ABSTRACT

The work of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre has impacted many fields, but is not often linked to psychoanalysis. This chapter considers the relevance of Sartre’s work for contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice. I argue that adopting a Sartrean perspective can clarify a major theoretical difficulty in ego psychology, object relations theory, and self psychology: the problem of reconciling the discovery of new relational needs in earliest infancy and childhood with Freudian drive theory. I also believe a Sartrean perspective can help us reconceptualize the goal of psychoanalysis and the relationship between analyst and analysand, leading to more effective ways to facilitate significant change in therapy. In a certain sense, existential theory lies between traditional psychology, with its view of a substantive psyche, and postmodern views, which deconstruct and hence discard subjectivity altogether. Sartre’s idea of “prereflective consciousness” or implicit awareness keeps the experiencing subject at the heart of our considerations, while making room for understanding those divisions in consciousness which are the object of psychoanalytic investigations.