Berghahn Books

A Lacanian Elucidation of Sartre

Author(s): Guillermine De Lacoste
Source: Sartre Studies International, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2002), pp. 18-44
Published by: Berghahn Books
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A Lacanian

of Sartre

Elucidation
De

Guillermine

Lacoste

'ten years of literature

For Genet,

of a

are the equivalent

cure.'

psychoanalytic
Saint

Sartre,

Genet.

Freud revealed in that year [1958]

to Sartre prefigures his Idiot de
la famille:
neurosis
and creation go hand in glove - and this is the case
because
neurosis is already a creation,
but a private one, devoid of mean
written in a language
for which he has no key
ing for its author because
'The

(and

how

is one

to open
J.-B.

'The

a strong-box

when

Preface

Pontalis,

the key is inside?)'

to The Freud

Scenario.

that psychoanalysis
offers to modern man is difficult
understanding
and painful because
of the narcissistic humiliation
it inflicts.'
Paul
'Lacan's

Le Conflit

Ricoeur,

of the unconscious

conception

des Interprtations.
is more

interesting

[than
Sartre

on

Freud's].'

The Family

Idiot.

In their 1971 interview with Sartre concerning L'Idiot de la famille,

Michel Contt and Michel Rybalka asked him: 'Aren't you a little
afraid of the idea that someone might try to elucidate you as you did
Flaubert?'

Sartre

answered

'On

calmly,

the

contrary,

I would

be

happy. Like all writers, I hide. But I am also a public man and people
can

think

what

like

they

about

me,

even

if it is severe.'1

of'elucidation' thus has his complete approval.

The term 'elucidation' implies the notions of'neurosis'
- notions

choanalysis'
la famille,
tion

and

of his

Sartre's

which

which

thought

'aggressive

Sartre

played
beginning
"acting

uses

freely

an important

role

with

out "(passage

what

My

project

and of'psy

throughout

L'Idiot

throughout

the

evolu

has

called

Josette

l'acte)'

Pacaly

in 'L'Enfance

de

d'un

chefr (1939).2 In her remarkable Sartre au miroir, Pacaly used Freud

to do a psychoanalytic reading of Sartre's (auto [biographical works, in
Sartre Studies International,

Volume

8, Issue 1, 2002

- 18 -

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A Lacanian

order

to

establish

rosis,

to Pacaly,

ing

that

undeniably

by an archaic

caused

of Sartre

Sartre

neurosis

aim

of the

present

is to

essay

on

a strong

his mother.

became

only

the course of Sartre's (auto)biographical

The

from

suffered

fixation

pre-oedipal

this

however,

Elucidation

more

neu

Accord

severe

during

works (SM).3
show,

how

rather,

Sartre

used

what Betty Cannon calls his 'psychobiographies,' to 'auto-analyse'

himself and eventually, after a long journey, come to terms with his
neurosis.4

He
du

L'Ange

first

La.

morbide,
because

sciously',

carried

out

Nause

at that

this
and

self-analysis

Sartre

time,

was

in

unconsciously

et le Nant.

L'Etre

not

I say

'uncon

conscious

entirely

of

the multiple possible meanings of the signifiers which flowed from

his pen.5

Doubrovski

Serge

gynotexte

dans

view

that

he

'the

bisexual

La

that

Nause1,

had

not

crisis

for example,

writes,

been
of

Sartre

while

conscious,

the

in his

admitted

'Phallotexte

to him
La

writing
and

character/narrator'

in an

et
inter
of

Nause,

that

he

only

realised it later on, in a rereading certainly after his introduction

to psychoanalysis.6

Sartre

Similarly,

himself

admitted

to his interlocu

tor, at the time of an interview with the New Left Review in 1969,
that

he

although

ment
because

he

below

tried
this

not

had

consciousness,
He

experience.'
It was

that

is what

the

sees

subject

of his own

is that

in

the

later

call

his

would

unconscious.

text,

rationalistic

on

on

the

are
'lived

allowed

'lived

psychoanaly
and

psychoanalyst
that

makes

Cartesian

section

1960s

existential

'the

Sartre

his position
because

certainly

quite

which

in the
he

person',

What

'irrationalism',

et le Nant.7

that
same

a 'monu

into

an

processes

to call

chapter

the

end

the

began

of L'Etre

self-analysis.8
same

the

unconsciously

possibility
be

in the

Yet,

he

the

et le Nant

in

control

that

as he wrote

he

to

text

of psychoanalysis

conscious
ical,

able

the

L'Etre

became

concedes

thus

perhaps

in which

to make
text

been

to infiltrate

experience'

sis,

had

of rationality',

he

heritage,
'viscous'

the

became
paradox

of what

he
the

precludes

in L'Etre

et le Nant

which closely follows that on existential psychoanalysis, signifiers

indicating anxiety and phobias related to the mother, and certainly
to do

having

with

Sartre's

come

unconscious,

out

en masse.

This is also the case with the four biographies of neurotic artists
that

Sartre

(1946),
Sartre's

in the

wrote

Mallarm

decade

L'Etre

et le Nant-.

surfaces

momentarily

Baudelaire

Tintoretto

Jean Genet (1949)

(1948),

unconscious

after

throughout

these

(1952).
biogra

phies, expressed through a great number of signifiers. In Baudelaire,

for

example,

the

fact

that

there
as

is the

Sartre

there is Baudelaire's

puts

question

of the

it, Baudelaire

young
was

poet's

androgyny,

a 'man-woman',

and

'desire for union with the body and soul of his

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Guillermine

De Lacoste

mother through a kind of mystical participation.'9

there

is the

of the

metonymy

look

as

rape,

In Saint Genet
which

look/rape

Sartre

calls Genet's 'original crisis': 'the look of the other surprised him and
and

him,

penetrated

transformed

him

forever

into

an

object.'10

Androgyny, desire for symbiosis with the mother, the look as 'origi
nal crisis' - these are all important signifiers in Sartre's unconscious.
I would

that

argue

his

were

biographies

him

for

a means

of

self

analysis, and that while writing them he became more and more con
scious

of

allowed

various

him

In

the

to terms

period

of L'Etre

the

unconscious.

concerning

his

of

aspects

to come

own

with

neurosis.11

it in a rather

et le Nant,
While

Sartre

This

eventually

particular

manner.12

rather

ambivalent

was

to recognise

beginning

the work

ings of his own unconscious, he still theoretically denied its exis

tence. Angelo Hesnard's Apport de la Phnomnologie la Psychanalyse
which

(1954)

denies

a theoretical

to

conscious

and

lived

is present

that

the

boon

verbalisable

the

that
later

incorporate

along

with

Lacan's
his own

import,

in

when,

film screenplay
himself
'invented'

is not

notion

of the

unconscious,

version

of the

unconscious.14
must

self-analysis
while

1958,

he

Huston,

from

in

psychoanalysis

that

order

to

not

but

treat

and

linguistic
a leap
for a

work)
had

only

that
heal

inactuel',

taken

and

he

vcu
Sartre

fact,

its

have

(man

realised

and

vcu

with

certainly

neurosis,

strong

In

of the

Freud

studying

'the

(le

present

awareness.13

Hesnardian

the

between

is, a conceptualisable

that

notion

for John

suffered

lived

non-verbalised

this

Sartre's

Meanwhile,
forward

'the

therefore

between

differentiates

that

actuel)',

and

is, a latent,

would

into

Hesnard

vcu

(le

was

unconscious,

of distinguishing

Instead

unconscious,

awareness,

inactuel)',

of the

existence

Sartre.

Freud

had

himself.

also
Sartre

could thus see that his own series of biographies were in fact a varia
tion

of Freud's

had

to

case-histories.15

convince

It is interesting

who

Huston,

did

not

that

understand

it is Sartre
what

the

who

uncon

scious really was, of its great importance for Freud (IT, 30 and FS,
Still, Sartre remained averse to what he termed 'Freud's

XII).

strange

of

representation

the

unconscious

as

a set

of mechanistic

determinations' (IT, 37). This is because, as Andrew Leak has pointed

Sartre

out,

seems

the unconscious
Freud,

'enables

to have

them

to

aims and objects' (PC,

also

repulsed

the

ignored

or transformability

plasticity

drives (Trieb, not Instinkt) which, according

by their

some

140).

very

extent

to

be

satisfied

by

of

to

substitutes

I would add that Sartre was probably

corporality,

a repulsion

having

its roots

in

his neurosis. It is this very plasticity and corporality that are at the
heart

of Lacan's

theory

of sublimation,

a theory

that

I shall

discuss

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A Lacanian

Elucidation

of Sartre

later on in this essay before I apply it to Sartre's own sublimation, as

he journeys from the Imaginary to the Symbolic.
This

is only

Freud

to

an

one

of the

reasons
of

elucidation

I find

why

Sartre.

Other

Lacan

better

reasons

suited

include

than

Lacan's

and linguistic genealogy (Hegel, Heidegger, Saussure,

Merleau-Ponty), which makes his thought much closer to that of
philosophical

Sartre than that of Freud, with its biological

whole
that

it was

the

of cross-influence

history

Sartre
and

gaze

Sartre

who

lack

when

he

between

first influenced

are

discusses

these

and

Lacan.

It is clear

as far as the

Lacan,
since

concerned,

Lacan

refers

This

notions.16

and the

genealogy,

Sartre

notions

of
to

specifically

influence,

however,

lies outside of the scope of the present article. But Lacan's influence
on

the

Sartrean

notion

of comprehension

was

for the

important

suc

cess of Sartre's self-analysis, as it is for my elucidation of Sartre.

The opposition between symbolic knowledge {le savoir symbolique)
or knowledge of the subject {la connaissance du sujet) and the imagi

nary knowledge of the ego {la connaissance imaginaire de l'ego), is at

the heart of Lacan's thought. According to him, this subject, who is
is extremely difficult, indeed almost
buried in the unconscious,
to

impossible
fies

which

because

decipher,

of the

represent

perpetual

of the

and

him/her,

of the

sliding

bar

which

signi
the

separates

signifier from the signified.

