In classical and Christian philosophies “self-care” (Michel Foucault) states that the subject must undergo transformation in his or her being in order to be capable of truth and thus able to achieve knowledge. You must be your own therapist truly to access knowledge of truth. Now, our modern conception of knowing supposes that any knowledge involving the subject proves to be non-scientific and is disqualified in its rationality and gradually in its ethics as a guide for human forms of behavior. This diffusion of the regions of knowledge and those of 3self-care2 and the ethical subject produces an empty space, a deficit that Science, with help from the Law, and attempt to make up for it with, for example, reductionist “neuronal man” or more recently “behavioral man” models that go hand in hand with DSMs and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies. Giving pride of place once more to self-care would avoid the dangers of this passion for order that standardizes forms of behavior by making them comply with prevailing social and ethical standards.
Knowledge; medical; self-care; subject; therapeutic; truth