In the days before the era of technically reproducible works of art, Albinoni's adagio was appreciated for its true worth: one could enjoy its genuine beauty. But by constantly hearing it in elevators and supermarkets, it has entered the realm of easy listening and has somehow lost its essence.
The same thing happened to the "care of the self": a kind of albinism. This expression, "care of the self," was popularized by Michel Foucault in the 1980s, since he chose to name the third volume of his History of Sexuality ; it is now so overused that its meaning has almost been reversed.
SELF-CARE, NARCISSISM, AND CONTRADICTORY INSTRUCTIONS
Could it be that we are losing ourselves in the contemplation of our own image, whether in a mirror or on our Facebook wall, out of self-concern? While Christian morality forbade this type of narcissism, has our era elevated it to the status of an injunction, even a moral duty? Could it be that being concerned about one's appearance and/or exhausting oneself with physical exercise falls under the umbrella of ethics?
Feminist thought constantly enumerates the injunctions—often contradictory—placed on women, particularly concerning their bodies. To be a mother, to breastfeed, not to breastfeed, to have curves, not to have them, to eat well but not too well, to take care of one's body, to show it, not to show it, to be modest and reserved, to be bold and active, to be tender and affectionate, but also efficient and decisive, and above all, of course, to be young, thin, and beautiful. We could add: to be a friend, confidante, sexual partner, colleague, cousin, sister, daughter, girlfriend… And there will always be someone to add: “But what kind of sport do you do? What? No time for physical activity? It’s not a question of time, come on! It’s a question of priorities and willpower.” In short, in addition to enduring these contradictory injunctions and trying to fulfill most of these obligations, one must also feel guilty for not taking enough care of oneself.
TO CARE FOR ONE'S SOUL
Let us try to untangle the tangled threads of ethics, social pressures and various (micro)powers and dominations in an attempt to glimpse a possible path to emancipation.
To do this, we will have to go back a long way: for it is Greco-Roman Antiquity that Foucault speaks of in the famous Self-Care which gives its credentials to an ancient ethic and which has nothing to do with self-worship.
To begin with, for Plato or Epictetus, caring for oneself means first and foremost caring for one's soul; to the question "Am I my body?", they would clearly answer no. The body is my outer shell, it belongs to me, but it is not me and it does not depend entirely on me, unlike my soul, which I can learn to master completely. "What did Socrates mean when he told Alcibiades to make himself more beautiful? He was advising him to neglect the beauty of the body in order to work only on that of the soul" [2] . This absolutely does not mean that one should despise physical care or gymnastics, running, and other physical activities, since health is of course recognized as a good. But they must be placed in a hierarchy: caring for what belongs to me (my body, my possessions) is less important than paying attention to oneself, that is, one's own soul, its examination and liberation from prejudices and external assessments or judgments.
Self-care, or better yet, self-cultivation, self-work, or even self-sculpting, corresponds to a set of spiritual and meditative techniques which we are sometimes encouraged to do while walking but not while running. [3]
This self-cultivation can only be freely chosen , which renders obsolete the injunctions to take care of oneself, whether in the disciplinary form of school or in the multiple forms of social pressures, micro-powers, advertising, fashions, trends etc.
Caring for oneself and others
Foucault strongly insists on not confusing it with any kind of personal "development"; it is not about developing what already exists in embryonic form deep within oneself, which one must first rediscover and then "liberate." It is much more a process of subjectivation through which each person constitutes themselves within a relationship to oneself and to others . Because this culture of self is eminently social. In the In his Discourses , Epictetus reminds us: “XXV. You possess within yourself qualities that each demand a duty that must be fulfilled. You are a man; you are a citizen of the world; you are a son of the gods, you are the brother of all men. Furthermore, you are a senator or hold some other office; you are young or old; you are a son, you are a father, you are a husband. Consider what all these titles entail for you, and strive not to dishonor any of them.” This reminds us of the feminized enumeration presented earlier. To care for oneself, one must begin by remembering this: who we are. And what our duties are. Towards others. Caring for oneself is therefore also, and simultaneously, caring for others. So, if I am a mother and an emergency room doctor, I must care enough for myself to be able to properly care for my children and my patients. Hence a certain perplexity when faced with someone who insists, “No time to run? Come on!” "You have to take it." Would anyone criticize an emergency room doctor for not taking enough care of herself?
Charity begins at home. Agreed. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But what if I don't love myself? Of course, one must love oneself enough to be able to love others. Descartes also expresses this beautifully with his notion of generosity. For Descartes, generosity corresponds to a proper self-esteem, without which one will not be aware of what one can offer others and without which one cannot therefore be generous in the ordinary sense of the word.
But if I give enough to myself to be able to give to others, will I be legitimately criticized for not taking the time to go running twice a week?
There are times in life when work, events, or various responsibilities leave little leisure time. The Ancients often pondered the question of the opportune moment or Kairos , meaning that rather than knowing how to do what needs to be done, it was important to know how to seize the opportunity, the opportune moment to do it; perhaps the right time to take care of this body that belongs to us is when we have more leisure time, for example, for parents, the moment when children become old enough to be more independent. Common sense aligns with Epictetus's hierarchy of needs.
MY EGO AND ME
The difficulty therefore also lies in this "self": what is it? Body? Soul? Ego?
What if we have confused the self and the ego?
This time, it's Eastern philosophy that might help us resolve the difficulty, but also our good old Ancient Greeks. After intense physical activity, a good run, what happens? How can we explain the feeling of well-being? Endorphins partly explain the phenomenon but don't fully account for it. Consciousness is calm; it's no longer prey to interfering thoughts, those that judge me, those that make me a spectator of myself. "Self-conscious," the English say; a word difficult to translate but which aptly captures the embarrassment linked to a painful self-awareness. This is what the fable of the centipede explains: watch a centipede dance; then ask it how it manages to dance with its thousand legs. It will think about it…and fall. Consciousness is often embarrassing and sometimes paralyzing; Thus, by running or engaging in physical activity, we seek a state of tranquility where we can act serenely precisely because we act without awareness, without reflection or distance from what we do, think, or feel. Action is therefore pure and perfect when we are not scattered but concentrated, unified. Plotinus highlights this problematic aspect of consciousness in his first Ennead :
“Even in wakefulness, we can find very beautiful activities, meditations, and actions that consciousness does not accompany at the very moment we meditate or act: thus, one who reads is not necessarily conscious that he is reading, especially if he reads attentively; one who acts courageously is not conscious that he is acting courageously, as long as he is carrying out his act; and there are a thousand other facts of the same kind. It is to such an extent that consciousness seems to weaken the acts it accompanies; on their own, these acts have more purity, strength, and life; yes, in the state of unconsciousness, beings who have attained wisdom have a more intense life; this life is not dispersed among sensations but gathers itself together and at the same point.”
To care for oneself, then, just enough to forget oneself. To forget the ego.
Like the musician who knows his piece inside out and can forget about technique to give free rein to expressiveness, playing, and interpretation.
Taking care of oneself to forget the ego and return to oneself.
[1] I borrow this term from Paul Mathias
[2] Epictetus, Interviews , III, 2
[3] Epictetus, Conversations , III 3: “Here, above all, is the method of exercise to be employed. As soon as you go out in the morning, examine everyone you see, everyone you hear, and answer as if you were being questioned: ‘What did you see? A handsome man or a beautiful woman?’ Apply the rule: ‘Is it something independent of you, or does it depend on you?’ ‘Independent.’ Reject it (…).”
