Found this fascinating, although I skipped the pieces on Hamlet and Freud. Fascinating firstly from filling in a piece in how Foucault thought - the intro sets out the progress and history of his study over the years and sets his other, main books in context.

Secondly fascinating from the perspective of someone raised on Catholic practice - this book goes into the various techniques for studying and "improving" the self in classical history, and does a great job of giving background, context and understanding to a lot of the practices still in use today - for example, the nature of the spoken word, confession, and the purpose of mercy. Even outside of religious institutions, such "tools" are still widespread, and understanding the environment in which they sprung up, and the alternatives around at the time, goes a long way towards Foucault's goal of helping people to see that they are more free than they think they are.

I happened to be reading Wikipedia on gnosticism for a separate reason at the time of reading, but this makes for great resources which dovetail in with what Foucault describes around "knowing" and "saying" - the implicit and the explicit as discovery techniques.

Anyone with an interest in themselves, and the role of religion and other institutions acting on the "self" should definitely have a pick through this. ( )