Self-anxiety, or "self-care" in popular media terms, seems like a holistic new age doctrine out of California (and indeed it is), it is a concept tightly linked to political goals, with a lineage that extends to Plato. Self-anxiety is inherent to democracy; It is one of the essential components of being able to worry about others and therefore being an honest and outgoing citizen.
Self-care in the millennium cycle
While Michel Foucault reminded in his Collège de France lectures that he devoted the years 1981-1982, in ancient times, personal care (self-concern according toFoucault's philosophical repertoire) constituted the founding principle of a virtuous rationality that also takes into account the reflections of this virtuousness in the society; It states that we moderns exclude virtue and our responsibilities towards others from the content of this concept. So, what kind of facts did its exclusion from 20th century thought and modern ethics bring about in our self-care destiny?
In the 20th century, personal care initially appears as a medical element. Slate's cultural writer, Aisha Harris, states that until the civil rights struggles and women's movements of the 1960s and 1970s, personal care practices were often limited to exercise recommendations offered to elderly people with mental health problems and had no social content. This is followed by the coping methods developed by management science specialists for employees who perform their profession under risky conditions or under stress, and the increasing institutionalization of these methods. Then; Technocrats, racists and blacks who are excluded from the health system that favor whites, as they seek a way out of the poor, unhealthy and unfair conditions into which they are pushed, health communities and clinics come into play. Women who defy male-dominated and moralist health codes and defend their body rights also play a role in the prevalence of alternative studies in medicine and egalitarian self-care.
Shahidha Bari says that we should attribute a special meaning to Esalen Institute In California, one of the leading institutions of the modern wellness movement, inthe history of personal care in the "In Analysis: Radical Self-Care" section of the podcast series he continues at the BBC. This institution, which was very effectivein turning the counterculture of the 1960s towards the teachings of well-being as well as free love and drugs, alternative medicine and yoga, can actually be regarded as the birthplace of the much prolific personal development sermons in Silicon Valley today. Learning new philosophies of individual potential and well-being in Esalen, many young people migrate to Silicon Valley to work in the burgeoning tech industry. According to André Spicer, a professor of organizational behavior at Cass Business School, who is on Bari's reference list, this migration later becomes the founder of the business well-being industry: “One of the biggest changes is the personal growth that hippies turn to push the boundaries of exploration and creativity. it turned into a practice devoted to revealing individual potentials in the market. There was a tendency for personal growth to become a more productive, more competitive individual and consequently a higher market value.
'Immigrants who migrated to their inner world'
Today, the personal care industry, ranging from anti-aging cosmetics to spa tourism, from next-generation massage chairs to healthy eating and body-mind courses designed for private life or work, has a volume of $ 4.5 trillion (according to 2018 data). The number of posts made with the Selfcare label is 39.5 million on Instagram alone. When historical facts are taken together with these up-to-date statistics, one cannot help but think: When self-anxiety turns into personal care (this time we do not use these two words in the same sense); Where does our capacity for meaning, virtue and concern for others go when it is part of the culture of consumption and market?
Self-care seems to have become a goal in itself, rather than creating a social transformation that includes others. In the days following the 2016 elections that took Donald Trump to the Oval Office, the word "personal care" almost doubled in Google searches compared to previous periods. (If you remember, the words "moving to Canada" were also very high in trends.)
Invisible Institute founder journalist Jamie Kalven, in an interview published in Chicago Reader in December 2016, stated that he worries that those who are not
satisfied with the election of Trump - though not to mention personally - will be drawn to a lifestyle based on denial. They begin to pursue their search for supplyand enjoyment within the confines of their private lives. There is a term used in Central Europe for those who are uncomfortable with the political regime and take shelter in their private lives: "internal immigrants ..." If we lose our public side today, we will be helping and abetting what we are uncomfortable with. "
The self-anxiety gradually surrendering to selfishness and individuals seeking salvation in solipsism does not seem like a solution that could cure the troubles of the 21st century. We often tend to think of happiness within its individual boundaries. However, just like virtue, the pursuit of happiness and individual development or ways of escape from non-ideal situations can also gain a social aspect. By keeping the "love yourself" or "take care of yourself" in a controlled manner, we must learn again to "take care of the others".