existential-psychoanalysis

Chapter 2 of Being and Nothingness, titled "To do and to have," explores Sartre's existential psychoanalysis, focusing on the concepts of possession and the revelation of being through qualities. The chapter situates Sartre's philosophy within the broader context of phenomenology and metaphysics, emphasizing the distinction between "being-in-itself" (objects) and "being-for-itself" (human consciousness), and highlights the role of negation and freedom in consciousness.

This chapter critiques empirical psychology's approach to understanding human desires and individuality, emphasizing that desires are not static contents within consciousness but are expressions of consciousness's transcendent and projective nature. Sartre argues against reducing individual human projects to abstract, universal schemas or basic givens, using Flaubert's literary ambition as an example to illustrate the failure of psychological explanations to capture the concrete individuality and freedom inherent in human existence.

This chapter explores the ontological relationship between the for-itself (consciousness) and the in-itself (being), emphasizing that possession of objects is fundamentally a desire to possess the being of the world through particular objects. Sartre argues that the for-itself's freedom is the choice to be, either directly or through appropriation of the world, and that qualities of objects symbolize specific ways in which being is disclosed, linking individual tastes to existential choices. The chapter also introduces the idea of existential psychoanalysis as a method to uncover the ontological meaning behind individual projects, tastes, and the symbolic significance of material qualities.