\u201cThe movement they seek to bring about is the reverse of that: the intent is not to pursue the unspeakable, nor to reveal the hidden, nor to say the unsaid, but on the contrary to capture the already-said, to collect what one has managed to hear or read, and for a purpose that is nothing less than the shaping of the self\u201d (Foucault 2).
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Several years ago, over the span of around two years, I would journal nearly everyday\u2014often, I would sit down for around two hours at a time, and write until the hand cramping became too unmanageable. This was a process that was notably in-line with Foucault\u2019s idea of self-writing. To clarify and expand:
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Foucault states that \u201chupomnemata ought not to be understood as intimate journals,\u201d and that \u201cthey do not constitute a \u201cnarrative of oneself\u201d; they do not have the aim of bringing to the light of day the arcana conscientiae, the oral or written confession of which has a purificatory value\u201d (2). This reminds me quite a bit of my past experiences with keeping a \u201cjournal.\u201d When I began this process at the age of thirteen, I was in recovery for anorexia, EDNOS, and OCD. Nonetheless, while the journal was <\/em>kept for the purpose of helping me through these issues, the entries often avoided discussing the topics directly; instead of revealing unsaid secrets, my lengthy entries would often turn out to be a total recollection of my day, where most entries were full of what could be considered mundane details. I was hardly confessing anything unsaid within these journals. Ultimately, the process of writing became a way of processing and reorienting, rather than a means of directly venting my destructive thoughts. So, truly, this process of journaling absolutely functioned as \u201cnothing less than the shaping of the self\u201d for me, personally.
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