Impure reflection creates the psyche as a made-to-be virtual object
Evidence
At the same time this psychic duration which can not be by itself must perpetually be made-to-be. Perpetually oscillating between the multiplicity of juxtaposition and the absolute cohesion of the ekstatic for-itself, this temporality is composed of “nows” which have been, which remain at the place which has been assigned to them, but which influence each other at a distance in their totality; it is this which renders it comparable to the magic duration of Bergson’s philosophy. … As soon as we enter on the plane of impure reflection—that is, of the reflection which seeks to determine the being which I am—an entire world appears which peoples this temporality. This world, a virtual presence, the probable object of my reflective intention, is the psychic world or the psyche. In one sense, its existence is purely ideal; in another it is, since it is-made-to-be, since it is revealed to consciousness. It is “my shadow;” it is what is revealed to me when I wish to see myself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 550
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the psyche as the product of impure reflection — the ‘shadow’ self — which will ground Sartre’s critique of folk-psychological explanation.
- XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s appropriation of Sartrean freedom — the psyche as a made-to-be object rather than a fixed inner substance is precisely the move she builds on in The Second Sex. — connects to: Impure reflection constitutes the psyche while pure reflection requires a katharsis — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 526; The Psyche is the object of impure reflection, not of unreflective consciousness. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 536; Psychic states are grasped only as shadows projected by reflected-on consciousness (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Reflection is consciousness attempting to become its own object
#expands(0.85) - Reflection is an intermediate stage of nihilation between self-existence and existence-for-others
#expands(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 513 - Psychic temporality is constituted by reflection, not original temporality
#expands(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 549 - Reflection deepens the reflective-reflected split beyond self-consciousness
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 802 - Reflection aims to make the self-coincident being that consciousness can never simply be
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 511