The principle of “self-care” and the therapeutic of the soul

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to investigate and understand how the principle of the care of the self as approached and presented by Michel Foucault, especially in The hermeneutics of the subject, can be conceived as a therapeutic of the soul. Moreover, I will present the trajectory of the self-care in the Western tradition and civilization from its onset until its decline. I will not only emphasize the role and relevance of Socrates in the flowering of this principle, but also identify in Hellenism a privileged moment for understanding and exercising the self-care. To conclude, I will identify in Foucault’s “Cartesian moment”, that is, in the emergence of science and modern scientific mentality, the decline of the self-care as the constitutive principle of the ethos of Western civilization.