Abstract
The article brings the French philosopher Michel Foucault’s discussion about psychoanalysis, which he conducts through his archaeological method on the constitution of modernity’s knowledge. Foucault's analysis reveals a critical restructuring of knowledge, departing from the study of social structures and attributing to them an arbitrary and restrictive character. At this point, the author is especially concerned with the way in which Freudian psychoanalysis thinks the dynamics of social relations when constructing a language. However, in this proposal of language, Foucault finds a domain over the idea of pleasure from sexuality, which places knowledge in the psychoanalyst’s character. This is found in deep contradiction with the practice of psychoanalysts who are imbued with the desire for promoting health. Foucault's late conception of life as a work of art ends up being a preferential place for psychoanalysis’ ethics and the ways of experiencing reality that are not reduced to the social only by the oppression of a psychological knowledge that detains dissymmetric power.
Keywords:
Foucault; sexuality; psychoanalysis; power