My Truths

There are few things that I claim to know. Here are some of them: 

1. Diversity trumps conformity in nature.

2. Spacial self is an illusion. The underlying character of humans is temporal in nature. 

3. Our minds are way more active than they need to be, we’d perform better if we thought less. 

4. Our brains operate autonomously most of the time, without the intention of our conscious minds.

5.  Opportunistic play is more effective than deterministic play — both in chess and life. 

6. Less is often more.

AR Mixtape

I recently put together a mixtape for my friend AnnaRose. AR is a trained mandala specialist who studied at Goddard in Vermont, so I wanted to incorporate this into the cover design. I drew the mandala freehand so the asymmetry "breaks the spell" for some critics, but its folk inspired styling has pleased the recipient. Please enjoy the music and listen responsibly. 

ALBUM COVER REDESIGN: Etta James, Tell Mama 45

As part of my design practice, I do spec work in order to refine my skills and learn. Album covers are a definite draw for me and a place where I can merge my love of visual and audio aesthetics. Nobody sings more beautifully than Etta James, so I looked into one of her tracks and discovered it was originally released as the B-side of a 45 released by Leonard Chess and Cadet Records (a subsidiary of Chess Records) in 1967.

 

Original 1967 Tell Mama/I'd Rather Go Blind single.

For this project I redesigned the original cover, with a focus on typography and layout. I used the lasso tool in Photoshop to create a mask of the original image of Etta and reshaped it with the eraser tool. I also made a transparent background version of the official Chess Records logo to use as the mark on the bottom of the cover. All other decisions were a part of my design process, including the reissued matrix number, switching from DV 14702 to AH 14702.

(click image for shadow box viewing)

Auto Heaney redesign. 2018

Welcome Back Heaney

Welcome back to the blog, it’s new and improved and all those things you’re looking for. I wanted to take some time to answer a few questions for my devoted fans. I’ll spare you from a long-winded intro and get right into it.

GH: Why Auto Heaney? 

AH: No, it’s not really my rap name, that would be ridiculous. There’s a little bit of a story behind it, so bear with me. 

Back in like 2006 or 2007 when the nation was preparing to fail altogether at capitalism, I developed a method for writing essays that involved interviewing myself. I dubbed this formula the “Auto Interview,” and I would start projects with a list of questions to ask imaginary experts in whatever field I was writing about.

Then it was just a matter of answering the questions, with real research and a minimal amount bullshit. Doing this I would learn who the smart people were, and come up with some strong copy. Delete the question portion of the interview and you have yourself the framework of a solid essay. 

Jump to 2011, still writing, I decided to start interviewing actual people, and the name X.O. Heaney (i.e. outside, or external from Heaney) came to mind. I would dub my interviews X.O. Heaney and my Auto Interviews would become… You guessed it, Auto Heaney.

GH: Oh that’s so awesome, when did you start using it for your artwork? 

AH: Thanks for asking. It wasn’t until like 2011 that I began making art (shitty, shitty art). My daughter, Elsie Mae Supermoon was born in May of 2012 and spending time with her mom and her siblings (all extremely creative people) had me struggling to keep up in the arts department. For whatever reason, I started signing a lot of my drawings AH! as far back as 2013.  It wasn’t until 2014 or so  that I started outputting some decent stuff. I hit up the local bagel/burrito shop in Montpelier (they named it Baggitos, obv.), and they agreed to let me hang up my first show. I had to write an artist’s statement, and that’s when I really started to think about Auto Heaney as a brand. I sold 6 pieces to an art collector for $350 during that show and that kind of locked it in.

GH: What appealed to you about art? 

AH: Stupid question, but thanks. Art, is everywhere, it’s in the architecture that surrounds us, in the trees and the natural world that we often neglect, in the airwaves. I was also an 80s kid, so seeing “all of that” pour into the world, at such a young age, I began to really focus on things like color and the coolness of everything. I remember when kids started using the word cool, I was in second grade or so. It had a loose, but definite meaning. Cool music, cool shoes, cool dance moves, I was all about it. As far as actual art goes, I guess I first recognized it in cartoons, toys and packaging. I try to go back there when I’m creating art, whether it translates into the final product or not. 

GH: Why do you make art? 

