Towards a Phenomenology of Reflective Identification

Abstract

This article deepens themes from Sartre's Being and Nothingness by studying the relevance of the mirror in his play Huis Clos. The mirror can be understood as a means for escaping anguish by identification with the reflected image-object, but also as a figure of the sado-masochistic relationship between two of the play's characters. What is at stake is our possibility of conceiving ourselves as objects independently of the Other. In truth, it is the Other's look that first reveals our objectivity, and is our being-for-Others that allows us to have objectivity at all. This is not to be overlooked in our attempt to avoid bad faith.