The genealogy of desire in Michel Foucault's History of sexuality

Abstract

This article examines the historical constitution of desire in Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality, a work comprising four volumes: The will to knowledge (1976), The use of pleasure (1984), The care of the Self (1984), and Confessions of the flesh (2018). The study argues that, for Foucault, desire is not a universal or natural essence but rather a historical construct, varying according to each era's regimes of truth. Through a genealogical approach, the philosopher investigates how desire was progressively medicalized, psychiatrized, and moralized in modernity, becoming a central operator in the dispositifs of sexuality. In contrast, in Greco-Roman antiquity, pleasures held an ethical role, regulated by practices of the self rather than by normative dispositifs centered on desire. By analyzing the four volumes of the work, the text demonstrates how Foucault denaturalizes sexuality and provides critical tools to problematize contemporary modes of subjectivation, particularly concerning dissident sexualities. The investigation thus highlights the relevance of a critical history of desire in dismantling the mechanisms that sustain norms and exclusions in modern societies.