Uncovering the Self: Stoic, Early Christian, and Foucauldian Self-Care through Self-Knowledge
In “Hermeneutics of the Self” Foucault writes of self-care as a form of self-governance, and therefore a self-governance that is coerced by those in power onto the individual: “to take into account the points where the technologies of domination of individuals over one another have recourse to processes by which the individual acts upon himself. And conversely, he has to take into account the points where the techniques of self are integrated into structures of coercion or domination. The contact point, where the individuals are driven by others is tied to the way they conduct themselves, is what we can call, I think, government” (Hermeneutics 203). To that end, Dhuoda in her manual to her son engages in a form of governance of her son from afar, while she simultaneously attempts to communicate to him the forms of self-governance he will have to employ to (1) be successful in this world and (2) not go to hell. While Foucault is definitely on to something in terms of self-care as self-governance and therefore wider governance, when Foucault writes that “maybe our problem is now to discover that the self is nothing else than the historical correlation of the technology built in our history” (Hermeneutics 222-223), this can be disproved by noticing the corollary thread in Marcus Aurelius, a pagan Roman Emperor writing to himself, and the Frankish aristocrat Dhuoda, writing to her son, so repetitive with the technology of repetition that it serves to repeat on into our 21st century information-technology dominated age, that this points to the fact that the self is something else, something other than “the historical correlation of the technology built into our history.” Foucault writes that “the difference between the Stoic and Christian traditions is that in the Stoic tradition examination of self, judgment and discipline show the way to self-knowledge by superimposing truth about self through memory, that is, by memorizing the rules” (Technologies 43); however, this manual by Dhouda beckons reading and re-reading by her son, and her own written repetition throughout, constituting a memorization of the rules, be it her directions or scripture, especially the psalms.
Because humans use technology for self-expression, self-examination and self-cultivation–and because our technology changes, the “means” may have changed on the surface level but the “end” has not changed: the end of self-care being an at-peace self/soul. Marcus and Dhuoda employed the same technology–that of writing–Aurelius to himself, Dhuoda to her son in service of her own self-care, as a self-soothing behavior to console herself in separation from her son in a traumatic way during a traumatic time in history for her group of people. Today, people still employ the technology of the self in the form of journaling (private), blogging (public) and various other social media forms of expression to include written and visual/verbal communication (vlogging). Writing is still the ultimate form of self-expression, self-reinvention and therefore of self-care.
Dhuoda writes for her son and consistently throughout, compares the manual to a mirror, as in: “You will find in it all you may wish to know in compact form. You will find in it a mirror in which you can without hesitation contemplate the health of your soul, so that you may be pleasing not only in this world, but to him who formed you out of dust” to be “both effective in this world and pleasing to God in every way” (5). She also compares the “image of the Holy Trinity as if in a mirror” (15). The goal of self-care for Dhuoda’s son is thus: to “fulfill in action what you find in this book … then you may be saved from the fire of eternal damnation, and … you too may be found worthy to be united with the company of the elect in that kingdom without end. Amen” (16). While Dhuoda’s mirror is far different in its end than Marcus’ meditations–an end of salvation in the future rather than on this present earth–both Dhuoda and Marcus focus on actions necessary to perform now in order to purify the self, and/or the soul. Self-care becomes soul care, for now as later, through repetition: Marcus repeats assertions to train himself, and Dhuoda encourages her son no differently, albeit in the form of consistent blessings at the end of each section and the close-out phrase “Amen” (“so it is”). The Lord’s prayer (18) is one such mantra, along with the one she provides on the following page in regards to the Cross. Self-care, soul care, for both pagan and Christian involves repetition of key phrases–putting words, language, to the interior impulses needing expression was thus a universal form of self/soul care.
Again, self-care for Dhuoda like Aurelius involves the care for another–albeit care in the form of governance for Dhuoda while Marcus was governing the Roman Empire, so that her son would “show” “reverence” to his father throughout the course of his life (21). She takes Solomon’s proverb and changes the word “honor,” as in honor thy father and mother, to “reverence” for the father, which denotes an even holier type admiration than honor, with more religious connotation. She beseeches and cautions her son to “always do good works”–much like Marcus was continuously attempting in terms of his meditations. While Marcus was doing good works to please himself and those around him, these good works are designed to keep “clearheaded in matters of both body and soul” in order to “be steadfastly and completely loyal to him [his father] in all things ” (26).