In his interview with the New Left Review, Sartre refers specifically
to

Lacan

to the

in connection

with

and

unconscious

He

'comprehension.'

to lived

and

experience

links

this

notion

it to intellec

opposes

tual knowledge (IT, 41).17 This is the fist time that Sartre demon
strates

his acceptance

), and

this

well

of the

shows

the

unconscious,

(albeit

distance

he

that

his own

has

version
in

covered

of it

his

self

analysis from the 1930s to 1969.18

Sartre

at that

realised

certainly

of Lacan's

between

opposition

time
the

the

two

great

kinds

importance,

for him,

of knowledge.

More

over, Lacan helped him grasp why his project of openly naming and
articulating his desire (such as psychoanalysis wishes it) should be
such

a Herculean

The

task.

terms

which

Sartre

uses

to

what

explain

comprehension of the lived experience is for him, show his rapproche

ment

with

Lacan

on

this

subject:

'never

comprehension

achieves

explicit expression', the unconscious cannot be named and 'continu

ally escapes from us', the language of comprehension 'will always be
and

inadequate'
links

here

received

what
in

one's

'will
he

calls

often
'the

childhood

have
stress
-

to

a metaphorical
of a neurosis'
this

lived

structure.'
-

experience

'neither named nor known' but only comprehended

a specific
which

Sartre
wound
can

be

(IT, 41-42).

-21 -

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De Lacoste

Guillermina

The

Lacanian
and

subject

between

opposition

the

the

knowledge

imaginary

symbolic
of the

of the

knowledge
is related

ego

to

his

major distinction between the Imaginary and the Symbolic and to

the

necessary

other,

with

the

refuse

to the

Lacan

has

never

albeit
castration

it.

is a most
an

for it proposes

this

passage

of his life to accept

end

described

sublimation

completed

that

It

is for

alternate

implies.

one

father,

Lacan's

that

from

passage

the

would
such

as
of

theory

of Sartre

for an elucidation

for the

to

Sartre

by the

reason

guide

path

from
But

castration

this

appropriate

passage

the

Imaginary

to the Symbolic, akin to the one which Sartre most likely followed.
Lacan succinctly defines sublimation in the following terms: 'it raises
the object to the dignity of the Thing.'19 The object relation is that
of the

fusion

pre-oedipal

is narcissistic,

with
to

belongs

the

the

and

mother,

of the
must

and

Imaginary

mirror

be

It

stage.

abandoned

at

the time of the oedipal crisis, but the Thing which Lacan, following
Heidegger, likes to call Ans Ding- is at the heart of the Symbolic.
The symbolic signifier denotes what has been lost - a lack of
being {un manque tre.) The reconciliation sought by desire,
between the symbolic signifier and the experience of an object that
represents imaginarily the rediscovery of the original lost object, is in

principle

but

impossible,

onciliation.

It

thus

after having

again,

The
Lacan

studies

which

he

lost

object
two

the

represents

what

has

been

success

of this

rec

found

paradoxically

forever.

Relation

Object
the

Thing

symbolises
been

devotes

the

in depth

relation
hundred

to Lacan

according
in

to

pages

his

the

fourth

in

Seminar,

of little

case

Hans

described by Freud, but which he reinterprets. Little Hans was in

fact

a certain

Herbert

Graff,

than

Sartre.

It is very

fruitful

- in
parallel,

similar
litde

Hans.

We

can

in 1904.

see,

He

to examine

Lacan's

using
thus

born

the

observations

not

how

only

was

two

thus

cases

and
Sartre

a year older
- in fact
very
of

interpretations
his

expresses

neu

rosis in his writings, but how these helped him to restructure his
insertion

in

enter

symbolic.

the

In

the

his study

come

world,
of the

object

out

relation,

of the

Lacan

imaginary

and

explains

that

eventually
the

mother

of the primitive, pre-oedipal fixation is the primordial object. She is

the

object

desired,

for her

presence

and

for the

satisfaction

that

her

presence brings the child,20 but the child is satisfied only if he feels
that

he

is also

'the

object

of his

mother's

love',

that

is to say that

he

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A Lacanian

Elucidation

of Sartre

brings her pleasure and satisfaction, that his presence commands her
presence. This 'being loved' is fundamental for the child (RO, 224).
Between

six

and

in the

months,

eighteen

second

moment

of the

mirror experience (after the initial jubilation), the child has the expe
rience and the apprehension of his mother's and his own possible
lack.

Lacan

twist

to Hegel's

identifies

mother's

the

lack

of desire,

theory

the

as the

lack

of the

wants

child

In

phallus.

to become,

accord

ing to Lacan, the object of the mother's desire, by filling the original
he

lack

in the mother,
and substitute
perceives
- that is become
for her the phallus

to this

himself

lack

to Lacan,

According

this

of the

phantasy

which

provisionally
she

lacks.

mother

phallic

is 'essen

tial to the mother-child relationship' (RO, 356). The child wants to

lure the mother's desire by being her phallus. Lacan speaks of the
play/game of the phallus on both sides. For little Hans, there is the
veiling and unveiling of the hidden object. For the mother, he is an
indispensable appendix. He is the metonymy of her desire. She drags
him

to the

everywhere,

in her

toilet,

bed.

She

underwear

changes

in

front of him. For Poulou, the situation was somewhat similar, since
he

was

his

mother's

and

Pacaly

in Les

the

Mots,

to a trouble

metonymy

till the

companion
Louette

Jean-Franois

told

episode

constant

and

both

that

suggest

trouble'

lvoix

troublant

of ten.

age

of the

in

Josette

the

mother

bath

refers

by

child.21

Lacan tells us that the oedipal crisis takes place rather suddenly -

when

child

the

discovers

that

his

mother

lacks

a penis.

For

little

Hans, this takes place in the game of veiling and unveiling, at about
For

four.

this

Poulou,
to

according
faked

being

beside

him,

Sartre's

unfolds
in

testimony,
in

asleep

drama

undress.22

order

to

And

the

see

at

only

his

mother,

also

child

twelve,

age

for

a hospital

an

who

discovers

when,
he

operation,
on

slept
that

the

a cot

mother

desires something else than him, beyond what he aspired to be for

her, i.e., her phallus. For little Hans, this happens when he has a new
little sister; for Poulou, when his mother has a new husband: the
engineer
For

Mancy.

the

father's

role

He

is primordial.

is at the

centre

of the

crisis. He interdicts the mother under pain of castration.

oedipal
Lacan

the

Lacan,

of the

speaks
child

father's

his or her

to negotiate

successfully

which

intervention',

'sanctioning

Oedipus

allows
and

complex

to

pass from the Imaginary to the Symbolic. Lacan emphasises in later

sessions

of the

Seminar,

what

he calls

the father is weak (little Hans'

lure

of the

unbearable.

relation

to

A short-circuit

the

mother
takes

'the

law

of the

father.'

case) or absent (Poulou's

becomes

place.

A chasm

But

anxiety-provoking
suddenly

when

case), the
opens

and
up

-23

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in

De Lacoste

Guillermina

front of the child. He develops the primordial fear of being devoured

and

by the

engulfed
Lacan

the

form

of a new

do

likewise

with

He

mother.

us that,

tells

as the

structure

and

regresses

child

to this
him

of supporting

capable

a neurosis.

develops

a solution

seeks

in

problem,
and

stopping

him from being engulfed, he (or the adult) creates a myth - 'the myth
of the neurotic.' This notion of myth allows Lacan to give a fruitful
analytic interpretation of the story of little Hans, and will allow us to
Sartre's

in La

story

Nause

and

et le Nant

L'Etre

and beyond in Les Mots, the Family Idiot, and L'Espoir maintenant.
It is by organising his imaginary into a myth that the neurotic can
progress from the imaginary to the symbolic. According to Lacan,
the

serves

myth

as

a revision

the

to

which

system

structured

the

child's relation to the mother. This revision is accomplished with the

help of multiple signifiers. Lacan speaks of a signifying constellation
which creates a transformation system and profoundly modifies the
signified (RO, 293).

Anxiety suddenly appears when the child (or the young adult)
feels 'sidelined' ( hors de jeu) each time that he becomes, no matter
how imperceptibly, 'unstuck from his existence' (RO, 244, 226). It
is the end of the game in w hich he was what he was not, in which he
was

that

Hans,
the

'he

function

As

soon

ated
child

adult

mother

from

who

points'

world
(RO,

is anxious

to restructure

neurotic

Phobias
of his

that

the

from

to him

seems

of

245).

affirms

245).

little

about

he is relieved

(RO,

the

because

writes
once

Lacan

protects
'the

emerges,

Lacan

metonymy
anxiety.

of phobias
alarm

dangerous

or the

by the

heart

as a phobia

by

desired.

as nothingness'

his mother's

different

is at the

which

himself

imagines

are

mother

the

of being

Phobias

he

that

everything

to be

punctu

thus

imagined

fear

anxiety.

help

the

rejection

his world.

Little Hans'

anxiety comes from his feeling of supreme privation:

feels

to give

unable
unfolds

opment

his mother

around

the

she

wants.

His

mythic

devel

of the

horse

and

of the

phobia

what

signifier

that he has of the horse. Pie tells his father 'A cause du cheval, j'ai
attrap

la

btise'

('Because

of the

horse,

I've

nonsense'

the

caught

317). This phrase, with its multiple signifiers, is an analyst's

- and it is the
gem
linchpin of Freud's analysis of little Hans and of
(RO,

Lacan's

two-hundred

page

lucubration

on

the

subject.

