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Sexuality and Disability: A Discussion on Care of the Self

2011; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 30; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s11195-011-9219-3

1573-6717

Dikaios Sakellariou,

Family and Disability Support Research

The aim of this article is to bring together the notions of sexuality, disability and care of the self. This is done by illustrating the importance of care of the self and technologies of the self in the context of sexuality and disability. This paper is partly based on empirical data from a phenomenological study on perspectives of sexuality of Greek men with spinal cord injury. In this article we shift the focus from care offered from one person to another, to self care. Foucault's work on the care of the self is used as an analytical lens to consider care as a discourse, with associated ideas and practices. In the care of the self what is important is the degree to which chosen practices help people live life as they choose and construct the self they desire. Like everybody, disabled people need to experiment, trying out different technologies of the self and different sexual possibilities. Care of the self is about enactment of identities and choice of how to live one's life. In other words, it is about control of one's body, power to guide representations of oneself and access to choices.