Between scientia sexualis and ars erotica: Power, resistance and subjectification in psychoanalysis

Abstract

The reception of Freudian psychoanalysis by Michel Foucault has been characterized as ambivalent, with a strong criticism of Freud’s thinking and psychoanalytic practice in the context of reflection on the mechanisms of power undertaken by the philosopher in the 70s. This article proposes to discuss this characterization from the revised concept of souci de soi and the notion of subjectification, as they may offer a choice to support the resilience of psychoanalysis as a contemporary form of ars erotica. Consequently, this would allow it to distance itself from any privileged participation in the deployment of sexuality and the subsequent assignment in the field of governmental technologies derived thereof, causing a strategic shift that would allow to show the affinity between psychoanalysis and ethics of self-care and the implications of their practice in the invention of new forms of subjectivity and exercise of freedom.