Foucault And Freud On The Autonomy Of The Individual

Claire McCully
Prof.ssa Samera Esmeir
Rhetoric 103b
7 April 2015
Essay 2, Prompt 2: Foucault and Freud on the Autonomy of the Individual Both Foucault and Freud developed theories of the subject which describe individuals as influenced by repressive powers in their autonomy. Freud, in Civilization and its Discontents, represented the individual as restricted in their behaviors and pursuit of happiness by civilization, a faculty which had been developed to secure human happiness. Foucault credits the confession of sexuality to the repression of individuals in The History of Sexuality, especially from the 18th century onwards. Both theorists were uncomfortable with the liberal way which humans categorize one another, forming complete identities
He explains this as an attribute of living within a regime. Confession has shaped society and the way we view alternative uses for sexuality as a source of pleasure, rather than as the stimulus of procreation. Because the discussion of sexuality has been presented as closeted, these deviations from the strict application of sex as procreation, (“useless energies” and “pleasures”), are coined “irregular behaviors” (Foucault 10). Adhering to so-called tradition, any eccentricities--deviances from the “historical tradition”--are determined to be dangerous to the social order (Foucault 10). Civilization, in its plight for efficiency and organization which Freud so adequately describes, stamps shame upon the liberalization of individual
He cites this claim as being a result of the overzealousness of a new discipline of sex researchers. “What sustains our eagerness to speak of sex in terms of repression is doubtless this opportunity to speak out against the powers that be, to utter truths and promise bliss, to link together enlightenment, liberation, and manifold pleasures; to pronounce a discourse that combines the fervor of knowledge, the determination to change the laws, and the longing for the garden of earthly delights” (Foucault 7). Creating the perception of a historical taboo against discussing sex and all of its miscellanea guaranteed researches a modern population eager to separate themselves from the masses through idiosynchronicity; to exhibit their willingness to share their preferences and sexual problems. The History of Sexuality encouraged the theory of confession, a subject which is widely discussed by Foucault, and credited by him to be what introduced the modern allowance of a discourse of sexuality as well as the creation of the sexual identity as constituting the individual. A discourse of sexuality also provided a new outlet for Freud’s pleasure principle: sexuality, recognized as being a fluid, varied instinct of humanity, presents an infinite amount of ways in which it can