Sartre's Theory of Sexuality

Abstract

Given the predominance of the opinion that human sexuality results from the existence of a "sex drive" which acts on us and produces our behavior, persons involved with humanistic psychology might be interested in some of Jean-Paul Sartre's ideas to the contrary. According to him, our relationships do not result from our having a sex drive. Rather, it is because of our choosing to interact as we do that we discover our capacity for sexuality. And given the anxiety of some people to maintain, that they are good lovers or bad lovers, frigid, not frigid, passionate, heterosexual, impotent, not impotent, or horny, it is instructive to learn why it is a consequence of Sartre's doctrines that one cannot represent oneself as being any such thing without entering into a fundamental spiritual dishonesty of self deception or bad faith. This article is mainly an expository one in which I try to make available Sartre's ideas. After sketching his position on human freedom, I explain how we are liable to be self-deceived in what we think about our own sexuality. Then, after briefly considering his account of why human relations are based on conflict, I examine some of his views in more detail, regarding the nature and inevitable failure of sexual desire. I conclude with some reasons for thinking that while Sartre's views may seem excessively bleak, they do provide us with a viable theoretical model for understanding our relationships, without leading us to regard sexuality as a drive which needs occasional release .In order to see this, I have us imagme a society in which sex roles focus not on the genitalia we are used to emphasizing, but on the thumbs and (or versus) the palms of people's hands. Aided by this fantasy we are able to understand a population whose anxieties are much like our own, but where a "dnve" theory plays no part.