The Soul Is The Effect

[t]hus One Should Not Think That Desire Is Repressed, For The Simple Reason That The Law Is What Constitutes Both Desire And The Lack On Which It Is Predicated. Where There Is Desire, The Power Relation Is Already Present: An Illusion, Then, To Denounce This Relation For A Repression Exerted After The Event.

But Let There Be No Misunderstanding: It Is Not That A Real Man, The Object Of Knowledge, Philosophical Reflection Or Technological Intervention, Has Been Substituted For The Soul, The Illusion Of Theologians. The Man Described For Us, Whom We Are Invited To Free, Is Already In Himself The Effect Of A Subjection More Profound Than Himself. A 'soul' Inhabits Him And Brings Him To Existence, Which Is Itself A Factor In The Mastery That Power Exercises Over The Body. The Soul Is The Effect And Instrument Of A Political Anatomy; The Soul Is The Prison Of The Body.

People Will Be Surprised At The Eagerness With Which We Went Aboutpretending To Rouse From Its Slumber A Sexuality Which Every­thing-our Discourses, Our Customs, Our Institutions, Our Regulations, Our Knowledges-was Busy Producing In The Light Of Day And Broadcasting To Noisy Accompaniment.

Maybe The Target Nowadays Is Not To Discover What We Are But To Refuse What We Are.

... We Are Obliged To Produce The Truth By The Power That Demands Truth And Needs It In Order To Function: We Are Constrained, We Are Condemned To Admit The Truth Or To Discover It. Power Constantly Asks Questions And Questions Us; It Constantly Investigates And Records; It Institutionalizes The Search For The Truth, Professionalizes It, And Rewards It. ... In A Different Sense, We Are Also Subject To The Truth In The Sense That Truth Lays Down The Law: It Is The Discourse Of Truth That Decides, At Least In Part; It Conveys And Propels Effects Of Power.