ABSTRACT
Postmodern philosophy emphasizes the fragmentary self. This is expressed in Foucault’s work as a concern with representation and ‘the culture of the self’. For Foucault there are no such things as universal necessities with regard to human existence (Foucault, 1988). The self is constituted through the practices of liberation, through practices of rules and conventions that are found in the culture. Postmodernists provide a critique of the power relations that pervade institutions, which shape our identity. There arises what Foucault terms ‘technologies of the self’, which invoke a kind of agency, and permit individuals to effect operations on their thoughts, conduct, and way of being.