It

indicates

that the four-year old boy well realises that the horse signifies his
- which he dubs 'la btise'. He seems to have chosen that
phobia
word,

(a

'btise',

or

nonsense,

being

something

incongruous

or

illogical that a child says), because he sees no logical relationship

between the horse and his phobia, (the unconscious link being, of
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A Lacanian

Elucidation

of Sartre

course, non-logical). Furthermore, the words 'j'ai attrap la btise'

indicate both Hans' perspicacity and his disorientation. Contrary to
the usual 'btise' spoken by a child in jest and without constraint,
this btise is the doer: it takes hold of little Hans without any control
on

his

part.

Central

to

his

is that

phobia

horse

the

bites

the

(thus

possibility of being devoured), and falls (little Hans has fallen from
his mother's love). His phobia always appears when he feels that his
mother's love is lacking.
Little Hans is learning to play with images. The two giraffes that
he has drawn are the product of a teeming imaginary trying to find a
new

symbolic

configuration.

to

According

with

Lacan,

the

two

giraffes 'Hans phallicises the mother in her entirety in the shape of a

double' (RO, 253). Hans crumples the small giraffe and sits on it.
He

could

not

have

found

a better

to express

metaphor

his new

tenta

tive relationship to his mother and thus effect a firstpassage from the
imaginary to the symbolic. But his analysis with Freud remained, at
that point, unfinished.
Lacan notes that, since his anxiety had disappeared, little Hans
had achieved a partial resolution of his Oedipus complex; however,
as

he

did

not

- Lacan

path

go

the

through

asserts

that

this

castration

resoution

but

complex,
was

In

atypical.

via
the

another
that

path

he took, it is the maternal phallus that dominates. Little Hans who

is, Lacan

tells

culinity

with

Lacan's

final

'the

us,
this

of two mothers',
daughter
- and
he thus
has no

phallus

his

assumes

mas
His

superego.23

mother lives in his imagination and he will have imaginary children.

verdict

ation,

proven

by

adult,

he does

not

La Nause,

is that
the

fact

remember

little
that,

Hans

underwent

when

Freud

sees

an

essential

him

again

alien
as

an

anything.

first version

of the myth of the neurotic

La Nause has often been perceived as autobiographical, but it is cer

tainly also 'an organisation, by its author, of the imaginary into a
myth', in order to effect a restructuring of his world. This myth
search for a new structure that would
implies Sartre/Roquentin's
him
from
being engulfed by the Thing (here the devouring
stop
mother).24 It also implies a signifying constellation (nausea, things,
rape, mud, fear, murder, stones, dirty papers), whose role is the re
orientation of the signified.
Like little Hans, who once exclaimed 'That's it! I've caught the
stupid thing!' (that is, his recurring phobia) (RO, 317) when his
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Guillermine

mother
ning
the

to be

began
of La

lacking,

Nause:

nausea.'25

Roquentin
are

'Things

Like

his

De Lacoste

bad:

he

predecessor,

exclaims

towards

caught

it, the

I've

realises

his

that

the

begin
thing,

filthy

is unwillingly

completely subjected to an irrational spell which seizes him willy

nilly (or so it seems at first). His nausea is indeed the unbearable
of being

anxiety
is

when

he

Cheminots

is absent,

Roquentin

catches

ne's

absence

second

by the

engulfed

discovers

that

the

he

was

as

patronne

nausea,

could

be

as a metaphor

that

nausea

time

seizes

of
to

coming

for good,

read

- as discussed

mother

him,

the

love

make

for the

by Lacan.
to

of the

Roquentin

her,

The

first time.
absent

that

patron

mother.

The
'the

laconically:

says

It
des

Rendez-vous

Thing which was waiting, was alerted, it swooped down on me' (N,
141). And in the park scene he says about the Thing: 'It must
invade you suddenly, weigh heavily on your heart, like a great
motionless beast' (N, 186). As the numerous signifiers in this scene
indicate, the Thing is the signifier of the mother in her negative,
obscene

instance.

Like little Hans, Roquentin/Sartre develops a number of phobias,

each aligned with a particular fear. They protect him from the anxiety
of being devoured by the Thing. It is in fact of all the things in his
- the

world
afraid.

Thing

First,

into

dispersed

there

are

all

the

- that

plurality

things

that

is

Roquentin/Sartre

touch

the

you,

stone

that

Roquentin cannot pick up, then the paper lying in the mud. They
touch him 'like living beasts' (N, 10,20,21,22).
There is also 'the
with
its
flaccid
and
flesh
that
grey thing'
insipid
palpitates with
obscene laisser-aller (his face), followed by his whole body - about
which

Roquentin/Sartre

in parallel

speaks

with

the

raped,

strangled

body of little Lucienne, assaulted from behind and left bruised, in the
mud (N, 30, 144-146). The thing of the human body is thus linked
to the sexually perverse, to the sordid. Finally all the things in the
park

that

order

are

of nature,

part

naked,

these

in a frightful,

monstrous

'soft,

obscene

nakedness',

all in dis

masses,
are

also

related

to

the fear of the protagonist's fear of the sexual (N, 180).

L'Etre

first

reading

expressing
Sartre

had

world,

and

his

et le Nant: second version

of the neurotic
of

L'Etre

anxiety
now

Nant

through
been

able

had

Roquentin's

reoriented

completely
had

et le

the

to create

of the myth

reassured
phobias

signified,
a logical,

us
in

that,
La

restructured
rational,

after

Nause,
his

systematic

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A Lacanian

However,

compendium.
are

there

in

fact

two

Elucidation

subsequent
texts

in

of Sartre

made

readings

L'Etre

et le Nant,

me

realise

that
and

superimposed

imbricated with each other. The firstis that which Sartre had dubbed
'a

monument

of rationality.'

It

tells

the

known

story

lycens in their philosophy class, of consciousness,

which

is

and

nothingness

and

transcendence,

all

by

French

or the for-itself,
whose

existential

nature is that of a lack; and of the in-itself, which is being and full
but

ness,

which,

being

carries

for-itself

is pure

non-conscious,

two

out

simultaneous

immanence.26
the

projects:

But

first is that

the

of fill

ing its lack, of being at once consciousness and fullness, that is to say
of becoming in-itself-for-itself;and the second is that of appropriat
ing the world as a totality of being-in-itself, under the form of the
consciousness of the other, of the body of the other (le trouble) and
finally of the in-itself itself (the viscous). According to the rigorous
Sartrean logic and ontology, the firstproject is impossible to realise,
the

and

But

for-itself

is thus

second

the

a useless

passion.

of the

project

that

for-itself,

of the

appropriation

of the world, becomes, in the end, impossible because the in-itself

suddenly transforms itself metonymically into the viscous, and like
the

mother

engulfing

of

the

of

myth

the

threatens

neurotic,

to

engulf the for-itself.The first(rational) text thus becomes, in fact, by

virtue

of its second
with

dealing
it becomes

the

in fact a new
Towards
that

the

version

this

bestowed
to be

anxiety,
the

are

of Lacan's

subject

which

because

the

fear

of the

men

tax

forms

which
viscous,
- are for Sartre

or

at the

absence

plenitude?
of the

heart

that

(IT,

the

guardrails

say,

which

is

41-42).
announces

in the

face

of

of the

second

of the

mother

who

reveals

itself

Anxiety

of the

phobias

far more

is to

and

Sartre

signification

his original

to the

'irrationalism',

of its freedom

of the

and

an

neurotic

et le Nant,

because
to

called

it is imbricated,
of the

L'Etre

trouble,

linked

has

consciousness',

myth

of

according
if not

Sartre
below

with

is anguished

But,
on

text,

beginning

for-itself

nothingness.
why

that

second

the

what

project,

'processes

than

look,

alarms,

that

text,

of le

police

protect

him

against his anxiety. His discourse on angst implies that if he man

aged to control the bad faith to which it gives rise, he would be in
to
charge of his anxiety, which would become 'an obligation
remake the self (EN, 66-82), but his phobias not only protect him
against anxiety, (which, under its original form of nausea, simply
becomes in L'Etre et le Nant an insipid taste underlying all his
experience):

the signified.

more

importantly,

they

lead

towards

a reorientation

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of

Cuiller mine De Lacoste

The Look
The phobia of the look is the first phobia of the neurotic. The text
on this phobia (of being seen by the other) swarms with signifiers.
The

look

of the

other

degrades

and

alienates

me

scendence

freezes

me,

from

me,

me

strips

of my tran

It is thus

my possibilities.

extremely

disturbing. We grasp this disturbing aspect when Sartre offers a sig

nifier

of prime

the

importance:

shame

that

the

accompanies

look

is

'my original fall' (EN, 349). The word 'fall' evidently refers to the
Fall of Adam and Eve when, guilty in the eyes of God, they are cast
out

from

But

paradise.

Sartre

to the

adds

'fall'

word

the

word

'origi

nal', which refers to original sin, thus underlining the importance of

the guilt attendant upon being looked at by the other (EN, 349). 27
Doubtless, Poulou's 'original fall' was the remarriage of his mother.
He

was

then

from

expelled

by the

paradise

los

thus

Mancy,

engineer

ing his Edenic life with his mother (during which he could calmly
dream of incest with an older sister.)
Certain critics, such as Alain Buisine, associate Sartre's fear of the
look primarily with his ugliness, which he discovered only at the time
of the

traumatic

in question,

event

the source of his ugliness,

himself

Sartre

seems

to

even

the

though

corroborate

this

speck

on

his eye,

several years earlier.28

had developed

when

interpretation

he

writes in Les Mots that his discovery of his ugliness, was for him 'the
caustic lime in which the marvellous child was dissolved' (M, 204).
29

To

be

seen

love

unique

as

ugly

one's

by

mother

not

is evidently

to

be

her

anymore.
it is not

However,

Poulou's

but

ugliness,

the

compound

of

guilt

his original 'sin' that is the principal signifier of the phobia of the
look.

