Self, Performativity and Vipassana Meditation: Some Theoretical Considerations

Alternative and non-Western practices challenge how modern selves are formed and blur the line between ancient and contemporary, prompting a rethinking of how bodies and minds are produced. Technologies of the self that combine care of the self with self-knowledge offer paths to redefine the self, questioning the dominance of Science and Technology as the sole means of radically transforming the human condition. This article proposes an ontological and performative conception of vipassana meditation, drawing on Science and Technology Studies but recognizing its limits in addressing selves and non-Western practices. Performativity here is not a naive nostalgia for pre-representational realism but explores the substantial nature of practice and ritual, questioning ontological determination and carrying anthropological and political implications.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The present proliferation of alternative and non-western practices challenges the way how modern selves are enacted, the distinction between ancient and contemporary, and obliges us to rethink the ways our bodies and minds are produced. By mingling the care of the self and self knowledge, some technologies of the self offer interesting paths to redefine and change our selves, questioning the hegemony of Science and Technology as the only way to operate a radical transformation of the human condition. I propose, through this article, an ontological and performative conception of vipassana meditation, faithful to the performative idiom of Science and Technology Studies, but recognizing its limitations to talk about selves and non-western practices. Performativity, here, is not understood as some naïf nostalgia of pre-representational realism – it rather explores the substantial nature of practice (and ritual), questioning ontological determination and carrying anthropological and political implications.