Sartre's theory of imagination and the seventh seal
pp. 67-95
in: , Klein, Sartre and imagination in the films of Ingmar Bergman, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
Sartrean and Kleinian theories provide an account of human nature which foregrounds internal division and negation. It is helpful here to recall how Jean-Paul Sartre's best-known work of philosophy, Being and Nothingness, employs the concepts of the "for-itself" and the "in-itself" to distinguish two modes of being. As a starting point we can see that the "for-itself" refers to consciousness, and the "in-itself" refers to matter. However, Sartre's theory is more complex than this. For example, consciousness may assume an idea of itself as being thing-like, of a fixed and determinate nature. Sartre challenges this as a form of false consciousness, an evasion of freedom and a denial of the truth contained in the very concept of the "for-itself". However, this does not mean that consciousness can deny its inherent relationship with the "in-itself". We cannot deny material factors, including the self's relation to the body. For Sartre, in Being and Nothingness, we must understand the internal relationship between the "for-itself" and the "in-itself". Thus, negation is placed at the heart of being, and the Sartrean model, like Kleinian theory, believes that knowledge requires engagement with an ineradicable division within human nature. 1