Anatomy of a justified sinner in Sartre's “L'enfance d'un chef” through the object‐relations psychology

Abstract

AbstractJean‐Paul Sartre coined a psychoanalytic method in his biographical works to evidence existential choices while distancing himself from Freudian models. The novella “L'enfance d'un chef” (1939) is the pretext to explore the life plan of an individual prone to schizoid syndromes due to his upbringing and social binds. This article examines the itinerary of Lucien Fleurier through his misconstrued edification and empowerment, stemming from childhood fallacies, anxiety buildup, and ego splitting. The maturing process in his life story would assuredly reveal the emergence of Sartre's existential psychoanalysis. My vantage point, however, tackles striking similarities with a concurrent psychoanalytic revision, the object‐relations theory, articulated by W. R. D. Fairbairn in the 1940s. It is my contention that this original and coincidental endopsychic structure proposes a remarkable parallel for the errant choices in Sartre's antihero.