ABSTRACT
Following Foucault, the previous three chapters have been concerned with the domination and disciplining of the speaking subject, and have attended less to the manipulation of the one who listens. These chapters have focused primarily on the inculcation of a desire to confess in the subject, or the confessant’s compulsion to speak. As is evident, however, this has not been separable from a discussion of the confessor’s desire-or lack of desire-to hear the confession, whether the confessor is a lover, a priest, a psychoanalyst, or a police offi cer. A rebounding form of discipline has been observed, as for instance when priests themselves grew scrupulous, or when the analyst’s desire became implicated in his confessant’s story. The one who listens, as in the case of the scrupulous priest or the counter-confessing analyst, may become the one who speaks, internalizing the desire to confess which he aims to inculcate in the other.
