370 RüdigerKunow
specialist communication but insert themselves in a larger cultural
imaginary. I have earlier on identified an element ofbiologismin the
discoursesofgenomics,aprovidentialismthatisreflectedinthespecial
auraaccordedtoknowledgeaboutthesemioticsandsemanticsoflifeat
the molecular level. Further along these lines, it seems to me that the
currenttrendtowhatHabermascallsthe"self-instrumentalizationofthe
species" (29) is not such a new thing after all: it could just as well be
understood as the re-emergence of an old friend in new, admittedly hi-
tech, garb: the Puritan ethic. When a hundred years ago Max Weber
noted the parallels between the rise of modern capitalism and a
particularformofself-managementandself-discipline,heorganizedhis
argument around the figure of the inner-directed, ascetic individual. In
the face of what can be observed now, in the United States but also
elsewhere in the Global North, it seems plausible to update Weber by
saying that the joint forces of neoliberalism and biotechnology have
once again produced a personality structure compatible with their
agendas: the biotechnically enhanced individual. Like her/his Puritan
avatar, this enhanced self is ridden with an implacable sense of
responsibilityforone'sselfandone'sbodythatbordersonremorseifnot
on guilt —for not having done more in the past and for not doing
enough now for the future of a biologically perfect self. Eugenic
concepts from an earlier day may get a new lease on life here, not as
social planning, this time in the form of individual remorse, a bad
conscience.
On the other side of top-down deliberations on desirable
embodiments is the individualsomatic experience, an experience thatis
most acute in moments of intense sensory disturbances, as the next
sectionwillshow.
2.RepresentationsandtheTracesofSuffering
Intensestatesofbodilyfeelings—pleasantonesasjoy,ecstasy,bliss,
or miserable ones as fear, loathing, anguish—are moments of an
absolute now of embodiment, moments when human beings become
penetratingly aware that they have, perhaps even are, a body. For this
reason, such moments have often been regarded as test cases for the
overall communicability of human experience. My starting point in this
chapter will be the speculative hypothesis that our means of expression