The

which

scene

in the

by Sartre

(told

Poulou's

mother

him

gives

film

two

Sartre
on

slaps

par
the

in

lui-mme),

face

because

he

has been cheeky to his stepfather, is pivotal. It is from this moment

on, that, as Sartre tells us in the film, he broke his emotional links
with his mother, without, however, separating himself from her
libidinally.30 He writes in L'Etre et le Nant that the phobia of the
look

above

is,

other

can

all,

become,

by incantation
unable

to

to his

keep

mother's

the

fear

of the

and

that

this

instrument'

'explosive

fear

is 'a

conduct,

magical

to suppress the frightening object,

at a distance
incensed

(EN,

look

This

356).

(which

was

the

tending

which we are

is certainly

for Poulou

that

a reference

alienating

and

- that
degrading, and which made him 'fall into the midst of things')
her

accompanied
one
the

slap,

that

Sartre

later

look,

which

he had

on

called

the
'the

for many

occasion

of this

intruder'
long

(EN,

years,

may

altercation
349).
well

The
have

with

the
of

phobia
been

such

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A Lacanian

a 'magical

conduct',

at a distance.
what

Lacan

Elucidation

in this

designed

Oddly, this passage

has

written

on

the

of Sartre

case

to keep

his

mother's

anger

bears a distinct resemblance

to

of phobias.

subject

Le Trouble
When the engineer Mancy expelled Poulou from his paradise by tak
ing his mother from him, he could nevertheless not accomplish the
child's

the

- either

castration

instead

of four),

mother

or

with

because

because

he

enough

it was
was

too

too
or

authority,

late

weak
both

was

(Poulou
did

and

not

at once.31

twelve

interdict

Poulou

thus

continued to live in the pre-oedipal stage and to desire his mother and this desire was multiplied tenfold by the presence of the
intruder.

But

he

must

have

certainly

had

to effect

on

himself

a pow

erful repression in order to follow the dicta of society.

In

the

writes

'desire

to discuss

how

can

fact,
risks

that

rather,

like

to

the

defined

wreaks

devoted

as

havoc

to

le trouble',

with

the

Sartre

desire,

and

he

for-itselPs

goes

on

search

for

The whole section on le trouble reads, in

456).

a manual

le trouble

et le Nant

be

only

le trouble

translucidity (EN,
almost

of L'Etre

section

long

that

poses

for

seminarians,

to the

salvation

transcendence

of the

the

enumerating
of their

for-itself

(or

immortal
to

various
or

souls,
of Sartre.)

that

For, in le trouble, the for-itself (or Poulou / Sartre) would risk the
submersion, the thickening, the glue ing up, and the clogging of
their

consciousnesses

transparent

by

themselves

abandoning

to

the

body (EN, 451-469).32

We

know
of her

days

Beauvoir's

relationship

with

of her

passion
ble,

through

during

Entretiens

with

and

desire,

which

she

Sartre,

Sartre,

that

was

La

torn

this

led

de

We

in his

that,

l'ge

unable

to her

apart.33

in fact,

that,

Force
he was

long
also

in the

to respond
bout
learn

relationships

with
in
with

early
to the

le trou

her

1974

women,

Sartre avoided le trouble throughout his life (CAtEJPS, 385). For,

was not the desire that causes le trouble 'a primitive mode of relation
ship with the other' that he had to avoid at all costs? (EN, 462).
The Viscous
Sartre

presents

the

existential

section

psychoanalysis

of L'Etre

et le

Nant, in which he discusses the viscous, as a rational treatise, (as the

rest of the book purports to be), dealing 'objectively' with 'the surge
of human freedom' and 'the choice of the subject' (EN, 569-571).
But

under

tential

the

pretext,

psychoanalysis

or

the

of the

unconscious

viscous,

Sartre

camouflage,
lets

himself

of this
fall head

exis
first

into Lacan's myth of the neurotic - with its anxiety of engulfment by

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Guillermine

the

mother.

For

that

itself,

the

the

Sartre,
for-itself

De Lacoste

is a perfect

viscous

wants

to

metaphor
in

appropriate

its

of the

in

in

the

entirety,

grand finale of its epic of appropriation. But in a sudden reversal, it is

the in-itself that cunningly appropriates the for-itself. This story
could

be

read

as a displacement

of that

of Poulou/Sartre,

for whom

the appropriation of his mother was an acquired fact ('my mother

was mine, no one contested my tranquil possession of her') (M, 24)
-

till

time

the

reversal

of her

in their

an

remarriage,
and

relationship,

which

event

because

a sudden

caused

of which

Poulou

developed

the anxiety of being engulfed by her. In L'Etre et le Nant, this anxi

of

ety

engulfment

the

by

or

viscous

the

by

mother

rise

gives

to

great number of signifiers/phobias which protect him against her.

There is the risk of being trapped by the viscous in a sweetish and
feminine revenge. There is the flaccidity of the viscous, which risks
possessing the for-itself (or Poulou/Sartre) with a horrifying femi
nine suction; and there is the obscenity of the feminine sex - which
is that of everything which gapes open (EN, 695-706).
This gaping is certainly one of the signifiers of the fear of castra
tion

in

the

amorous

act

that

the

for-itself

(and

about which Sartre speaks in this text (EN,

by the

engulfment
the

here

father)

well

as the

denial

mother

becomes
of the

salient

point

absence

or the

of castration

anxiety

and

The anxiety of

by the

of

weakness

as

mother,

father.34

Towards
The

by the

(caused
the

706).

have

Sartre)

of the

the Symbolic

Lacanian

of the

interpretation

three

phobias

of the for-itself and of Poulou/Sartre, that I have just proposed, is

that the protagonist in question has confined himself in the myth of
the neurotic. Thanks to his obsession with the phallic mother, the
mother's
for

her

look

alienating
anymore;

makes

le trouble,

him

that

realise

desire

that

for

the

he

is not

mother

everything
makes

him

feel, is multiplied tenfold because of the presence of the intruder, but

is strongly repressed because of the laws of society. The viscous is a
metaphor of the gulf which has opened up in front of the for-itself
when

(Poulou/Sartre),
become

unbearable,

the

and

lure

that

of the

relationship

a short

by

circuit

to the

mother

has

developed

he

primordial fear of engulfment by her.

All

these

elements

are

in the

imaginary,

but

according

to

has

Lacan,

such a reactivation of imaginary elements by the neurotic helps him

to restructure

his world

and

to progress

towards

the

symbolic.

L'Etre

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A Lacanian

Elucidation

of Sartre

et le Nant certainly played this role for Sartre because, as early as

1947 to 1948, he effected a partial restructuring of his philosophy.
In the Cahiers pour une morale the disinterested gifting of authentic

love (a pure generosity in which I assume myself by losing myself),

has

the

replaced

of the

other.

desire

But

to appropriate

masochism

or

the

consciousness

sadism

have

not

or the

completely

body
disap

peared, and the hyperactive and protective lover is a Pygmalion who

creates the vulnerable and fragile object of his love.35

The loss of the neurotic's anxiety and of the phobias that accom
pany it, is, according to Lacan, the sign that he is on his way towards
the

we

Indeed,

symbolic.36

L'Etre

et le Nant

only

in Sartre's

find

few

very

works

after

elements

phobic

the

that

of

period

the

protect

neurotic against anxiety. Les Chemins de la Libert, published from

1945 to 1949, are full of phobias of feminine sexuality, (a sign of the
caused

anxiety
when

he

Carnets

by the

discovers
de la

engulfing

that

drle

de guerre

such

mother),

Marcelle

is pregnant.

that

Sartre

as Mathieu's
But

we

to write

began

son as early as 1938 and, through the Chronology

Oeuvres

he

that

romanesques,

Le

wrote

Sursis

and

reaction

know

from

the

de Rai

L'Age

provided in the

L'Etre

et le Nant

simultaneously in 1942 (OR, LXVII). It is thus not surprising to

find in the first two volumes of the trilogy the same phobias as in
L'Etre

et le Nant.
Sartre

However,
dans

l'me,

pour

une

to

young

Goetz

accuses

volume

can

be

of Les

at the

same

of attitude
in

seen

mail

as
the

tender

but

between

the

Mort

Cahiers

female

place

body

passionate,

Pinette

takes

clerk

La

Chemins,

time

towards

the

love
scene
sexism),
- which
moreover

without

woman

third
1948,

his change
as

there,

not

(though

the

1947

and

morale,

is noticeable

wrote

in

only

and

the

in a field

of

wheat and poppies (beyond Sartre's phobia of nature). It's only in

Le Diable et le bon Dieu, written in 1951, in which for example,
Hilda

of being

a 'bag

of excrement',

that

we

find

backwash of the phobia which Sartre had, for a long time, of the
female body - the metonymy of his fear of the phallic mother.
neurosis

Sartre's

being

similar

to

that

of

little

Hans,

Lacan's

description of the latter's atypical Oedipus complex is extremely use

ful for our understanding of Sartre's journey towards the symbolic,
after L'Etre et le Nant. Like little Hans, Sartre had a maternal ideal:
he identified with his mother and assumed his masculinity through
this identification.37 Like him, he suffered a deep alienation, and, like
little

Sartre

Hans,

Pacaly

asserts,

of references

to

took
and
all

another
backs

of Sartre's

up

path
her

than

that

assertion

(auto)biographical

of castration.

through

a great number
- references

works

-31

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Guillermine

that

she

in the

summarises
-

conclusion
mother

the

and

tification.

the

fact

she

But,

form

of a psychoanalytic

Sartre's

identification

alienation

deep

of castration.

that

of

does

that
notice

not

Thus,

De Lacoste

he suffered
that
to

according

he

the

took

phallic

of this

because
another

Sartre's

her,

in her

narrative
with

iden
than

path

or

alienation

his

neurosis only deteriorated during the course of his (autobiographi

cal writings, till L'Idiot de la famille in which, according to her,
Sartre became downright perverse (SM, 325).
This

other

but

ation/neurosis,
alienation

deep

continued
morbide

taken

path

was

was

by Sartre

I suggest
the

here,

result

of

unlike

that,
an

that

maintenant,

L'Espoir

devoid

of alien

Hans,

whose

analysis,

Sartre

little

uncompleted

work (from L'Ange

through his (auto)biographical

to

not

certainly

is to

some

say

forty

du
an

years),

then conscious) which

assiduous self-analysis (first unconscious,
him
to
a
sublimation.
This
sublimation brought
helped
accomplish
about in reality a transformation of his imaginary object relation into
the Symbolic Thing, of the phallic mother into a mothering mother,

of his personal mother into a universal mother. He could thus finally

the

accept

lack

in

her

and

in

himself,

and

come

to

which

he

terms

with

his

wrote

in paral

alienation/neurosis.
It is especially
lel

from

1952

undertaken
marise

in Les Mots

and

we

can

that

on,

by Sartre.

