Re: New Theoretical Approaches to the Self in
Tim et al., In my case I meant that since Foucault identifies confession as a historically and spatially particular technique of the self (one's relationship to oneself), which is formed as a method of coming into a more authentic relationship with oneself in early Christianity/Middle Ages, then... Then could cyberspace be fruitfully seen as another (historically and spatially particular) regime for this confessional modality to operate? Foucault did indeed see the confession as a technique which was understood as the production of truth about oneself: "He was authenticated by the discourse of truth he was able or obliged to pronounce concerning himself. The truthful confession was inscribed at the heart of the procedures of individualization [subjectification] by power" F., Hist. of Sex. 1, pp. 58-59. As a consequence it came to be seen that "confession frees, but power reduces one to silence" (p. 60). Of course it is his project to show that this has "taken us in" and is a "ruse" and in fact power does not silence nor confession make you free from power relations. As for cyberspace therefore we can interpret it as confessional in both a weak and a strong sense. The weak sense (not all that weak actually!) would document the many amazing ways and opportunities in which one can produce the truth about onself (blogging, chat rooms, IM, anonymized sex discourses, actual confessions on eg., notproud.com, and so on). I think blogging in particular should be analyzed as a modern digital regime of confession going back to the Middle Ages. Anyway, the stronger sense would be that anything we do in cyberspace is towards a renunciation of the body (as eg. the Christian martyrs who sacrificed their bodies, either to the death or through penitance) and to overcoming the body in order to reach... what? a higher spiritual state? A more mindful state? A more truthful state? Penitance? Cyberspace as the will to penitance! I think the former is certainly an easier argument to make, but remain intrigued by the second... thanks... From: T.R.Jordan@open.ac.uk To: air-l@aoir.org Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 11:47:30 -0000 Subject: [Air-l] Re: New Theoretical Approaches to the Self in Reply-To: air-l@aoir.org Hi, Can't say I agree that Foucault was talking about confessions are a place where we recover our 'true selves', but then again I haven't looked at that book for quite a while. I tried to analyse relations of power, using Foucault and other theories of power/knowledge/subjectivity, and their inter-relations in terms of generating selves, collectives and imaginaries. (Cyberpower it's called) I can't see any space for 'true selves' outside all these circuits of power, only places for different constructions of selves and societies generating different types of societies and selves. Sorry if I've mistaken your take on Foucault, re-reading your post I'm not sure if you mean confessions produce true selves or if cyber-confessions may be able to do so. Tim Jordan
Jeremy W. C. et al, What great questions you pose, Jeremy .You certainly got me thinking and halted my lurking. The institution of confession within the Roman Catholic Church whether in the Thomistic Middle Ages or in the 20th century does not appear to me to be constructed in the manner in which you describe it. I find your description somewhat romantic. To penitents then or now, I think, the exercise of power is evident and, in fact, takes precedence over self examination or reflection. Then or now the penitent recites prescribed sins the discursive construction of authors (authority) invested in the exercise of power by disciplining and punishing. This is not an exercise in discovery. Far from separating the body from the soul or spirit, confession writes its result on the bodies of penitents more painfully perhaps in the Middle Ages, but still in humiliating and degrading forms today. Feelings of relief( a bodily response), I think, come for penitents from having successfully negotiated an interaction of power; by being submissive the penitent receives a reward, a blessing. The commonplace notion that confession is good for the soul is, to my way of thinking, light years away from the institution of confession. Closer to that notion might be Augustine¹s "Confessions" or certain modalities of self exploration as they are constructed in modern and postmodern psychoanalytic discourses. The idea that self exploration can be articulated in some form gets closer, I believe, to your concept of confession. What we can never shed, after Foucault, is that any discourse one selects will embody power relations. Perhaps self is constructed in resistance. (In a non-discursive fashion Touraine and Castells propose that concept) But I digress. I think that your exploration is very important for us and hope you continue to be creative in pursuing it. Ann De Vaney Ann De Vaney Department of Education 2001 Berkeley Place University of California,Irvine Irvine, CA 92697 Phone (949) 824-6097 Fax (949) 824-2965 adevaney@uci.edu
participants (2)
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Ann De Vaney -
Jeremy W. Crampton