AH: I still get a rush from hanging up my work. The process too, is very good for me. As scattered as my focus gets during the day, it’s good to have exactly one thing in front of me demanding my attention. I like to zoom in and obsess over details, and zone out and let ideas surround me on their own terms. I realize my art isn’t technically strong, but it’s good enough to accomplish these goals. And the fact that people like it is reassuring and gives me a sense of connection. The process is pure meditation, the presentation to others is a reward. 

I’m trying to keep these blog posts short, because I know ain’t nobody got time for that, but I intend to keep up with this thing a few times a week. Next time we’ll get into things like illustration and design and the business end of these practices. Also, feel free to send me your questions, and I’ll add them to the queue. 

garrettheaney@gmail.com 

[Added by request]: Here's a slide show of those first 6 pieces I sold. Prints of most of these are available in my shop. 

Into the Woods with Wombat: An interview

Justin Boland and I go back to highschool (90s era, northern Vermont). He was one of the first rappers I knew personally and it wasn’t until after college that I began paying attention to his music. Over the years we have developed a decades-long dialogue, and check in every couple of years to catch up in interview format. In as much time, I have seen him drop a catalog of music that is incomparable to most everything in the rap scene. As a fan of hip hop since age six, I believe it is his thoughtfulness, intellect and solemn good nature that differentiates him from the pack. He goes by many names and has at least three recurring projects with other emcees and producers. Each of these projects works as a unique imprint of his voice, each with its own intended audience and loyal fanbase: Wombaticus Rex, Humpasaur Jones, Algorhythms, No Humans Allowed, Fear of Death and the Need for Reproduction, to name the majors. We caught up yesterday and this is what he had to say.

Above: Justin Boland, aka Thirtyseven getting sick air in the hills of Middlesex, Vermont where he reads, writes and makes hits. 

AH: Wombat, Wombat, Wombat! What’s new? What’s 2018 looking like for you so far? Any outstanding goals you’re moving towards? 

Justin Boland: Rap. I took a lot of time off to get my head right, but I've been writing bars every day for about eight months now. Inevitably, I'm going to fuck around and get some projects done. I am also turning in a lot of work for other people this winter, so those will be dropping sometime this year, too.

I don't have much of a horizon outside of rap music. Especially now, in the midst of a howling cold snap. I am in a warm house in the mountains writing songs. The rappers and producers I've been able to work with are so talented it's been humbling. In a naked, spiritual sense, not some political sense. The Universe has impressed upon me how lucky I am, and now I need to do the work.

Although I've always loved rap with animal certainty, I've been ambivalent about my place in it before. At this point, that doubt is long gone. I'm grateful to be talented at doing something I love, and the new material will reflect that.  I am older, wiser and even better at dick jokes.

AH: I don’t think we’ve interviewed for a few years now, the last being about your Algorhythms track “Tulpas.” I also haven’t seen you in years despite living 10 miles down the road, what has been occupying your time and your mind? 

JB: Nature. Burlington, Vermont is barely a city, but it was still far too much city for me. Since I got out, I've been calming down and enjoying the woods, which begins immediately at the end of where I mow the lawn.

Our state has had a rough 20 years. I see the difference in downtown St. Johnsbury just like I see the difference walking around in the woods here in Washington County. We are in the middle of a total ecosystem collapse and I am concerned about preserving what we can.

My thinking is more Pentti Linkola than Bill McKibben. I find little common ground with most environmental activists. Their messaging is about a green economy, about climate change, about government regulations and consumer products...the hour is far later than that. Also, the kind of lean, high-density urbanism that gets advocated as a solution is repulsive to my soul. It is a future for insects.

Yet what passes for "conservative" out here? Factories, prisons and parking lots. I don't mean to imply there's some third way, or some unarticulated political movement waiting to happen here. I don't think there is any political solution, especially if we're going to let people vote on it.

AH: What’s the home office life like? How do you stay motivated during the day? You getting enough sleep? 

JB: It's gotten a lot easier. I have been doing variations on the home office for a very long time and I've mostly been quite stupid about it. I accomplish more in less time than ever and I have multiple jobs now. I still put on a proper shirt and tie for conference calls, and my primary failure mode is still "Too Much Coffee."

