Striving for self-improvement: alternative medicine considered as technologies of enhancement

Abstract

The notion of medical enhancement technologies has drawn attention to optimization techniques within the health area (Rose, 2007). However, this notion has evolved at the level of governmental programmes, with very little attention directed towards people's own practices. Using a social scientific body of knowledge about enhancement technologies and a Foucauldian analytical framework, this article explores how users engage with alternative medicine. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Danish users and observations of their treatment sessions, the article demonstrates how they embark on a voyage of discovery with the body to enhance their own selves and bodily resources. The discussion centres on Nikolas Rose's approach to medical enhancement technologies and Foucault's notion of 'technologies of the self'. A wider field of tension is outlined in which embodied alternative treatment practices play a role in various modalities of transforming and controlling bodies and selves. It is argued that such practices can be conceived of as enhancement technologies at the users' level by showing how they not only concentrate on treatment and body maintenance, but also foster the enabling processes of changing habits, preferences, and attitudes, and creating a subjective sense of their bodies.

The salutogenic gaze: Theorising the practitioner role in complementary and alternative medicine consultations

“…Depictions of the CAM client‐practitioner relationship tend to emphasise either CAM user empowerment or the practitioner's imposition of negative judgements. We concur with Baarts and Pedersen (2009) that to frame CAM as ‘victim‐blaming’ and repressive is simplistic, and, with Pedersen (2018), that CAM's enabling aspects best explain its popularity. For Pedersen (2018, p. 218), drawing on Foucault, CAM is more about ‘enhancement’ than normalisation and best understood through Foucault's later writing as a technology of the self rather than a form of discipline.…”

“…We concur with Baarts and Pedersen (2009) that to frame CAM as ‘victim‐blaming’ and repressive is simplistic, and, with Pedersen (2018), that CAM's enabling aspects best explain its popularity. For Pedersen (2018, p. 218), drawing on Foucault, CAM is more about ‘enhancement’ than normalisation and best understood through Foucault's later writing as a technology of the self rather than a form of discipline. However Pedersen's goal is to understand user experiences and ‘lay empirical‐based knowledge’ (p. 221); our attention to the practitioner's view and expert knowledge uncovers forms of power and surveillance described in Foucault's earlier work on the clinical gaze.…”

“…CAM users interviewed by Baarts and Pedersen (2009), for example, felt they gained control over their health through mindfulness and acupuncture even when treatments did not relieve physical symptoms. Inga Pedersen (2018) argues additionally that CAM use fits well with Foucault's conception of self‐care as an ‘enabling’ self‐technique and that research attending to the enabling capacities of CAM is best positioned to explain CAM's popularity.…”

“Is the Pain a Sign of Healing?”: Cancer Patients’ Experiences of Energy Healing in a Pragmatic Trial

“…The focus on the body is known from other studies on CAM. 30 , 32 The patients shared reflections to some extent about whether to interpret auditory or visual signs (ie, dreaming about something, a picture, or a story) as “real” signs of healing, but they rarely shared reflections or doubts about signs of their bodies. A wide range of bodily signs were perceived as univocal signs of healing, including pain, although some were also ambivalent about the meaning.…”