Lacan's

But

in L'Idiot,

the

perceive

it is necessary,

of

work

first, for us

sublimation

briefly

to

sum

of sublimation.

theory

Sublimation

to Lacan

according

One of the principal dogmas of Freud, and of Lacan (in his fourth
Sminaire), is that we must not only go beyond the 'primitive, imag
inary relation' to the mother (the object relation), but that the redis
covery of this eminently satisfying object is impossible (RO, 214).
However,

before

his

seventh

Lacan

Sminaire,

read

Heidegger's

- Das
- in which he
essay on the Thing
Ding
distinguishes between
das Ding, with its almost mystical aspect, and a simple object. Lacan
was extremely influenced by this distinction. He hinges his theory of
sublimation
in the

incline

on

it, noting

of the

that

difference

the

problem

between

'the

of sublimation
object

is situated

structured

by the

narcissistic relation' and das Ding (EP, 117). According to him, it is

das Ding, this something which is gaping, lacking in our desire,
which

leaves

open

the

door

to sublimation

and

which

offers

the

sibility of the recovery of the (lost) object (EP, 102, 109, 125).

pos

He

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A Lac uni an Elucidation

transforms Heidegger's
for him

becomes
the

the

spectrum

distinction, of course. First of all, das Ding

Maternal

to the

of Sartre

Thing

horrifying

Thing

at the

evidently

of La

other

or the

Nause,

end

of

engulfing

in-itself of L'Etre et le Nant. Secondly, he emphasizes the mystical/

cryptic
an

of the

aspect

enchanted

and

Thing
around

circle

he

'lacanises'

it which

it: it is veiled,
us

separates

from

It.

there
We

is

must

go around It to reach It. It is brimful of signifiers. All the signifiers

indicate It.
back

going

Simultaneously

to

Freud,

he

(as

to

purports

always

have done), and going beyond him, he insists that the Thing is
totally imbricated in the libidinal economy. Sublimation
only it
offers the felicitous possibility that the libido's tendency always to
seek

satisfaction

be

This

fulfilled.

does

tendency

not

include

the

affects, das Ding being beyond affectivity.It is in the Triebe (the dri
ves) that are characterised by what Lacan (here following Freud) calls
their fliissigkeit - that is their plasticity or transformability _ that we
can

catch

a glimpse

of das

For,

Ding.

to

according

das

Lacan,

Ding

must be there from the beginning (EP, 108, 114). He defines subli
mation succinctly and playfully as that which raises 'the object to the
dignity [Dingnity] of the Thing' _ thus bringing to the Trieb a satis
faction different from its aim (EP, 133).
At the time of its rediscovery, the (lost) object is represented by
'Autre Chose' (Something Else). This 'Autre Chose' has a primordial
role,

since

it defines

the

human

and

maintains

its presence,

or as Lacan

says elsewhere, it is 'at the heart of human endeavours' (EP, 150,156).

Les Mots and L'Idiot

Sartre's first attempt

de la famille:
at sublimation

In Les Mots and L'Idiot de la famille, Sartre is at the point where his
relation

mother

to the

et le Nant

have

by the mother. He
Nause.
the

From

mother

has

made

him

helped

to

a turn-about.
get

out

has outstripped

now

on,

he

who

is going

is on
to

his way
become

La

of the

Nause

and

the horrifying Thing

towards
the

very

L'Etre

of engulfment

anxiety
a new

relation

of La
with

Maternal

positive

Thing depicted by Lacan. As we see in Les Mots and in L'Idiot, this

- because das
Ding is implied at the
implies a complicated dialectic
start

in the

object

relation,

and

is, as Lacan

says,

'at

the

heart

of the

libidinal economy' (EP, 133).

Thus

Sartre

who

was

for a long

time

anguished

by the

lure

of his

object relation with his mother, and has finally gone beyond this
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Guillermine

must

anxiety,

now

a new

under

retrace

his

More

light.

De Lacoste

to

steps

find

he

specifically,

this

must

relation

find

but

again,

the

in

Thing

the

Trieb - in the corporeal, physical aspect of the Trieb - the body-to

body (corps corps) mother-infant relationship. He must thus begin
to revalorise
and

the

degraded

iot which
well

discusses

as

good

the

that

corporeal

for so

long.38

Caroline
of

sections
with

mothering

he

The

had

found

whole

Flaubert's

Les

Mots

which

of Volume

an

I of L'Id

of Gustave,

mothering

comment

in fact

are

Poulou,

bad

devalorised

repugnant,

section

on

effort

as

Anne-Marie's

of revalorisation

of the corporeal, physical aspect of the Triebe in the mother-child

Sartre

relationship.

extols

the

notion

of flesh,

like

Merleau-Ponty,

who, in Le Visible et l'invisible underlined the fact that Freud's psy

rests

choanalysis
mother

must

on

a philosophy

become

of the

in order

flesh

to

Sartre

flesh.39
'feed,

writes

that

caress

nurture,

the

the
flesh

of her flesh', thus instituting between her and the child a libidinal
even

erotic

relationship.40

Since this relationship did not exist between Caroline and Gus
Sartre

tave,

concludes

that

Gustave

was

not

by his

loved

mother

and

that this caused his future problems of insertion in the world. But in
his interview on L'Idiot with Contat and Rybalka, Sartre affirms
he

what

had

Flaubert,

insinuated

already

his

mother

had

in

sufficient

Les

that

Mots,

unlike

for him

tenderness

to

Caroline
be

able

to

and

his

become 'a self that dares to affirmitself (IF, 114,115).

Sartre's

ian

aura

to

gesture

I shall,

it through

mothering.
able

his

concerning
that

putting

between

opposition

affirmation

at this

the

litmus
to

According
meet

her

- and

to adapt

the

own,

two

test

assess

have

such

validity

Winnicott's

the

'good

omnipotence

to it, thus

the

of D.W.

Winnicott,

infant's

self,

strong

point,

of mothering,

kinds

the

of his

stand

by

own

theory

of

mother'

enough
in

revealed

allowing

a Winnicott

infant's

is

a spontaneous
True

self to be

born. But the 'not good enough mother' is not able to do this. She
substitutes

her

to become

a False

own

gesture,

Winnicott's

Following

the

forcing

infant

to

be

compliant,

and

self.41
criteria,

Sartre's

that

theorising

Caroline's

cold, mechanical handling ( maniement) of the infant Gustave led to

his passivity, is right on target.42 But Sartre's insistence on his moth
er's

tenderness

in

the

interview

on

L'Idiot

seems

to

have

been

an

attempt, on his part, to hide from his two bibliographers (as if they
did not know! ) the vicissitudes of his relationship with his mother,
and

thus

her

'not

good

enough

mothering.'

In

Les

Mots,

we

learn

that this consisted of: his fminisation at Anne-Marie's hands (which

was a result of the imposition of her own phantasies on her son); his
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A Lacanian

Elucidation

of Sartre

constant role-playing (the essence of the False self), for which he was
prompted by both Anne-Marie and Karl; and of course his non-sepa
ration from Anne-Marie, which became his phantasy of the phallic
mother, (with its non-acceptance of lack in the mother and in him
Sartre

self).

would

later

in L'Espoir

succeed,

to rid him

maintenant,

self of this phantasy, and thus to transform his maternal ideal object
into the Symbolic Thing. But in doing this, he will minimise the role
of the father, a possibility which, it seems, Lacan leaves open in his
theory of sublimation.
In

is trying

Sartre

L'Idiot,

to formulate

a notion

of the

flesh

that

is soundly erotic/libidinal, and thus find the Thing at the heart of

the

libidinal
of

tendency

the

he betrays

but

economy,

what

remains

when

relation,

object

he

of the

incestuous

that

Caroline

writes

Flaubert should have 'loved [her son] violently' (IF, 396). However,
his open exploration of the ramifications of the identification of the
son to the maternal phallus - with his desire for incest and his refusal
to

of the

metaphor
on

in

lack

accept
the

his

This

himself

means

by

is a continuation
is

metaphor

de la famille,

L'Idiot

in

and

mother-goddess,

subject.

throughout

mother

at

repeated

always

of

a new

of his self-analysis
least

seven

the

concerning

times

relationship

of Gustave and that of his brilliant friend Alfred Le Poitevin to their

mothers.43

respective
When
the

Sartre

stand

oline

be

in the

of this

arms

desire

by the
of young

presence

his

text

for his

about

be

to
full mean

the

pleasure

Car

that

The

704).

(IF,

Gustave,

young

mother

'demands

passivity

of

aspects

by the

for example,

liked,

in Sartre's

evident

negative

represented

have

of a mother-goddess'

eration from complexes

The

mother,

would

the

only

because

becomes

organised

Gustave,

phallic

Gustave

a mother-goddess

recreated

soires

out.

with

the

with

relationship

goddess,

ing

is dealing

'Garon'

and

his

lib

(dfoulement), and that of his lyce friends.

prostitutes

dildos

wearing

accord

expresses,

ing to Sartre, Gustave's desire to 'have himself, a feminine man, be

taken by a virilised woman, a mother-goddess who would subject
him to the rigidity of her imaginary phallus' (IF, II, 1324).
The

which

signifiers

Sartre

to

uses

describe

Gustave's

desire:

'vir

ilised woman', 'subjecting' and 'rigid imaginary phallus' indicate the

elements repressed by Sartre himself, in spite of his insistence on his
difference from Gustave, due to the perfect mothering of his own
mother,

Anne-Marie.

