Freedom and the existence of recurrent constants are not incompatible

Evidence

Psychoanalysts vehemently reject this notion of choice in the name of determinism and “the collective unconscious”; this unconscious would provide man with ready-made imagery and universal symbolism; it would explain analogies found in dreams, lapses, delusions, allegories, and human destinies; to speak of freedom would be to reject the possibility of explaining these disturbing concordances. But the idea of freedom is not incompatible with the existence of certain constants. If the psychoanalytical method is often productive in spite of errors in theory, it is because there are givens in every individual case so generalized that no one would dream of denying them: situations and behavior patterns recur; the moment of decision springs out of generality and repetition. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 128

Categorization

• XREF: Directly engages Sartre’s existentialist freedom against Freudian determinism, situating Beauvoir’s position in the Continental tradition. — connects to: Freedom is compatible with determinism when thought is part of the causal mix; The given never conditions freedom because freedom is its internal negation — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1160

Broader Connections

• Freedom is compatible with determinism when thought is part of the causal mix #corroborates (0.85)
• The given never conditions freedom because freedom is its internal negation #contradicts (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1160