Abstract
We analyze the subjectivities of the historicalrelationship between subjects and their health and its subsequent variations in modern health practices. As a starting point, referenced by the bibliography of subjectivity and/or health thinkers, we describe a short history of health practices throughout the twentieth century: in the early century, health had the body as its sole object; decades later, the risk factor is then included, turning lifestyles the object of control; the advancement of molecular science at the end of the same century leads to ambivalence in health, as it allows to regard the subject as virtually ill based on the imminent risk of genetic contingency, and technoscience itself promises to predict, prevent, and modify such condition. The results suggest a novel notion of preventative health as an imperative has emerged: one must produce health incessantly in the present to decrease risk and to guarantee a value-added life. Would preventive subjectivity evolve in a manner that updates the modern form of the subject?
Keywords:
subjectivity; health; risk; future; preventive subject