Motives are freely constituted rather than psychologically forced.

Evidence

I am a psychological and historical structure. Along with existence, I received a way of existing, or a style. All of my actions and thoughts are related to this structure, and even a philosopher’s thought is merely a way of making explicit his hold upon the world, which is all he is. And yet, I am free, not in spite of or beneath these motivations, but rather by their means. For that meaningful life, that particular signification of nature and history that I am, does not restrict my access to the world; it is rather my means of communication with it. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 724 (#expands, via linked claim)

This freedom which reveals itself to us in anguish can be characterized by the existence of that nothing which insinuates itself between motives and act. It is not because I am free that my act is not subject to the determination of motives; on the contrary, the structure of motives as ineffective is the condition of my freedom. If someone asks what this nothing is which provides a foundation for freedom, we shall reply that we can not describe it since it is not, but we can at least hint at its meaning by saying that this nothing is made-to-be by the human being in his relation with himself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 242 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Thus we begin to catch a glimpse of the paradox of freedom: there is freedom only in a situation, and there is a situation only through freedom. Human-reality everywhere encounters resistance and obstacles which it has not created, but these resistances and obstacles have meaning only in and through the free choice which human-reality is. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1164 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cause, motive, and end are indissoluble terms of a single free projection.; The inferiority complex is freely chosen rather than unconsciously suffered.; Every sentence is a free act of self-choice, not an assembly of words. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1217 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Freedom operates through, not against, the psychological structure that constitutes us #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 724
• Freedom and situation are mutually constituting rather than opposites #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1164
• The ineffectiveness of motives itself constitutes the condition of freedom. #contradicts (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 242
• Being conscious of one’s motives already places them outside the self #expands (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1075
• Innate qualities constrain but do not abolish freedom within a situation #qualifies (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 717
• The compulsion power of one’s past derives from free choice, not its content #corroborates (0.72) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1194