What is Foucault's definition of the modern self?

While I found Foucault's analysis of the Greek, Christian, and Renaissance 'self' intriguing, I kept wondering throughout--what would Foucault define as the modern self? What are modern ethics? Perhaps I missed something here... but I seem to recall the interviewer at one point asking him to define the modern self and instead of answering the question Foucault lapses into discussing Greek/Christian notions of 'self' again. Here, I think the answer may reside somewhere in the discussion at the end about Descartes' notion of self (oneself as a subject capable of thinking for oneself) but I wonder how this idea of 'self' changes with the proliferation of institutions in the 19th century which seek to control self as individual. For instance, there seems to have been a rise in the anxiety surrounding notions of free will--people recognize themselves as individuals with a free will and therefore must be controlled. (Foucault elaborates on the relationship between individuals and the state in another essay I read, claiming that the state only uses individuals insofar as it strengthens the state.) So, there seems to be a presumption that the modern self must somehow recognize itself as an individual -- and I think this is also what Foucault is getting at when he discusses how the Greeks only recognized self by the eye of others.

The most compelling and fascinating portion of the interview--and for which I wish he had provided a specific example--was his discussion of the anxiety people wrote about in diaries when they discovered this modern 'self' as individual and how it may not have been easy to write about. I take it for granted today that I can say or compose something that describes how I feel or experience something in some sort of supposedly unique way--something that is interior to myself and not dependent on another's eye or on God. And yet, at the same time, in my daily life I feel I am controlled or molded by certain ideals of 'normalcy' based on certain morals and ethics of our society. Should this disturb/alert me or does the fact that I have recognized this simply confirm me as a 'normal' modern self, if I even know what that is?

Finally, to avoid thoroughly confusing myself and everyone else, I'll end with questions. What is the relationship of ethics to desire/pleasure? What is the relationship of sex to desire/pleasure? How does this change over time and what is the relationship today? I'm not as clear on the differences here, so maybe we can map those out more explicitly.


~Amanda