The paper analyses how and where notions of the self and body occur with scottish health education policy. Following an introduction, which discusses why the cartesian position is a problem, this paper summarises the health education: 5-14 national guidelines curriculum document (learning and teaching scotland, 2000). Second, it analyses this policy's assumptions and understandings about the body and the self. On examination this curriculum displays no evidence of contemporary understanding of theories or philosophies of the body or of the self or of the embodied self, rather it maintains the cartesian mind-body dualism. The central rationale for the three interconnected themes -- physical, emotional and social health - that form the guidelines, is the concept of the health-promoting school. From these concepts, programmes that enable 'the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes in respect of health education' are expected to lead to the sole attainment goal -- 'taking responsibility for health' (learning and teaching scotland, 2000: 7). There is flexibility in how schools can integrate these guidelines into personal and social development programmes and other curriculum areas. The project of the self in contemporary consumer society involves possessing 'desired' goods and the pursuit of particular lifestyles with an increasing importance being placed upon the appearance and presentation of the body as constitutive of self-identity. Health no longer simply involves caring for the body and seeking its optimal functioning, but involves disciplining its appearance, movement and control so that it looks presentable and hence becomes marketable as it transmits a host of codes/signs about the values and attitudes of the owner of such a body. Today, the firm, well-toned and muscled body indicates a 'correct attitude' showing that one 'cares' about oneself and about how one appears to others. This implies personal qualities such as determination, willpower, energy, a self- discipline that controls desires to over-indulge in epicurean pleasures, the ability to 'make something' of oneself and even a form of asceticism that is to a certain extent a denial of self - at least a denial of impulses to indulge the self in terms of food. In contrast, in pre-modern times, bodily discipline and asceticism was sought to serve spiritual ends through repress the temptations of the flesh, today the concern has shifted to the aesthetic cultivation of outer appearance and the hedonistic expression of desire. Ontological questions are raised concerning the nature of bodily order and corporeal transgression. Despite the enlightenment making rationality virtually a cult or a virtue, paradoxically, it has irrationally overestimated rationality's power to control either the emotions or the body. Bodies are clearly subject to discipline and control through discourse - i.e., to (rational) management and control -- and through institutions such as prisons, asylums, factories and schools. The rational impulse is for discipline, control and order while the corporeal impulse is of chaos and transgression, being sensual rather than ascetic, fluid rather than static, volatile rather than fixed. But this continues to promote the old dualisms rather than a more integrated sense of embodied subjectivity. Since our transgressive bodies/recalcitrant minds will always find points of resistance and escape, understanding and incorporating the contemporary philosophy of the embodied self provides a more optimistic view of the body and the emotions in contemporary society, opening space for new possibilities. The health education curriculum is ultimately intended to produce healthy citizens and communities that will foster social order. Yet a somewhat different curriculum might emerge if it were theorised in terms of a philosophy of the body that is based on a materialist social ontology and relevant cultural practices.