An ascetic man

The book is published based on the results of a dissertation study in which ascesis is seen as a particular spiritual practice and way of life. From the perspective of the phenomenological approach the function of ascesis is to construct an image of the self. Disciplinary institutions shape and support the discourse of Power-Knowledge where the body is seen as an instrument or medium of said influence. Power uses strategies of individuation (subjectification). The object of power according to M. Foucault is the individual not the mass. The individual is not only an object but also at the same time a product of Power-Knowledge and an instrument of it. Discipline is not only a device to see but also a way of making visible those who are affected by it. In society the degree of correspondence between individual characteristics and the general norm. At the same time the limits of difference are defined within which behaviour is accepted as normal and other manifestations are considered ''abnormal''. But abnormality not only has a - sign but also a + sign. Ascesis is a particular case of this phenomenon