Existential Psychoanalysis and Sociogeny

in Sartre Studies International
Author:
Thomas Meagher Sam Houston State University, USA

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Abstract

This article explores Sartre's existential psychoanalysis as a phenomenological method for apprehending the fundamental project of the existent through an examination of the anonymous features of human desire. In grasping the anonymity underlying the “I want,” existential psychoanalysis seeks the meaning of freedom from a standpoint of alterity. I then analyze Fanon's Black Skin White Masks as a work of existential psychoanalysis which hinges on his use of “sociogeny” to diagnose the alienation of Black existents. Finally, I conclude by examining the implications of a Fanonian existential psychoanalysis for anti-racism through a discussion of Michael Monahan's critical reflections on the notion of being nonracist.

Contributor Notes

Thomas Meagher (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9195-6723) is an assistant professor of philosophy at Sam Houston State University. He earned his PhD at the University of Connecticut and specializes in Africana philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of race, and political thought. His publications include articles in AlterNATION, Philosophy and Global Affairs, and, Contemporary Political Theory, as well as chapters in the forthcoming volumes Creolizing Frankenstein and Creolizing Sartre.

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