Ontology of sexual desire

Ontology of sexual desireAn Existentialist Approach to Understanding Human SexualityBy: Tanya RichardsonSartres Basic TerminologyTransendenceOur FreedomFacticityOur limits Being-for-itselfThe being of consciousnessBeing-in-itselfThe existence of things

In-itself vs. for-itselfExample: Humans and PlantsSubjects and objectsPersons and thingsConsciousness and non-consciousnessThe differenceNon-consciousness: objects or thingsEssence precedes existenceConscious: subjects or personsExistence precedes Essence

Sex and loveWhy does the lover want to be loved?Love is the struggle of self-definition and authenticityHelps in distinguishing love from friendshipLove is the seductive strategy to win the other over... if such desire were a desire for pleasure, then it would be impossible to make sense of how it is that such desire could come to attach itself to an object, that is, to another human being...-Christopher HamiltonSexual DesireSexual desire is conflictsex objectsex is performed out of power and not pleasureMasturbationThe CaressThe individuals attempt to incarnate the other

we realize in desire I make myself flesh in the presences of the Other in order to appropriate the Others flesh. This means that it is not merely a question of my grasping the Others shoulders or thighs of my drawing a body over against me it is necessary as well for me to apprehend them with this particular instrument which is the body as it produces a clogging of consciousness.-Jean-Paul Sartre

DesireExist as pure fleshLosing both Self and FreedomEmbodied creaturesDesiring of someone in their flesh or objective body.Individual becoming aware of himself...if I achieve what I want in my sexual desire for you, namely, possessing your freedom, then I have thereby thwarted or frustrated my own desire. But you, too, are caught in the same process in your desire for me: if you capture me in my freedom, then I am no longer free, and you have failed to achieve what you want to achieve.-Christopher Hamilton

Failure of DesireConflict with themselvesDoomed to failureOrgasmfrustration of desiredeath and failure of desire

SadismOnce again I have even lost the precise comprehension of what I am searching for and yet I am involved in the search I feel this and I suffer from it but without being capable of saying what I wanted to take; for along with my disturbance, the very comprehension of my desire escapes me. I am like a sleepwalker who wakens to find himself in the process of gripping the edge of the bed while he cannot recall the nightmare which provoked the gesture -Jean-Paul SartreThe ObsceneBeing-for-othersAn individuals relationships with other peoplebeing objectified according to the judgments of othersOur relations with others are essentially confrontations and relations of conflict.HumiliationReducing the other to an objectthe sadist's effort is to ensnare the Other in his flesh by means of violence and pain, by appropriating the Other's body in such a way that he treats it as flesh so as to cause flesh to be born. But this appropriation surpasses the body which it appropriates, for its purpose is to possess the body only in so far as the Other's freedom has been ensnared within it. -Jean-Paul SartreThe SadistSadists preserve their own freedom and win from the other a consciousness of having been reduced to an object, To do this, the sadist must use themselves as instruments

the sadist refuses his own flesh at the same time that he uses instruments to reveal by force the Other's flesh to him. The object of sadism is immediate appropriation. But sadism is a blind aIley, for it not only enjoys the possession of the Other's flesh but at the same time in direct connection with this flesh, it enjoys its own non-incarnation.-Jean-Paul SartreConclusionSelf-Discovery through human relations

Work CitedCumming, Robert.The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. New York, NY: Random House Inc, 1965.Hamilton, Christopher. "Sexual Desire: Some Philosophical Reflections."Richmond Journal of Philosophy. (2004): 27-33.Martin, Thomas. "Sartre, Sadism, and Female Beauty Ideals."Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre. (1999): 90-104.Rae, Gavin. "Sartre on Authentic and Inauthentic Love."Existential Analysis23 (): 75-88.Sartre, Jean-Paul.Being and Nothingness. New York, NY: Washington Square Press, 1966.Spade, Paul V. "Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness." (1996): 1-243.