Mastery and sexuality: Hegel's dialectic in Sartre and post-freudian psychology

Abstract

Man seeks to master nature. Man seeks domination over man. Both technology and war bring mixed blessings even when technology triumphs and war is won. The mixed blessings of mastery have prompted philosophers to reflect on the dynamics of conflict. Hegel saw the dialectics of the master-slave relationship as essential to the development of consciousness. Yet those of us who count ourselves conscious may doubt that we have ever experienced the life and death struggle for mastery which Hegel regarded as essential to the development of our consicousness. Hegel's claim that "it is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained" may seem implausible to those of us who count ourselves free citizens in a civilized society far removed from the state of nature described by Hobbes. Why can't freedom simply accrue to any person born in a civilized society? And if the life and death struggle was fought only by our forefathers, then isn't Hegel's analysis ofthe master-slave relationship irrelevant to the development of consciousness in civilized society? Sartre seems to render Hegel's analysis more relevant by casting what appears to be the same master-slave dialectic in the context of sexual relations. While the subject of Hegel's anlaysis seems ambiguous, or at least problematic?World-Spirit in general, or individual consciousness, or perhaps only precivilized individual consciousness?Sartre addresses himself explicitly to any and all sexual relationships. Accoding to Sartre's reading of the master-slave dialectic in the context of sexual relationships, however, conflict is not only genetically fundamental to the structure of human relationships; it is final and irreconcilable. Sexual love is a project doomed to failure. While remaining sympathetic toward Sartre's attempt to show that the master-slave dialectic does indeed relate to the concrete existence of contemporary readers, I shall argue that Sartre's pessimism is not justified. I