" Theworking hypothesis is : it's true that sexuality as experience is obviously not independent of codes and the system of prohibitions, but we must remember that these codes are surprisingly stable, continuous and slow to change. It should also be remembered that the way they are observed or transgressed also seems very stable and repetitive. On the other hand, the point of historical mobility, what undoubtedly changes most often, what has been most fragile, are the modalities of experience. "
In 1981, Michel Foucault gave a lecture that marked a decisive shift in his thinking and the project begun in 1976 of a History of Sexuality. It was the moment when the arts of living became the focus of meaning from which a new way of thinking about subjectivity could unfold. It was also the moment when Foucault problematized a conception of ethics understood as the patient elaboration of a relationship between self and self. The study of the sexual experience of the Ancients enabled these new conceptual developments. Within this framework, Foucault analyzes medical writings, treatises on marriage, the philosophy of love and the prognostic value of erotic dreams, in order to find evidence of a structuring of the subject in its relationship to pleasures (aphrodisia) prior to the modern construction of a science of sexuality, prior to the Christian haunting of the flesh. The challenge is to establish that the imposition of a patient and interminable hermeneutic of desire is the invention of Christianity. To do this, however, we had to grasp the irreducible specificity of ancient techniques of the self.
In this series of lessons, which clearly foreshadow L'Usage des plaisirs and Le Souci de soi, Foucault examines in particular the Greek primacy of the active/passive opposition over gender distinctions, as well as Imperial Stoicism's elaboration of a model of the conjugal bond advocating unfailing fidelity and shared feelings, and leading to the disqualification of homosexuality.
This Abstract is published with the kind permission of Editions du Seuil. It is taken from the back cover of Subjectivité et vérité. Cours au Collège de France (1980-1981) by Michel Foucault, published on May 2, 2014.
The sound recordings of Michel Foucault 's lectures were made by his public, notably by Mr. Gilbert Burlet, and given at the Collège de France.