The Perverted Consciousness

Sexuality is a theme in Sartre's literary writings and in his philosophical works. Many critics think, or assume, that these representations of sexuality complement each other. Andrew Leak suggests that this is not the case. He analyzes Sartre's representational strategies, tracing his ambivalent relationship to Freudian psychoanalysis through the development of his theory of sexuality. The picture that emerges is that of a tension between a powerful, conscious will to express and the insistence of a core of unconscious "scenarios". Sartre's texts are seen to be marked by disruption and deviation. Leak sees this struggle within the texts as ultimately positive: the Sartrean text is nothing if not the productive interweaving of the strands of conscious and unconscious determinants into a whole which is never complete.