The best changes I've made: alternating between sitting and standing desk setups throughout the day, getting exercise throughout the day, and sitting down to read books in the sun for 5-10 minute intervals. Despite a decade of tech advances, I still organize and execute most of my work with pens, on paper.

I do get enough sleep. That's new for me and it has been paying off big over the past two years. I would recommend getting enough sleep to anyone.

AH: In the world of hip hop, who’s being really smart right now? What’s the business model turning into, anyway? It seems most rappers have no idea what they’re doing. 

JB: I wish I had an answer ready. It's important. I have to wade back into that whole horrible ecosystem soon, but I'm not looking forward to it. I ran a decent little blog on indie music business stuff back in the Obama salad days, and it's funny to read it now because my cynicism proved so naive. Everything got considerably worse than I expected, and I tend to assume to worst.

So who is being smart? People who can sustain maximum visibility with a minimum release schedule, first and foremost. The sheer volume of competition makes that hard. Anyone working outside of Facebook and Instagram to reach their fans and customers is being smart.

2018 role models should be NYC cats like Loaf Muzik and Pro Era, or like Minneapolis cats like Lizzo and Greazy Greg. They take their show on the road, they connect with new fans in person, and they roll with an extended crew. They have a movement, a scene. This recipe worked for The Roots and it worked for the Wu.

Overall, it's amazing how much of the music industry that computer technology managed to destroy, considering how little it changed. New artists are in the same boat with different tools. Johnny Cash and Eazy-E would both do fine today.

AH: What advice would you offer some of these younger, talented cats we’re seeing come out of the woodwork in the Vermont hip hop scene? Not that they’ll listen or anything…  

JB: This new generation is very interesting. I think it is more accurate to say that they won't ask. Younger cats I talk to definitely listen, and they learn fast, too. They ask good questions, probably the most important skill you can have.

They're a lot smarter than they're given credit for, they just assume they're on their own. That is a very pure approach to rap music. Should I interrupt them? Do I really know enough to offer useful advice?

I think part of their suspicion, too, comes from their success. The fact they can produce their own product, throw their own shows, find their own fans and be successful ... they have to wonder if the old heads weren't just lazy, right? Especially when they're posted up in a studio watching old heads argue about 2005 on Facebook.

AH: Thanks for this. Looking forward to seeing your progress my dude. 
 

Jack Engler on Enlightenment

“Some minimum degree of structuralization is certainly required: the capacity for moment-to-moment observation of thoughts, feelings, and body sensations; the ability to gradually attend to experience without censorship or selection; the capacity to tolerate aversive affect; some capacity to tolerate primary process material; the ability to suspend or mitigate self-judgment and maintain a benign attitude toward one’s experience; the capacity for moral discrimination and evaluation of one’s own behavior; and the capacity to mourn. I once asked Munindraji how old a person needed to be before they could experience enlightenment. He said around seven or eight — you need to be able to distinguish wholesome from unwholesome actions. In other words, superego integration needs to be somewhat complete.”  — Jack Engler

The Reenchantment of the World

*From Jeremy D. Safran's text "Psychoanalysis and Buddhism: An Unfolding Dialogue."

“Premodern cultures regarded the world as an enchanted place. In these cultures the distinctions between internal and external reality and between subject and object were less clear-cut than in modern culture. The sociologist Morris Berman refers to this as “participating consciousness.” As he puts it: “The view of nature which predominated in the West down to the eve of the Scientific Revolution was that of an enchanted world. Rocks, trees, rivers, and clouds were all seen as wondrous, alive, and human beings felt at home in this environment. The cosmos, in short, was a place of belonging. A member of this cosmos was not an alienated observer in it but a direct participant in its drama. His personal destiny was bound up with its destiny, and this relationship gave meaning to life” Berman 1981, 16). 
 
In contrast, for modern consciousness the universe is a mechanistic one, operating on the basis of impersonal principles and matter that is inert and devoid of life. Human beings live outside of nature. Modern consciousness is thus fundamentally alienated. There is no ecstatic merger with nature and no sense of belonging to the cosmos. 
 
