Power and the subjectPower is a misnomer. An attempt to adequately define power will ultimately reveal more about the invisible but all-too-real limits of language. Such an outcome may seem terrifying, a direct attack on our sense of reason, and perhaps it is. Power resists reasonable demands to adhere to the boundaries of its own definition. Power can and does on occasion show a quality or intensity observed and captured in the written word; yet there is something elusive that allows power to defy a totalizing description. The power is active. As far as we can write, power will not be objectified. Any discussion about power therefore begins with this disadvantage. There is much to learn, however, from the study of power, knowledge more valuable than a simplistic definition. By focusing on where power exists and has existed we can also discuss how power relates to or impacts knowledge, ethics and the individual." "I mean that in human relationships... power is always present. ..These relations are changeable, reversible and understandable'" (McCarthy 139). Like Foucault, my investigation of power can be founded not in the desire to discover the true nature of power but to acquire a new method of approaching and understanding relations human A fundamental question that arises in the face of power and demands to be taken into consideration is the question of the subject. A concept of the individual, whether seen as a historically bound effect of power like Foucault or as a unique and autonomous creative force like Habermas, seems to underlie and shape any description, definition or discussion of power. For the mother... half of the paper... University of New York Press, 1992. McCarthy, Thomas "The Critique of Impure Reason: Foucault and the Frankfurt School" in Rethinking Power. Thomas E. Wartenberg Ed. New York: State University of New York Press, 1992. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "More on power/knowledge". InRethinking power. Thomas E. Wartenberg Ed. New York: State University of New York Press, 1992. Wartenberg, Thomas E. "Situated Social Power" in RethinkingPower. Thomas E. Wartenberg Ed. New York: State University of New York Press, 1992. Young, Iris Marion. “The Five Faces of Oppression.” InRethinking power. Thomas E. Wartenberg Ed. New York: State University of New York Press, 1992.