The Sociology Book

302

W E S T E R N M A N

H A S B E C O M E A

C O N F E S S I N G A N I M A L

MICHEL FOUCAULT (1926–1984)

W

hy do people talk so

much about sex these

days? This is one

of the key questions posed by

the influential French philosopher

Michel Foucault in The History

of Sexuality: Volume I (1976).

Foucault claims there is an

important relationship between

confession, truth, and sex. He

suggests that to understand

sexuality in the West, we must

consider how knowledge operates

and how particular forms of

knowledge, such as the science

of sexuality (scientia sexualis) and

The Christian Church

requires confession to

absolve “sins of

the flesh.”

Psychiatry and

psychology require

confession of sexual

desires and obsessions

to reveal who we

really are.

We are told that telling all to unveil

the “truth” will cure us.

Western man has become

a confessing animal.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

The will to truth

KEY DATES

1782 Jean-Jacques Rousseau,

Swiss political philosopher,

publishes Confessions, one

of the first autobiographies

to focus on worldly life, rather

than religious experiences

and inner feelings.

1896 Austrian neurologist

Sigmund Freud introduces

the term “psychoanalysis.”

1992 Sociologist Anthony

Giddens suggests in The

Transformation of Intimacy

that men are reluctant to

disclose feelings publicly

and rely on women to do the

emotional work in relationships.

2003 Frank Furedi’s

Therapy Culture: Cultivating

Vulnerability in an Uncertain

Age sees the will to talk and

reveal as potentially damaging.