains a soul. Spike is desperate to win back Buffy.

Although Spike is making these decisions, though he is learning to discipline himself – he is still at heart a vampire – not a man. He still has that chip in his head, so he is not completely free to choose his path. Until…the facticity that he is not a man nor a real vampire, leads to his tortuous self-loathing…he tries to rape Buffy in a terrifying scene. Spike’s relationship with Buffy up to this point was based on consent and trust, which is why so many fans found this scene of attempted rape jarring and out of context. We forgot he was evil. We have been rooting for him. Still, we must recognize his evil by having him respond to his rejection by Buffy as a demon would, by trying to rape her. This is his turning point.

Spike’s action results in feelings of tremendous remorse, which spur him on to repentance and taking a definite step towards redemption. He realizes the immorality of his actions, in spite of his lacking the guidance which could be provided by a soul. Spike ultimately concludes that in order to live with himself after what he has done to Buffy he must accept that he is a monster, because only a monster could do what he tried to. (2002: 59). Of note, all the evil that Spike has done, he feels no regret for his any of his previous actions, except his attempted rape of Buffy.

After the attempted rape, Spike laments that the chip has confused the natural order of things when he complains:

Everything always used to be so clear. Slayer. Vampire. Vampire kills Slayer. Sucks her dry. Picks his teeth with her bones. It’s always been like that. I’ve tasted the life of two Slayers. But with Buffy . . . It isn’t supposed to be this way. It’s the chip. Steel and wires and silicone. It won’t let me be a monster and I can’t be a man. I’m nothing. (‘Seeing Red’, 6:19)

Now here’s where things get ambiguous. Spike leaves Sunnydale for a remote location in Africa, where we - the audience - are led to believe that he intends to get his chip removed and become his old evil self. However, (as we find out later) Spike undergoes “Demon Trials,” a series of brutal mental, emotional and physical tests, to prove his worthiness to the demon shaman.

“Bitch thinks she’s better than me. Ever since I got this bleeding chip in my head, things ain’t been right. Everything’s gone to hell.”

“Do your worst. When I win, I want what I came here for. Bitch is going to see a change.”

“Make me what I was so Buffy can get what she deserves.”

But this is ambiguous and has been read in different ways by scholars and by audiences. One reading has Spike going to the shaman to get the chip removed so he can kill Buffy. Plausible. Another has Spike going to the shaman to get the chip removed to he can again be a full-fledged monster. These readings are all based on the idea that Spike hates Buffy and hates his situation.

Yet there is a third reading that is overlooked. “Bitch,” “bastard,” “I’ll show you!” are not all phrases of hate, but those also of the angry and disillusioned spurned lover. Most scholars read Spike’s statement “Make me what I was so Buffy can get what she deserves” a testimony that he wants to be a straight up vampire again. But couldn’t it also be that he wants to be not just Spike, or William the Bloody, but William Pratt, the romantic soulful poet he once was? Spike loves Buffy as deeply as an evil vampire can. He wants Buffy. He desires Buffy. He wants to earn Buffy’s love. He wants to show Buffy that he is worthy. It isn’t Spike’s hate that drives him to the shaman. It is his love. It his love that wants to drive out the monster, the one that wants not only to be treated like a man, but to be a man, to be the kind of man Buffy deserves. My reading is that Spike loves Buffy, but hates his situation.

Although Spike has been disciplining himself through seasons 4-6, here is the ultimate switch from the external power over, to the power within. He wants redemption on his own terms. He wants to be good for its own sake not because of the chip. Hence the trip to Africa and the demon trials. Spike wants his redemption, wants his soul back, wants to be a vampire with a soul and undergoes the most horrific ordeals to get it back, including all the guilt, shame and horror – all the emotional despair – at the things he has done as a soulless vampire. (This makes him different than Angel, who got his soul back via a gypsy curse…Spike EARNED his soul back.)

This sea change in Spike’s moral orientation altered his agency to the extent that he was as likely to approach choices from a perspective that was basically good as from one that was basically evil. In light of this transformation it only seems to follow that Spike would be rewarded with a soul since he had practically begot one through sheer force of will. And, of course, at the moment he finally passes across the threshold completely, he becomes ensouled in the final episode of BtVS’ sixth season.


..to be continued.

Based upon:
Herrmann, A. F. (2010). “My soul…kind of stings”: Spike’s discourses of vampiric redemption. Paper presented at the Central States Communication Association Convention, Cincinnati, OH.