Ernest Becker makes a similar point: The characteristic of the modern mind is the banishment of mystery, of naïve belief, of simple-minded hope. We put the accent on the visible, the clear, the cause-and-effect relation, the logical — always the logical. We know the difference between dreams and reality, between facts and fictions, between symbols and bodies. But right away we can see that these characteristics of the modern mind are exactly those of neurosis. What typifies the neurotic is that he ‘knows’ his situation vis-à-vis reality. He has no doubts; there is nothing you can say to sway him, to give him hope of trust” (Becker 1973, 201).” - Jeremy D. Safran
 

Tulpas: An Interview with Thirtyseven

A few months ago, a colleague of mine released a track that I was inexplicably drawn to. Tulpas is a departure from an already diverse catalog of hip hop in that it runs like a set of vignettes - something that might serve as a trailer for a suspense drama. The result leaves you both enticed and confused… mesmerized by the limited information you are given, and unnerved over the inaccessible. In conversation with the artist, it becomes clear that pinning down the historical context offers only a glimpse of what’s going on behind the scenes. As an experiment, listen to the track for yourself before reading the interview that follows. Note your impressions and what you think it’s about. I’m curious how your mileage might vary.


Let’s start with the title of the track - Tulpas. How’d you happen upon this term, where’s this come from?
I’m still not entirely sure how it relates. It just felt right. Tulpas are thoughtforms, ideas become flesh, or at least real enough to persist. It’s a Tibetian term, I could never tell if they were an affliction or a sign of Zen superpowers. The song itself is about being stalked by your past in a non-metaphoric way: actually hunted. One constant you see in accounts from cult survivors is that the men and women involved would always overstate their power, always invoke demons and government agencies and worldwide networks, so it’s about the fictions that get installed in us, too.
That clears things up completely. Why are we talking about cults now? 
I think cults are incredibly common. It’s still a powerful word in a headline context because they always get portrayed as an exotic species. Also, as the MK umbrella of projects expanded in the 1960s, their operations went from using front companies and foundations to using cults and counterculture movements as cover.
Interesting. I’m afraid some of this isn’t exactly common knowledge. What are some good examples of this sort of thing… MK Ultra’s front companies and use of cults. Or is it too murky?
Well, Scientology, The Process Church of the Final Judgement, the World Vision front charities, and certainly Jonestown. There’s no shortage of real world examples. One of the best documented examples would be the Propaganda Due masonic lodge in Italy - Silvio Berlusconi was a member and he did alright for himself after that.
Ok, roll call - who are the characters in this story? The song opens “says her head is haunted by memories she never wanted/ and all the lies that she decided she was better off with.” Who is She?
Anonymous, surely. It’s a personal song but none of those lines relate to anything personal, just a short art film. Experience is what woke me up, but anyone can follow up on the extent of government research into mind control – pharmaceutical, electronic, and in its worst incarnation, trauma based. There are devastated people still walking around with the weight of that history that stretches decades back. A Vermonter named H.P. Albarelli wrote a great history of the 50s era CIA experiments, called A Terrible Mistake. It is carefully documented stuff, and I’d advise anyone interested to start there.
So the female character of the song is a victim of government research programs around mind control?
How could she know? Even once we track down one of the perpetrators, who is he? Just a retired psychologist with an impressive academic career. He was paid money to do questionable research in the interests of national security. All the records have been destroyed, all that’s left is victim testimony. So once his end of the project gets rolled up, what happens to the people he’s created with all these hypnotic triggers? Who steps in to use those assets? Just for asking questions, you find yourself stalked and surrounded by whatever that MK network has grown into today, privatized and more powerful than ever. It’s not a predicament that lends itself to answers.
Ah… So that’s the dude the narrator tracks down. So, in the unedited version, this is a lady who suspects, but can’t be sure if she was fucked with by the government, so commissions the help of the narrator to help clear up her suspicions… Am I following you?
Well, the motivation of the narrator should be suspect, too. I think her lines make it clear she asked for nothing but someone to listen. The narrator makes his own mistakes…and why? Does anyone get into the revenge business by accident? Is he just using her as a proxy for his own past? Having a straightforward hero protagonist seemed cheap.
A few lines in it becomes clear that there’s a conversation underway “…she says I know what you’re trying to do/ and I’m looking at a liar cuz you’re hiding, too.” Who is she talking to?
I took this as a script in a few acts, conversation as narration. It was about three times longer when I first wrote it. Most of my process is chopping down coherent drafts into something more interesting. I hope. The final cut is four scenes long and I’m into it. I’m also ambivalent about being too proud of a song like this, and Irish guilty at having used such dark history as my little noir project. Rap sucks like that, we’re all hucksters and vampires.
So the chick is talking to whom?
Clearly not me, because I’m not dead yet. None of this ends well for the narrator. Ideally, of course, listeners will exert a little damn effort and put themselves in the middle of the action. She’s talking to you.
So, there’s an entire chase and capture scene that gets cut at the end. Or I guess the narrator escapes capture by jumping off a cliff. There’s such a balance when it comes to editing, you were definitely successful in your goal to make things more interesting, or at the very least more mysterious… But do people get it? What kind of feedback have you gotten on this track?
Even in the original form, there was no final scene like that; the narrator is just obviously doomed. I would hope nobody gets it, because the song isn’t a manifesto or a legal brief, just an attempted haunting. The feedback has been mostly questions like yours. It’s not like there was a huge market for this single just waiting to be tapped. I don’t want to sound nonchalant, because I definitely obsessed over this song, but I don’t expect it to change anything. I said what I could.
 

