Paper short abstract:

Achieving the ideal of a healthy self through lifestyle changes has become a worldwide trend. This paper explores how "healthy subjects" are constructed in a religiously-motivated group that criticizes biomedical enhancement technologies and provides their own interpretation of self-improvement.

Paper long abstract:

We have been witnessing a growing interest in self-improvement projects through the discourses of clean eating, obtaining a fit body and leading an active life. While aiming at achieving an "ideal" healthy self, these projects make individuals focus primarily on themselves. As an extension of the neoliberal understanding of individual development, the concept of self-improvement prioritizes individual willingness over structural determinism in making lifestyle changes. It encourages people to reach the "best" version of themselves by taking control of their daily habits and to "push" their limits by challenging themselves.

When religiously motivated reasons come into play in the neo-liberal context of self-improvement, individualized enhancement goals serve to render a "healthy" subject through spiritual cleansing and leading a "proper" life in compliance with religious orders. By looking at how religiously oriented health practices interact with the neoliberal policies of self-improvement, I will elaborate on how self-enhancement is interpreted within a healing network in Turkey. Being critical of biomedical and biotechnological interventions on the human body, the members of the network recommend eating a healthy diet, cutting back on processed products and opting for environmentally friendly alternatives as self-improvement methods, which bear resemblance to the popular lifestyle trends such as following an alkaline diet, doing water fasting and adopting minimalism. Their emphasis on bodily detox assumes a "dirty" body that should regularly be cleansed to attain a "better" version of the self and to construct a physically and spiritually "healthy" subject.