Technologies of the Self : A Seminar with Michel Foucault

Shortly before his death in 1984, Michel Foucault spoke of an idea for a new book on "technologies of the self." He described it as "composed of different papers about the self...,about the role of reading and writing in constituting the self... and so on." The book Foucault envisioned was based on a faculty seminar on "Technologies of the Self," originally presented at the University of Vermont in the fall of 1982. This volume is a partial record of that seminar. In many ways, Foucault's project on the self was the logical conclusion to his historical inquiry over twenty-five years into insanity, deviancy, criminality, and sexuality. Because Foucault died before he completed the revisions of his seminar presentations, this volume includes a careful transcription instead...as a prolegomenon to that unfinished task. Truth, Power, Self: An Interview With Michel Foucault / Rux Martin -- Technologies Of The Self / Michel Foucault -- Technologies Of The Self And Self-knowledge In The Syrian Thomas Tradition / Luther H. Martin -- Theaters Of Humility And Suspicion: Desert Saints And New England Puritans / William E. Paden -- Hamlet's Glass Of Fashion: Power, Self, And The Reformation / Kenneth S. Rothwell -- Rousseau's Confessions: A Technology Of The Self / Huck Gutman -- Foucault, Freud, And The Technologies Of The Self / Patrick H. Hutton -- The Political Technology Of Individuals / Michel Foucault. Edited By Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, Patrick H. Hutton. Includes Bibliographies. "Technologies of the Self" is a record of the faculty seminar conducted by Michel Foucault in 1982 at the University of Vermont. The volume includes seminar presentations in the fields of history of religions, literature, and ideas. This volume is a wonderful introduction to Foucault and a testimony to the deep humanity of the man himself Q: Why did you decide to come to the University of Vermont?