Mindfulness

An edited version of this article appeared in the October 1, 2015 issue of The Bridge. Illustration by Auto Heaney Art.  
Over the past few years, in my quest to become a perfect human, I have sought a number of different therapies, therapists, counselors and programming – each with its own specific agenda in attending to my mental health. Through it all there has been a recurrent theme – a thread – that seems to tie each of these individual disciplines in mental health together. This thread, of course, is mindfulness.
It seems, no matter where I was physically or mentally, whether battling depression, partying too much or sitting in a weekly session of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), the concept of mindfulness was always right there, in the forefront of treatment. Even my beloved couples counselor is a longstanding (sitting?) zen practitioner who passes down mindfulness at every session.
She is also a doctor, with a PhD in psychology, so don’t get the idea that her practice is some kind of metaphysical departure into obscurity. Everything she teaches on the subject of mindfulness is firmly grounded in biology, chemistry and neuroscience.
So what exactly is this unifying buzzword all about – this mindfulness – and why has it infiltrated such a diverse range of mental health services? Where did it come from, and why are we just now paying attention to it?
Mindfulness, at its most basic level, is simply awareness – awareness of yourself internally (your thoughts and emotions) and awareness of your immediate environment, other people and anything in range of your senses – this is the present moment, the being here, now. I’m sorry if that sounds a little beatnik or hipster, but people have been trying to talk about mindfulness for thousands of years, and believe me, it gets a lot more convoluted than I made it.
And there’s no mystery as to why, our brains are incredibly vast and we know very little about them. In his book “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain,” David Eagleman describes the inner mechanics and complexities of the brain and tells us that “there are as many connections in a single cubic centimeter of brain tissue as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.”
To be clear, the practice of mindfulness (or ‘sati’) has its origins in Buddhism and dates back about 2,500 years. So it’s not new at all, except here in the west where it has been inching its way into the mainstream since the 60s.
Some people might remember when the Beatles started getting all weird and took a transcendental meditation (or “acid”) trip to India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (the ‘Giggling Guru’). This was 1968, and inspired George Harrison to start playing the sitar, and the group to write most of the songs released on the White Album.
Having the clout that only the Beatles could have at the time, their curiosity in the Eastern traditions of meditation quickly translated into a popular interest of the same in the West. That’s not to say there wasn’t anybody practicing this stuff before that time – Zen buddhism had gained some momentum in America by the 30s, and Alan Watts helped popularize Buddhism with his book “The Way of Zen” in 1957. In the same year, Jack Kerouac published his novel “The Dharma Bums,” and a few years later Thich Nhat Hanh came to America and set up the Order of Inter-Being.
So that’s where it came from, and that’s how it got here, but what about mindfulness makes it so universally valuable to mental health? According to Mark Epstein, MD and author of “Thoughts without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective,” part of the answer lies in the relationship a patient (or human being) has with his self.
Most people reading this article, I suspect, believe they have a true self – a core self, who they either live up to or let down on any given day. The problem is, most people never really consider where this “true self” really comes from, or if it is even real (or true!).
What Epstein tells us about mindfulness is that its primary goal is to break down false senses of self, something he calls “spatial self” that is demarcated, stationary, permanent and above all, problematic for a healthy relationship with the world. His view of self (and that of Buddhism) is one that is more temporal in nature – ever changing and adaptable to the present moment.
He writes, “Mindfulness involves awareness of how constantly thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations shift in the mind and body.”
In order to gain this awareness, one has to pay attention to his mind, to recognize it, and to dissociate from the identity that such thinking can instill in a person – i.e. the self, or ego. Who you are today, at this moment, is not, nor does it have to be, who you will be tomorrow when you’re doing something besides reading a fascinating article in the paper. Each moment, bears with it an opportunity for a different connection – whether that be simple observation, bare attention or meaningful participation.
