The transformative nature of writing according to Michel Foucault

'(J)’écris pour me changer moi-même et ne plus penser la même chose qu’auparavant.’

Michel Foucault, (1994) [1980]. Entretien avec Michel Foucault. In Dits et écrits, t. 4. Paris: Gallimard. #281, p. 42.

I write in order to change myself and in order not to think the same thing as before.’

Michel Foucault, “Interview with Michel Foucault” J. Faubion, ed., Power (New York: New Press, 2000), p. 240.

This quotation from an interview with Foucault expresses how he is not a theorist who writes to analyse the world better. Foucault is writer whose purpose is to change himself - a sort of self-actualisation, if you will.

How many of us are changed by our writing but are too busy to notice?