Abstract
We explore briefly Foucault's ideas about the care of the self, creating ourselves and what he meant by ethics. We then examine the work of five artists–Mark Rothko, Cindy Sherman, Helena Hietanen, Samuel Beckett, and Betty Goodwin–to help us begin to think very differently about illness and human suffering. Taking our lead from Beckett, we regard reason as being given too much responsibility for the work of a caring knowledge, and that it is through the arts that new ideas about bioethics can emerge.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ashton, D. (1996). About Rothko. New York: Da Capo Press.
Beckett, S. (1965). Three novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable. 1958 reprint. New York: Grove Press.
Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. New York: Routledge.
Deleuze, G. (1986). Foucault. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit.
Deleuze, G. (1990). Pourparlers. Paris: Editions de Minuit.
Foote, C. E., & Frank, A.W. (1999). Foucault and therapy: The disciplining of grief. In A. Chambon, A. Irving, & L. Epstein (Eds.), Reading Foucault for social work (pp. 157–187). New York: Columbia University Press.
Foucault, M. (1963). Raymond Roussel. Paris: Gallimard.
Foucault, M. (1973). Ceci n'est pas une pipe. Paris: Fata Morgana.
Foucault, M. (1970). The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences. New York: Random House.
Foucault, M. (1973). La pensée du dehors. Paris: éditions Fata Morgana.
Foucault, M. (1985). The use of pleasure:Vol II of the history of sexuality (R. Hurley, Trans.). New York: Random House.
Foucault, M. (1986). The care of the self: Vol. 3 of the history of sexuality (R. Hurley, Trans.). New York: Random House.
Foucault, M. (1994). Dits et écrits: 1954–1988. Paris: Editions Gallimard.
Foucault, M. (1997). Ethics, subjectivity and truth: The essential works of Foucault (Vol I). (P. Rabinow, Ed.). New York: The New Press.
Foucault, M. (1998). Aesthetics, methods and epistemology: The essential works of Foucault (Vol II). (J. D. Faubion, Ed.). New York: The New Press.
Frank, A. W. (1995). The wounded storyteller: Body, illness, and ethics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Gontarski, S. E. (1985). The intent of undoing in Samuel Beckett's dramatic texts. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Goodwin, B. (1992). Comments on Mémoire du Corps series. In J. Bradley & M. Teitelbaum (Eds.), The art of Betty Goodwin (p. 154). Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario.
Gubrium, J. F. (1995). Voice, context, and narrative in aging research. Canadian Journal on Aging, 14 (1–2), 69–81.
Harmon, M. (Ed.). (1998). No author better served: The correspondence of Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.
hooks, b. (1992). The oppositional gaze: Black female spectators. In Black looks: Race and representation (pp. 115–130). Boston: South End Press.
Juliet, C. (1989–90). Meeting Beckett. TriQuarterly, 77, 9–30.
Koskinen, T. (2000). Helena Hietanen: Light is energy. NU: The Nordic Art Review, 2 (3–4, 71–75.
McMullan, A. (1994). Samuel Beckett as director: The art of mastering failure. In J. Pilling (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Beckett (pp. 196–208). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Michaels, A. (1998). This remembering. In J. Bradley & M. Teitelbaum (Eds.), The art of Betty Goodwin (pp. 1–5). Toronto: The Art Gallery of Ontario.
Nietzsche, F. (1974). The gay science. (W. Kaufmann, Trans.). New York: Vintage Press.
Opie, A. (1999). Being in health: Versions of the discursive body. In S. M. Neysmith (Ed.), Critical issues for future social work practice with aging persons (pp. 187–212). New York: Columbia University Press.
Shenker, I. (1974). Words and their masters. New York: Doubleday-
Sherman, C. (1988, Summer). Interview with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiov, Flash Art Italia, Reprinted in Salvioni, D., & Verzotti, G. (Eds.). (1989). Special affects: The photographic experience in contemporary art. Milan: Giancarlo Politi.
Sherman, C. (1994). Nobody's here but me. BBC Video.
Silverman, K. (1996). The threshhold of the visible world. London: Routledge.
Teitelbaum, M. (1998). The mourner's cry: Some thoughts about the early work of Betty Goodwin. In J. Bradley and M. Teitelbaum (Eds.), The art of Betty Goodwin (pp. 7–35). Toronto: The Art Gallery of Ontario.
Valentine, G. (1999).What it means to be a man: the body, masculinities, disability. In R. Butler & H. Parr (Eds.), Mind and body spaces: Geographies of illness, impairment and disability (pp.167–180). London: Routledge-
Veyne, P. (1997). The final Foucault and his ethics (C. Porter & A. I. Davidson, Trans.). In A. I. Davidson (Ed.), Foucault and his interlocutors (pp. 225–233). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Weick, A. (2000). Hidden voices. Social Work, 45 (5), 395–402.-
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chambon, A.S., Irving, A. “They Give Reason a Responsibility Which It Simply Can't Bear”: Ethics, Care of the Self, and Caring Knowledge. Journal of Medical Humanities 24, 265–278 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026062521052
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026062521052