Sex History: Volume 2 The Use of Pleasure

 

Michel Foucault published The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction in 1976. After an eight-year wait, readers finally received his in-depth examination of the historical origins of Western sexuality in 1984: The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure and The History of Sexuality, Vol. 3: The Care of the Self. In these last works published during his lifetime, Foucault adjusted his initial writing plan, shifting his focus to examining, tracing, and analyzing texts and practices from antiquity, especially the periods of ancient Greece and Hellenistic-Roman culture, i.e., the pre-Christian era when the fundamental framework and forms of Western self-care and aesthetics of existence emerged.

 

In The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure, Foucault's research covers multiple thematic clusters, including the anthropological aspects of pleasure. Firstly, how pleasure becomes a moral problem, touching upon seemingly subordinate and preliminary aspects of pleasure: health laws, and all precautions considered to eliminate the risks and dangers faced by those engaging in pleasure. Secondly, Foucault also examines the domestic economy of sexuality and its positioning within social and legal frameworks, and further discusses the unfolding of the use of pleasure along four main axes: the body, the wife, boys, and truth. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of the homosexual culture surrounding the love of boys in ancient Greece, as explored in the section on eroticism, and offers a profound philosophical reflection on the "true love" proposed by Socrates and Plato.