Epstein anchors this message saying, “Rather than promoting a view of self as an entity or as a place with boundaries, the mindfulness practices tend to reveal another dimension of the self-experience, one that has to do with how patterns come together in a temporary and ever-evolving organization. This progression from a spatial metaphor of self to a more temporal one is portrayed in Buddhist literature as inexorable.”
When it comes to cognition, the most important thing mindfulness can teach us is how active and automated our minds actually are. Being quiet is not the natural state of the human mind – we want/need to think, all the time, even (and especially) when we aren’t trying to. Intentional thought is a commodity, and one that the human mind veers away from in order to conserve mental energy.
Most of the time, our minds just wander around on autopilot, responding to cues from our environment and making hard wired associations that play upon and support each other. The mind is in this constant stream that people get swept up, and forget that if they pause, and listen to themselves, there is actually another layer of consciousness in there – not the thinker, but the observer who can actually witness the thoughts coming and going. Being mindful is nothing more than getting in touch with this observational capacity of your mind and learning to identify with it as your objective self – rather than identifying with the spastic, if not downright neurotic, mental chatter in your head.
So where does one turn to develop mindfulness in their own life? There are many options, but I would definitely recommend picking up a book or two that discuss how the brain actually operates. The books I’ve mentioned are both a great start, as is Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” In this book, Kahneman divides the function of the brain into two systems: System 1 is fast, hardwired and intuitive, and System 2 is slower, requires effort and intentional.
Learning about brain science and mindfulness intellectually can be very helpful, but it is not to be confused with actually practicing meditation, nor is it a substitute. Here in Montpelier, there are a few options for those interested in incorporating mindfulness into their daily lives.
Sue Swindell and the DBT program taught me a lot, and they can be reached through Washington County Mental Health. DBT is a branch of cognitive behavioral therapy that merges the eastern traditions of mindfulness with western talk therapy. It was developed in the 70s by  psychologist Marsha M. Linehan, who recently released a new treatment manual for teaching the skills in a group setting. Typically, DBT meets once a week for 90 minutes and is accompanied by a weekly one-on-one therapy session. For information, call WCMH at 223-6328 or visit www.wcmhs.org.
Outside of “therapy” there are also a couple “sitting” groups in the area. These groups typically meet weekly or biweekly for an hour, and practice various forms of mindfulness meditation.
Shambhala Montpelier has a meditation group that anyone can join, and they meet twice a week at 46 Barre Street in their sitting room: Wednesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. and Sunday mornings from 10 to noon. They also have a 30s and Under group that recently started up for younger people, and it meets on Mondays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. For information, get in touch with Felicia Messuri via email at info@montpeliershambhala.org.
Mountains and Rivers Order has a Zen Affiliate in Montpelier, and it meets Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 7:30 at the Loft, 174 River Street. They offer a half-hour orientation session for those interested, and were very nice to me when I contacted them a couple months ago. For more information, visit the Mountains and Rivers website at mro.org/smr/vermont/ or contact Ellie Yuan Hayes at 456-1983 or via email at grhayes1956@comcast.net.
 

118 Words from Jeremy Safran

"In Postmodern thought, one of the central impulses underlying the deconstruction of self is to challenge potentially oppressive functions of tradition and authority. Jacques Derrida, for example “kills” the author of a text, deprives him or her of ultimate authority, by arguing that the final meaning of a text cannot be settled with reference to the author’s intentions. Constructing meaning is an endless hermeneutic enterprise, and the notion of truth is replaced by a ceaseless play of infinite meanings. Michel Foucault challenges what he considers the illusion of self as an autonomous free agent by analyzing the way in which intricate decentered networks of power relations within society lead to the construction of the subjective experience of selfhood.”