But

on

this

question

what

the

positive

dence

and

traits
had

of a mother-goddess?

given

her

son

all

the

She
nurturing

about

Gustave's

Le Poitevin had all

friend, Alfred, since according to Sartre, Madame

had

and

a calm

self-confi

attention

neces

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Guillermine

for a perfect

sary

De Lacoste

she

However,

development.

was

Sartre

also,

points

out, 'a dazzling Jocasta', a signifier of prime importance, especially

when it is conjugated with that of mother-goddess. Psychoanalysis
not having yet been discovered, and Alfred not having had Sartre's
resources

great

of self-analysis,

made

of his

a mess

life and

eventually

committed suicide.
The
tive

She

nary.

of L'Idiot

mother-goddess

maternal

traits

is far from

towards

the

articulated

the

Thing

helped

the

one

to effect,

the

myth
last

posi
imagi

his way

on

of the

of imaginary

a reactivation

Sartre

under

still in the

by Sartre

sought
to

according

such

even

is thus

Poitevin,

Maternal

Symbolic.
have

de let famille,
Le

But

by Lacan,

must

tainly

of Madame

neurotic
cer

elements
a new

time,

config

uration of his world, and thus have led him towards the possibility of
an authentic

sublimation.

maintenant

L'Espoir

a successful

maintenant:

L'Espoir

is Sartre's

second

object into the Thing. Madame

a radical

about
emotion

and

desire.
that

the

human

Sartre
latter

between
tells

the

him,

'born

can

of the

form

us

also,
and

members
same

1963)

because

brother)

born

an

idea

with

the

totem.
clan

that

mother
rela

family

other.44
to

preposterous

of an

intimate

of years

brothers
by the

represented

an incestuous

the

each

Thousands
were

and

more

between

of one

seems

that

at first glance),

of the

woman,

are

no

bond

for him

implied
they

of humans
Levy

the

the

brought

for him,

of 'fraternity'

bonds

to Benny
to

mother

the

and

liberation

it is because

transform

death, in 1969,

great
in

first relationship

presents
(and

sister

(or

contrary,

beings

is the

tionship
the

son

On

Mots

to

attempt

Mancy's

Sartre:

in Les

(admitted

mother

in

change

sublimation

Sartre

ago,

because
totem',

bond

they

were

he

adds

and

that this mother might as well have been a totemic bird (having in
fact all the characteristics of the Lacanian symbolic) (EM, 59). The
totem was thus at the basis of a 'profound reality' (fraternity) and by
the same token of the interdiction of incest (EM, 58).4S
Sartre could not have found a more appropriate signifier than that

of the

in order

totem,

Formations

to attain

de l'inconscient,

'the

the

Thing.

totem

For,

is the

as Lacan

all-purpose

writes

in Les

signifier,

the

key signifier, that according to which everything falls into its right
place, and principally the subject; because the subject finds in the sig
nifier

what

he

is, and

it is in the

name

scribed is ordained.'46

of the

totem

that

what

is pro

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A Lacanian

Elucidation

of Sartre

Critics might say that Sartre (and I), have not understood Freud
for

it is clear
the

though,

that

for

certain

only

Freud

the
well

fact,

totem

is

the

documented

father.

Actually
in

Freud

by

Totem

and Taboo, is that for primitive peoples the totem is a bird or an ani
mal, and the source of the interdiction of incest (and of endogamy).
The killing of the hither of the primal horde by the sons, the subse
of fraternity

discovery

quent

the

by

and

brothers,

the

notion

that

the totem is a substitute for the father, all this is pure theorising on
Freud's

part,

that

theorising

the

result

the

mother

of his
as
because

fraternity

and

his

are

they

his

own

father.47
that

suggestion
of one

born

in the

understood

context

of

complex, and which was originally

with

problems

totem

be

should

the wider theory of the Oedipus

Sartre's

the

notion

brothers

- therefore

mother

of

discover
foregoing

the violence of the killing of the father - are also theorising on

Sartre's part, and they are certainly related to his problems with his
mother.

But

are

they

an

ingenious

to

counterpart

Freud's

theoris

ing, being as they are the ultimate objective of the Lacanian path of
sublimation which he followed.
Lacan's

notion of the totem as key signifier applies really well to

In

Sartre.

the

first place,

Sartre

did

in

find

the

'what

totem

he

is.'

Shortly before his death he felt completely at ease with what he

called, in an interview with Catherine Clment, his 'androgyny', that
is the fusion of 'the feminine subjective' and of the 'masculine objec
tive.'48

And

when

Le

Jean

and

Bitoux

Gilles

Barbedette

of

Le

Gai

Pied review, questioned him, in an interview about the lack of virility

of Roquentin

and

to the way

the

Secondly,
name

the

who

mother
while
itive

of the

the

matriarchal

I see

has

answered:

'This

well

corresponds

myself.'49

forbidden

became

incest

in quite

totem,

is the

father

he

of Mathieu,

in which

who

totem,

and

a very

small

societies.50

a special

is at the
akin

role,

Sartre

was

for

crystallised
manner.
heart

to the
thus

For

of the

one

able

he
to

Sartre

in

it is the

here,

symbolic,

had

trace

in prim
back

his

steps, successfully this time, and to find das Ding in the Trieb of the
- but liberated of
object relation, with its important corporeal aspect
his desire for incestuous fusion. The new mother is not phallic any
more

but

Levy

in

mothering,
an

offhand

not

but

personal

manner,

that

the

universal.
totemic

could

He
mother

has

thus

tell

'the

sex

which engenders [humans], the breasts which feed [them], the back
which carries [them]' (EM, 59). With this notion of the matriciel,
Sartre

gives

the

mothering

or nurturing

mother,

the

one

who

engen

ders her child, gives birth to him/her, feeds him/her and carries
him/her,

an essential

role

in society.51
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De Lacoste

Guillermine

Sartre
uality,

of the

Sartre

time,

has

certainly

nor

no

look.

more

the

has

Colombel

Jeanette

transformed

of le trouble

phobias
look

of L'Etre

or feminine

shown

how,

et le Nant

sex
at

that

by speaking

of 'the original reciprocity of the first look that the baby gives
look, which had
his/her mother'(JPS: TD, 482). Anne-Marie's
alienated and frozen Poulou at the time of his altercation with
Mancy, is now forgotten and gives way to another look, which pre
ceded it, the firstlook Poulou gave her (which is part of the Triebe),
and which was immediately reciprocated.52 It is this reciprocity that
can

become
Sartre

the

basis

of a true
in this

that

hopes

human

community.53
one

each

community

will

have

the

will

to

share everything that s/he has 'that is to say, what I have is yours,
what you have is mine, and if I am in need you give to me, and if
you are in need I give to you' (EM, 61). Sartre is here close to Freud
who, according to Lacan, uses, concerning the first foundations of
the

the

Thing,

word

- close

Nebenmensch

to

the

of the

'apotheosis

neighbour' in Christian theology (EP, 181).

The Lacanian elucidation of Sartre pursued

in this essay has

allowed us to see that through his initial creation of his myth of the
neurotic, then through the long work of his 'psychobiographies',
Sartre

was

terms

with

mother.

able

But

Lacanian

since

and

its
to

interesting
naire,

traced

likely

followed:

of the

totem,

took
of

that

the

Sartre

Thing,

to

was

her
this

of the

thus

the

alternative

mother

is 'at

Universal
the

heart

its

to

phallic
'typical'

law

of

seventh

that

sublimate

of human

is

Smi

Sartre

most

signifier

primordial

Mother.

the
It

destination.
in his

the

the

of the

with

itinerary

to effectively

of

to

that

who,

Through

able

role

to

a different

himself

of sublimation.

him

complex,

reached

it is Lacan

path

come

and

self-analysis
bound

long

Oedipus

he

vectors

that

had

a different

the

castration,

attribute

Maternal

that

he

note

a successful

complete

neurosis

resolution

father

and

to

the

the
Like

mother
Lacan's

endeavors'

or of the ideal community ardently desired by Sartre (EP, 156).54

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A Lacanian

Elucidation

of Sartre

Notes
Contt and Michel Rybalka, 'Interview with Jean-Paul Sartre on 'The
of the Family', in Life/Situations: Essays written and spoken by Jean-Paul
Sartre, New York: Pantheon Books, 1977 p. 122. Originally published in Le
Monde, 14 May 1971. Sartre might have said: I hide like all neurotics. For, as

1. Michel
Idiot

Lacan

has stated, neurotic masculine subjects do everything in their power to dis

the repression of their desire which is always about the mother. See:

simulate
2.

1990 p. 48.
Judith Buder, Gender Trouble, New York: Roudedge,
Josette Pacaly, Sartre au miroir: une lecture psychanalytique de ses biographies,
Paris: Klinksieck, 1980 p. 29 [hereafter SM]. Pacaly notes that by 'passage

l'acte,' she is referring to what J. Laplanche and J.B. Pontalis have called 'acting
out' with its impulsive character and its rupture with the way in which the subject
usually acts (translation mine).
3. This theme runs throughout the book.
4.

