Considerations regarding the constitution of subject of the care of the self at the thought of Michel Foucault

Abstract

The present text aims to discuss how Foucault works out the problem of the constitution of the subject of the care of the self – a theme which has filled his last books, courses, interviews and conferences. The problematizing of this “subject”, and of the “techniques of the self” which constitute it, comes up in Foucault’s work in the moment he re-thinks his researches about the concept of power, at late 70’s. This re-orientation gives birth to investigations concerning the forms of government (government of others). Tthis text aims to show that this re-orientation performed by Foucault has necessarily to do with the problematization of the conditions of possibility from which arises the relationships of power, specifically the “actions over actions”. Freedom, as the condition of possibility for the relationships of power, arises in Foucault’s work at the same time in which the research concerning the “techniques of the self” uncurtains the formation of ethical subjects.