‘A Perpetually Disintegrating Synthesis’: Sartre on Bad Faith, Good Faith, and the Projects of Selfhood

Abstract An oft‐overlooked aspect of Sartre’s concept of selfhood is his rejection of good faith and sincerity as normative ideals. We argue that Sartre’s paradoxical treatment of good faith – claiming both that it is a manifestation of bad faith and the antithesis of it – holds a key to understanding Sartre’s account of selfhood. Contrary to other critics who have discussed good faith, we contend that Sartre sees no normative distinction between bad faith and good faith, and that he is right to do so. We begin with an analysis of Sartre’s account of the reflexive structure of selfhood and the negation involved in self‐consciousness. We then provide an in‐depth examination of the ‘circuit of ipseity’ – a concept that has been largely overlooked, but which is crucial to understanding reflexivity as ‘an immediate and non‐cognitive relationship of self to self.’ This underwrites our account of the way that both bad faith and good faith are pathological forms of selfhood. We conclude with a discussion of Sartre’s claim that selfhood necessarily involves a ‘disintegrated structure’. Sincerity and good faith are bad‐faith efforts to overcome disintegration, while authentic selfhood involves assuming the disintegration and acting with an understanding that these contradictions are an integral part of being human.