Sartre and Psychoanalysis: An Existentialist Challenge to Clinical

corre
Metatheory, University of Kansas Press, 1991. The term 'psychobiography'
La Nause,
sponds for me both to what I consider to be his four autobiographies:
L'Etre et le Nant, Les Mots, L'Espoir maintenant, and his five biographies: Mal
Betty Cannon,

larm, Baudelaire, Le Tintoret, Saint Genet, L'Idiot de la famille. As far as L'Etre

et le Nant is concerned, the reader may well wonder how I consider L'Etre et le
I am far from being the only one who does so.
Nant to be autobiographical.
Michel

Contat

and Michel Rybalka, Serge Doubrovski

and Sartre himself have
him
the autobiographical
aspect of this work. When I questioned
about this in a letter, Rybalka wrote the following: 'As far as L'Etre et le Nant as
mentioned

is concerned, I think that Sartre invents a philosophy to give an

autobiographical
account of his own lived experience, of his idiosyncracies, and he generalises in
accord with Montaigne's
principles 'I carry within myself the entire human con
dition.' Letter to the author, 6 September 1999. Translation mine.
d'un
5. According to Pacaly, Sartre manifested during those years till 'L'Enfance
cheP, 'a total indifference to analysis' (SM, 29). But this did not prevent him
from unconsciously
allow the numerous
and especially

since

works as safety valves, to

using the three above-mentioned
signifiers that he had strongly repressed since his childhood
his mother's

remarriage,

and which

were

boiling

in his

to escape.
'Phallotexte
Doubrovski,

unconscious,

7.

in Autobi
et gynotexte
dans La Nause'
ographiques: de Corneille Sartre, Paris: PUF, 1998 p. 96. Translation mine.
in Between Existentialism and
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 'The Itinerary of a Thought',
Marxism, new York: Pantheon Books, 1974, Situations VIII and Situations IX,
Paris: Gallimard, 1972 pp. 41-42. [Hereafter IT]

8.

Jean-Paul

6. Serge

Sartre, L'Etre

et le Nant,

Paris: Gallimard,

1943

p. 659.

[Hereafter

EN]
9.
10.

Jean-Paul Sartre, Baudelaire, Paris: Gallimard, 1947 p. 18 and p. 178.

Jean-Paul Sartre, Saint Genet, comdien et martyr, Paris: Gallimard, 1952

pp. 81

82).

11.

According to Douglas Collins, Sartre's biographical works were mirrors for him.
They all sent him back his inverted image: Sartre described himself by describing
his opposite. See Douglas
Collins, Sartre as Biographer, Cambridge, MA: Har

vard University Press, 1980 p. 185. [Hereafter SB]. But this may be true only in
the case of Flaubert, whom Sartre describes throughout L'Idiot as psychologically

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Guillermine

De Lacoste

and sexually passive, while he sees himself as entirely active. The Baudelaire of
Baudelaire is, on the contrary, as Pacaly has shown, the exact image of Sartre,
especially through his relation to the phallic mother (SM, 201-205).
12.

I shall discuss in this essay how Sartre will go through what Lacan calls an 'atypi
complex' and will come to terms with his neurosis by means of a
which will be finalised in L'Espoir maintenant.

cal Oedipus
sublimation
13.

14.

Angelo Hesnard, Apport de la phnomnologie la psychanalyse contemporaine,

Paris: Masson, 1954 p. 24. [Hereafter APP]. Collins shows in his Sartre as Biog
rapher, that Sartre had definitely read this work, as well as an earlier book of Hes
nard's, L'Univers morbide de la faute, Paris: PUF, 1949, which was prefaced by
Daniel Lagache, a classmate of Sartre at l'Ecole Normale. (SB, 14 ff.)
Andrew Leak, has given us an excellent aperu of Sartre's evolution concerning
the unconscious,
from the Carnets de la drle de guerre, through Cahiers pour
une morale, to L'Idiot de la famille. He shows Sartre evolving from a complete
of the unconscious
to an 'intellectual acceptance'
of it in L'Idiot. But
according to Leak, this does not mean that Sartre recognises as yet the signifiers
rejection

of his own unconscious

as being his own. (Cf. Andrew Leak, The Perverted Con

sciousness: Sartre and Sexuality, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989 Note
6, p. 140), [Hereafter PC]. I see Sartre as rather becoming aware of the workings
of his own unconscious

as early as his first four biographies, or even the 'slimy'

section of L'Etre et le Nant. The difficulties we have in pinpointing when Sartre
became aware of this, are due to two factors: 1) as a typical neurotic, Sartre was
always hiding his neurosis, even at the time he told Contat that he wanted to
become completely transparent [Cf. 'Autoportrait soixante-dix ans,' in Situa
tions X, Paris: Gallimard, 1975 pp. 3-92; the becoming aware process must have
15.
16.

been quite gradual, taking more than twenty years, with some regressions.
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Freud Scenario, Chicago:
Press,
University of Chicago
1994. See J.-B. Pontalis's preface. [Hereafter FS]
In the Sartre-Lacan session of the GES 2001 colloquium,
Paul-Laurent Assoun
and Wilfried Ver Eecke both spoke about this influence, which is most interesting
because it shows Sartre's creativity. Assoun showed how Lacan adopted in toto
Sartre's notion of the look until Sminaire XI in which he frees himself from
Sartre by introducing
explained how Lacan

the Other in the experience of the look. And Ver Eecke

appropriated the correlation, first noted by Sartre in the
Carnets de la drle de guerre and developed in L'Etre et le Nant, between desire
and lack.
17.

I do not imply here that it is Lacan who gave Sartre the term or the idea of com
It is an idea about which Sartre wrote as early as 1932 in his notes on
He called it at that time 'a preconceptual
faculty' (Cf. Rhiannon

prehension.
La Nause.

the Committed Writer' in Cambridge Companion to

Goldthorpe 'Understanding
Sartre, Christina Howells (ed.), Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992
and this term evolved: In Cahiers pour une Morale, Sartre comes back to it, and
he insists there that comprehension
deals with the other in his/her situation. At
the same period, in 'Orphe Noir,' Sartre speaks of comprehension
of nature or
of the universe. Later, in Questions de mthode, he speaks of a socialised compre
hension. What Lacan brought to Sartre during the 1960s is the place of the
in his notion of comprehension.
to this, Sartre has arrived at the point where he might have had a posi
tive, fruitful dialogue with Lacan on this subject - quite different from the debate
'L'Existentialisme
contre le Structuralisme'
which journalists had set up three
unconscious
18.

Thanks

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A Lacanian

Elucidation

of Sartre

years prior to the New Left Review interview, to oppose them to each other. Cf.
on this subject 'Entretien avec Jacques Lacan,' Les Lettres Franaises, 05 Decem
ber 1966:
Gilles
19.
20.

pp. 16-17; 'Sartre contre Lacan,' Interview with Jacques Lacan by

Le Figaro Littraire, 29 December
Sartre
1966; 'Jean-Paul
L'Arc, 30 December 1966: pp. 87-96.

Laponge,

rpond,'
Jacques-Alain Miller, (ed.) Jacques Lacan, Sminaire VII, L'Ethique de la psych
analyse, Paris: Le Seuil, 1986 p. 133. Translation mine. (Hereafter EP).
Miller, (ed.) Jacques Lacan, Sminaire TV, La Relation d'objet,
Jacques-Alain
1956-57 Paris: Le Seuil, 1994 p. 223) [Hereafter RO]. Unlike Freud, Lacan sees
little difference between the way girls and boys go through the Oedipus complex.
But typically, considering the time he was writing, his language is not gender

21.

inclusive. When dealing with his theories, I have therefore followed his style.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Mots, Paris: Gallimard, Livre de poche, 1964 pp. 38-39.
[Hereafter M], Jean-Franois
Louette, 'Ecrire l'universel singulier,' in Michel
Contt, (ed.) Comment et pourquoi Sartre a crit Les Mots, Paris: PUF, 1997 p.
394. [Hereafter CPSEM],
(SM, 79). In the bath story in which Anne-Marie tells
the story Les Fes to Poulou as she is scrubbing him, Sartre implies Poulou's and
his mother's trouble in significant phrases such as: 'I only had eyes for Anne
Marie

... I only had ears for her voice trouble by servitude' and 'the whole time
she was speaking, we were alone and clandestine, far from men, from gods and
from priests, two doves in the woods' (M, 38-39). Translation mine. Le trouble
(along with its cognates troubl and troublant) is an important word in this essay.
Yet there is no exact or even approximate word in English for it. Hazel Barnes
translates le trouble literally as 'trouble,' which it absolutely is not - unless one is a
Catharist.

(EN 456 ff.). Debra Bergoffen translates it as 'a disturbance, confusion

or an agitation related to sexual desire.' [Cf. The Philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir:
Gendered Phnomnologies, Erotic Generosities, Albany: SUNY Press, 1997 p. 122]
And Peter Green complements what Bergoffen's transla
[Herafter BSBGPEG].
tion left out. He translates le trouble as 'feelings against one's conscious will - of
quite shattering intensity.' [Simone de Beauvoir, La Force de l'ge, Paris: Galli
mard, 1960, English translation The Prime of Life, by Peter Green, New York:

22.

1992 p. 52] But since it would be rather awkward to use the

Paragon House,
eighteen words of Bergoffen's and Green's translations combined, every time I
mention le trouble, I shall simply use the French word in this essay.
Simone de Beauvoir, La Crmonie des Adieux suivi de Entretiens avec Jean-Paul

23.

Sartre, Paris: Gallimard, 1981 p. 373). [Hereafter CA:EJPS]

Lacan says that little Hans is 'the daughter of two mothers' to stress his feminin
ity, due to the fact of not only his mother's overbearing influence but also that of

24.

The

25.

Jean-Paul

his paternal grandmother whom he went to see every Sunday with his grandfather.
Thing of La Nause which is here a metaphor of the devouring mother
is evidently at the other end of the spectrum of the Maternal Thing of Lacan's
symbolic.

26.

27.

Sartre, La

Nause,

Paris:

Gallimard,

1938

p. 32.

Translation

mine.

