Any attempt at sincere self-knowledge covertly turns oneself into a thing

Evidence

How can we in conversation, in confession, in introspection, even attempt sincerity since the effort will by its very nature be doomed to failure and since at the very time when we announce it we have a prejudicative comprehension of its futility? In introspection I try to determine exactly what I am, to make up my mind to be my true self without delay—even though it means consequently to set about searching for ways to change myself. But what does this mean if not that I am constituting myself as a thing? Shall I determine the ensemble of purposes and motivations which have pushed me to do this or that action? But this is already to postulate a causal determinism which constitutes the flow of my states of consciousness as a succession of physical states. Shall I uncover in myself “drives,” even though it be to affirm them in shame? But is this not deliberately to forget that these drives are realized with my consent, that they are not forces of nature but that I lend them their efficacy by a perpetually renewed decision concerning their value. Shall I pass judgment on my character, on my nature? Is this not to veil from myself at that moment what I know only too well, that I thus judge a past to which by definition my present is not subject? — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 306

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows introspection’s three standard moves (motives, drives, character) each secretly reify the self into in-itself, giving concrete content to the bad-faith structure.
• XREF: The critique that drives are ‘lent efficacy by a renewed decision’ parallels Nietzsche’s genealogical suspicion and anticipates Beauvoir’s insistence that freedom is never a settled fact but an ongoing task. — connects to: Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405; Psychoanalytic self-knowledge requires treating oneself as an external object; Even self-directed sincerity converts freedom into a thing to escape it. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 310 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Even self-directed sincerity converts freedom into a thing to escape it. #corroborates (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 310
• Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite #corroborates (0.85) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405
• Psychoanalytic self-knowledge requires treating oneself as an external object #qualifies (0.80)
• Being conscious of one’s motives already places them outside the self #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1075