Devoting “your days to penance,” while denoting a self-correction that incorporates guilt/grief, is similar to (42) Aurelius’ secular meditations in that this penance includes the constant love of others–meaning that to love others is to love oneself, to care for others is thus the ultimate form of self-care, for Aurelius and Dhuoda: “Love the poor,” she directs; “love justice … avoid iniquity, love fairness, follow justice … love justice … do not allow evil men to do evil deeds … always love justice and shun vice … be merciful … reveal your mercy … frequently correct those who err … he that giveth the poor, shall not want” (58-61). (Note the Aurelian/Freudian repetition of/preoccupation with “justice.”)
She further engages almost with a master mindfulness of a computer–a technology she obviously did not have access to in the Holy Roman Empire–one that is being encouraged today via the “If this, then that” language of computers. The popular IFTT app takes certain triggers to command subsequent events such as “if the weather app says it is raining, send me a reminder to put on a jacket”: If “on various temptations, if they befall you” then “with all watchfulness keep they heart”; “if there is difficulty” then “bear up patiently”; if you are persecuted, “have no anxiety about persectution”; if “hardship,” “deprivation,” or “illness” occurs, “have faith, “call out to the Lord your protector,” and “neither yield to it nor allow it to make you sorrowful,” (a very Aurelian claim) respectively. (This same logic reoccurs on page 104 in her final words of book 11). In modern self-care practices, bloggers/gurus/life coaches encourage people to journal about potential triggers and then the subsequent behaviors you wish to form into a new habit: such as, when you feel the need to procrastinate, then start typing. Etc.
In Foucault’s defense, Dhuoda does uphold his statement that “Throughout Christianity there is a correlation between disclosure of the self, dramatic or verbalized, and the renunciation of self” (Technologies 48) when she encourages her son “so every day you may be reborn in Christ,” constituting a new “self” every day so long as the “soul’s service to perfection” seeks and abides in “God’s help” (79). For Dhuoda, there are “first and second deaths” (80)–the second death to be avoided/escaped by reading and praying often (81). Reading and prayer are her constant direction (83) for soul/ self-care. Further, much like the “if this, then that” technology, she offers an incentive for her son to do each deed: the incentives include success in this life, and/or salvation in/for the next. This is a key part in habit formation, putting habits in service of self-care: habits consist in (1) a trigger, (2) the behavior, (3) the reward. For instance, brushing one’s teeth consists in (1) waking up/getting out of bed, (2) brushing one’s teeth, (3) the clean feeling plus tingling sensation from the toothpaste (which wasn’t invented/marketed until the 1950s but which the marketing community has created into a staple of hygienic life).
Unlike Aurelius though, she is expecting her son to minimally share these instructions with his brother and hoping that further readers will come upon not only this manual but also her gravestone which her son is directed to mark with “Let no one walk away without reading this” (101). She ends by addressing “reader,” not just “son” (101).
In “Hermeneutics of the Self” Foucault writes, “The deep desire to substitute the positive figure of man for the sacrifice which for Christianity was the condition for the opening of the self as a field of indefinite interpretation” (222). By mimicking Christ, through thanking God, praying throughout this manual in the form of blessings and directions, she is engaging in self-care by ending her manual to her son with the same words Christ said, according to the Gospels, when dying on the cross: “It is consummated” (or the less sexual-sounding it is finished). Dhuoda is modeling–through a speech act, through a repetition of a speech act of a figure to be emulated/followed–for her son the behavior she asks (directs) him to perform, to “always be strong in Christ” (106).
Foucault defines technologies of the self –“in societies whatever they are”–as “techniques which permit individuals to effect, by their own means, a certain number of operations on their own bodies, on their own souls, on their own thoughts, on their own conduct, and this in a manner so as to transform themselves, modify themselves, and to attain a certain state of perfection, of happiness, of purity, of supernatural power, and so on” (Hermeneutics 203). This unification of the sense of self, and the self-realization through techniques, can be seen in the corollary behaviors of repetition through writing in Dhuoda, Aurelius and present-day practices of self-care. To arrive at the differences in the ways that self-care is engaged and used throughout different cultures and times, as stating that we are nothing more than our technology, though, I think is an unhelpful claim that Foucault can only affirm through vague generalizations and attempts to structure, to pit pagan against Christian practices through abstraction. On closer examination of self-care practices, one sees that though one end is future- (after-life-) oriented and the other is present-day oriented, both use the same means (writing, self-examination, repetition) to accomplish a similar end: an at-peace mind in the midst of suffering/temporality.
Works Cited
Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, translated by Martin Hammond, Penguin: 2006.
Dhuoda. The Handbook of Dhuoda Sent to her Son William.
Foucault, Michel. “About the Beginning of the Hermeneutics of the Self.” Political Theory, vol. 21, no. 2: 1993, pp. 198-227.
—. “Technologies of the Self.” Technologies of the Self, edited by Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick H. Hutton, University of Massachusetts Press: 1988, pp. 16-49.
