Truth Through Confession Analysis

Truth through Confession: An analysis on Rousseau and Foucault
How do we know the truth about ourselves and how do we communicate it? Foucault explores these questions in The History of Sexuality where he poses the “repressive hypothesis” that repressing sex in society caused the opposite effect. There occurred a proliferation of sexual discourse where sex became part of every sector of society entering spaces such as education and medicine. The confession is the primary means of discourse, in other words how information and power are disseminated in society. To Foucault the confession is a mechanism that produces truth; through confession we are creating a truth about ourselves. When considering Rousseau’s autobiography The Confessions of

His egoism is shown in his assertion of writing the first and most truthful autobiography begins by stating that a written project had not been undertaken before and that he will be the first to show himself as a man in “all the truth of nature”. This idea of creating truth with confession is consistent with Foucault. Foucault states that “the confession became one of the West 's most highly valued techniques for producing truth”. Yet Rousseau’s truth through his autobiography contains inconsistencies. In his introduction, it is clear that he is well aware of his critics and the fact that the autobiographical project may not be fully accurate or truthful. He states that he has “concealed nothing that was ill, added nothing that was good” and “indifferent ornamentation” to fill in the gaps in his memory. While “indifferent” creates a sense that Rousseau is objective and fair in his portrayal of himself by not caring for the parts that are not truthful, it is important to keep a critical view of his writing. The act of writing allows the confession to be analyzed and reflected upon by the author and society as a whole once it is published. While it is honest to acknowledge the possibility of untruths in the text, it is difficult to reconcile that with the claim of truth that an autobiographical text holds. In regards to truth, Foucault states that “confession frees, but power reduces one to silence; truth does not belong to the order of power but shares an original affinity with freedom”. This ties into Rousseau’s confession being a source of liberation for him, yet the underlying power in society is not something he addresses. For Rousseau truth is subjective and reliant on unreliable memory but still frees him from shame and