Technologies of the Self

Foucault, 1988
[Those] which permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to obtain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.

Foucault, M. "Technologies of self", in: L. Martin, H. Gutman & P. Hutton (Eds) The Foucault effect: studies in governmentality (Hemel Hempstead, Harvester Wheatsheaf),1988:18