ABSTRACT
Although Sartre does not present magic as a major theme in his early philosophy, it is striking how frequently he refers to it. The best-known and most sustained example is in Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions, first published in 1939, where Sartre characterizes emotional experience as the manifestation of a magical strategy, whose aim is to transform some difficult situation in which the person finds him or herself. Towards the end of that work Sartre further amplifies the role of magic, in the following remark:
It must not, indeed, be supposed that magic is an ephemeral quality that we impose upon the world according to our humour. There is an existential structure of the world which is magical. We will not now enlarge upon this subject, which we are reserving for treatment elsewhere. However, we are able here and now to point out that the category of ‘magic’ governs the interpsychic relations between men in society and, more precisely, our perception of others.