[Hereafter N],
This story takes place in the imaginary since, first, the pour-soi is nothingness,
an analogon of the real object,
that is to say what Sartre called in L'Imaginaire
second, the dream of the for-itself is illusory, that is to say imaginary. Cf. J.P.
Paris: Gallimard, 1940 p. 45 and IT, 46.
Sartre, L'Imaginaire,
Sartre notes that the culpability thus inflicted is not that of having committed
precise fault, but that of having 'fallen into the world, in the midst of things.'

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De Lacoste

Guillermine

28.

Alain

29.

[Hereafter LS].
Much later, reminiscing

Buisine,

Laideurs

de Sartre, Lille:

Presses

Universitaires

de Lille,

1986.

about this discovery, he would write to Beauvoir:

'I
ugly, as ugly as a toad.' Jean-Paul Sartre, Lettres au Castor, Paris: Galli
mard, 1983.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Un Film, by Alexandre Astruc and Michel Contat, Paris: Galli
mard, 1977 pp. 16-18.
became

30.
31.

In her essay 'Le

Travail de la censure de "Jean-sans-Terre"

aux Mots', Josette
Pacaly suggests that the authority that the engineer Mancy might have had as
who had decided that Poulou
stepfather was taken from him by Anne-Marie
should

call him 'Uncle.'

Pacaly cites a phrase of Aime-Marie found in the fore
text: 'It's already very nice of your Uncle to be taking care of you.' Cf. CPSEM,
364.
32.

Michel Contat's remark in the preface to Sartre's Oeuvres romanesques that, as

regards the flesh, Sartre is something of a Catharist, is definitely along the line of
this interpretation
of le trouble. Cf. Oeuvres romanesques, dition tablie par
Michel Contat et Michel Rybalka avec la collaboration
de Genevive Idt et de
George

33.

34.

H.

Bauer,

Paris: Gallimard,

Bibliothque

de La Pliade,

1981

p. XIV.

[Hereafter OR]
Simone de Beauvoir, La Forte de l'Age, Paris: Gallimard, 1960 pp. 67-69. Cf. on
this subject Guillermine de Leoste, 'The Transformation of the Notion of Trans
Pact was Based', in Simone de Beauvoir
parency on which the Beauvoir/Sartre
Studies, vol. 15,1998-1999
p. 50.
According to Alphonse de Waelhens and Wilfried Ver Eecke, castration by the
mother indicates foreclosure of the name of the father and signals a psychosis.
For Sartre, it fortunately signals only a neurosis, most probably because, during
his childhood,
his grandfather had partly taken over the father's role. Cf.
Alphonse de Waelhens and Wilfried Ver Eecke, Phenomenology and Lacan on
Schizophrenia, after the Decade of the Brain, Leuven: Leuven University Press,

35.

2001 p. 156.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Cahiers pour une morale, Paris: Gallimard, 1983. Hazel Barnes
writes in her 'Sartre's War Diaries: Prelude and Postscript,' that in fact Sartre
himself acknowledged
that he was a Pygmalion with women: 'He regarded each
woman as raw material to be moulded into a form in which he, as creator, might
find his image in the work he had created.' Cf. William McBride, (ed.) Sartre's
Life, Times and Visions du Monde, New York: Garland, 1997 p. 106. [Hereafter

36.

SLVTM],
Lacan writes in his fourth Sminaire
plex (and

37.

38.

that little Hans

resolved his Oedipus com

because he has no more

that he thus partly entered in the symbolic)

anxiety.
He is also, like little Hans,

'the daughter of two mothers.' His maternal grand

mother, Mamie, certainly played an important role in his psychological develop
ment. She was always there during the ten years he spent in the rue Le Goff
'Till the age of ten, I was alone between an old man and two
apartment:
women,' (M, 70) And he cites her at the end of Les Mots-. 'As Mamie used to say
"Glissez mortels, n'appuyez pas".' (M, 204).
Having been alerted, a short while ago, to the possibility of a reference by Sartre
to Erik Erikson, concerning his use of the term 'dvalorisation,'
I enlisted the
help of several Sartrean colleagues in an attempt to pinpoint this reference. I am
Bob Stone, Michel Rybalka,
grateful to the time and effort of Bill McBride,

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A Lacaman

Elucidation

of Sartre

Lavers, on this question. Hazel Barnes' suggestion

book Myth and Meaning in the Study of Lives: a Sar
in
trian Perspective, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984, [Hereafter MMSL])
which Charm deals at length with both Sartre and Erikson, yielded interesting
Hazel

Barnes

and Annette

that I check Stuart Charm's

Charm does in fact see a close parallel between the psychohistory

developed by Erikson (in his studies of the young Luther and the young Martin
Luther King), and Sartre's use of his existential psychoanalysis in his biographies,
but he notes that 'ironically neither Erikson nor Sartre have indicated any aware
information:

ness or appreciation of the other's works' (MMSL,

67). It does seem then that it
is Hesnard's point of view, according to which 'the major cause of neurosis ... is
that a child may experience in early youth,' as Collins
the radical devaluation
expresses it (SB, 15; APP, 59), which influenced Sartre's notion of dvalorisation,
although

Sartre following

infancy.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty,

Lacan

saw this dvalorisation

Le Visible et l'invisible,

as beginning

Paris: Gallimard,

1964

during
p. 321.

[Hereafter VI],
Jean-Paul Sartre, L'Idiot de la famille, Paris: Gallimard, 1988, Nouvelle dition
revue et complte, p. 57. Translation mine [Hereafter IF], Note that the pages
of this new edition do not coincide with those of the 1971 edition. According to
Merleau-Ponty, the notion of flesh implies a certain erotic element. (Cf. VI, 321).

I agree completely with Debra Bergoffen, according to whom the term erotic
should not be limited to its androcentric meaning. The erotic relationship of the
child with its mother is very different from the erotic relationship between two
lovers, and the caresses of each erotic are also different. Bergoffen writes that the
mother-child relationship reveals to each of them 'the intimacy of their flesh'
206).
(BSBGPEG,
D. W. Winnicott,

Process and the Facilitating

The Maturational
Environment,
Madison, Connecticut: International Universities Press, 1965 pp. 140-152.
The editors of SSI have suggested to me that the term 'maniement'
might well
be the French rendering of Winnicott's 'handling.' I have so far been unable to

the manner in which this influence might have taken place, and
greatly appreciate any comments from the reader of this article to that
effect. I surmise that, if influence there was, it was most likely through R. D.
Laing, a student of Winnicott, whom Sartre knew well (Cf. Sartre's letter to R.

track down
would

D. Laing, which Laing and D. G. Cooper used as a preface to their book, Reason
and Violence, New York: Vintage, 1964 p. 6).
of Totem and Taboo who
Is this metaphor an allusion to the mother-goddesses
were all-powerful - without any lack - and who often had incestuous relation
ships with their sons?

Jean-Paul Sartre and Benny Lvy, L'Espoir maintenant. Les Entretiens de 1980,
Paris: Verdier, Lagrasse, 1991 p. 57. Translations mine. [Hereafter EM]. Both
William McBride and Elonor Kuykendall have objected to Sartre's use of the

to
term 'fraternity' because of its limiting and sexist connotation.
According
McBride, it limits Sartre in his search for 'the community of free human beings,
and Hope in Light of
(Cf. 'Abandonment
freely entered into and maintained.'
Sartre's Last Words,' in SLTVM,
333). According to Kuykendall, Sartre's linking
of 'fraternity' to the 'matriciel' implies 'the brothers' non-reciprocal dependence
and Fraternity,' SLTVM,
upon the mother's nurturance' ('Sartre on Violence
- with which I agree - in my text, I
293). In order to include these objections

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Guillermine

De Lacoste

shall always put 'fraternity' in quotation

tion from Sartre.
45.

46.
47.

48.

marks, unless it is within a direct quota

to the canonic Lacan, Sartre would thus seem to be here purely in the
imaginary, since the father has almost no role, and since the return to the matri
archy is a utopia. However, this is definitely not so, as we shall see shortly.
Jacques-Alain Miller, (ed.) Jacques Lacan, Sminaire V, Les Formations de l'incon

According

scient, Paris: Le Seuil, 1998 p. 310.

Sigmund Freud, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sig
mund Freud. Vol XIII (1913-1914)
Totem and Taboo and Other Works, London:
The Hogarth Press, 1957 pp. 145-146,
148).
Sartre. Interview with Catherine Clment: 'La Gauche, le dsespoir et
Le Matin, 10 November 1979. Translation mine.
interview with Jean Le Bitoux and Gilles
'Jean-Paul Sartre et les homosexuels,'

Jean-Paul
l'espoir,'

49.
50.
51.

Barbedette, in Le Gai Pied no.13, April 1980, p. 1. Translation mine.

See above, note 45, on this matter.
According to Jeannette Colombel, Sartre was at that time fascinated by the birth
He discussed it at length with her during several interviews. [Jean
phenomenon.
Paul

Sartre: Textes et Dbats, Paris: Librairie Gnrale Franaise,1986.

[Hereafter
He rejoins here a feminist such as Sara Ruddick, according to whom,
JPS:TD].
'the birthing couple (mother and son being born),' is at the heart of a maternal
thinking, through which she hopes to give birth to a new world in which there
will be no more violence. Maternal Thinking, Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.
52.

Psychoanalysts usually speak of the first look of the mother at her child. Sartre has
chosen to invert the situation for reasons given above.

53.

Alain Buisine

writes, concerning the last Sartre's desire for human community,

that 'the fusional space of the human community' is for him finally the only toler
able substitute for the infinitely benevolent look of the mother' (LS, 52). He thus

still sees Sartre as the narcissistic neurotic that he was for a long time, and ignores
the sublimation effected by Sartre, during the course of his long self-analysis,
which transformed his narcissistic desire for the mother (or for her infinitely
look) into a desire for true reciprocity between people.
I wish to thank here Dominique
Stassart, Bill McBride and Wilfried Ver Eecke,
whose remarks on an early reading of this text were most helpful.
benevolent

54.

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