The Reality of Freedom or The Reality of Manipulation

The Reality of Freedom or The Reality of Manipulation:

Jean-Paul Sartre and Sigmund Freud are two highly influential thinkers of the 20th century whose philosophies overlapped and opposed one another. Sartre was a pioneer and key figure in the school of existentialist philosophy. He argues that all humans are inherently free. Sartre means by this bold claim that we are all free to make our decisions, but our actions determine our characters, habits, and values. There are no universal human qualities, according to Sartre. Everyone just acquires their personal attributes by the actions they take in their lives. Each person lives a unique life and shapes themselves individually. Sartre argues that all of these choices we make throughout our entire lives are completely free, and we are all responsible for the choices we knowingly make. On the other hand, Freud’s philosophy did not provide humans with the same idea of freedom. Sigmund Freud was the father of psychoanalysis and the study of the unconscious mind. He argued that our unconscious beings are our true selves, with passions and drives that constantly bombard us. This unconsciousness drives all of our decisions, according to Freud. His idea of humanity is not freedom, but rather control. He theorizes that we have to create a barrier to suppress our constantly stirring unconscious desires. Freud argues that we are all slaves to our unconscious minds and our choices are determined by its carnal desires. The illusion of choice that we have is really just the predetermined force of our unconsciousness controlling our decisions. This allows for people to be manipulated by their unconscious minds. Freud’s philosophy also revealed that this unconscious driver of our actions can be influenced, and that we can be instinctively controlled by our desires. Sartre and Freud agree on a few elements of freedom, but Sartre is correct is saying that our choices mean that we are free. Freud’s approach to human behavior and the nature of freedom is more pessimistic in saying that we are victims of manipulation, but Sartre’s philosophy on freedom is correct since the possibility of choice would not exist without freedom. Freedom for Sartre is inherent and fundamental within all people. We can all make free decisions and shape our own lives however we want. The ability to make choices is essential to being human. Sartre’s argument on freedom comes down to the fact that we make choices. Each person comes to face endless choices each day, starting from when you wake up and get out of bed. Choices exist for us because we are free. Even if we seemed forced into a choice, we still have other options. If you were forced to go a college by your parents, for example, you would feel as if you lacked the freedom to make that decision, but in actuality you could have picked something else and dealt with the consequences. Physical freedom and liberty from oppression are different than the ontological freedom Sartre attributes to our human existence. This freedom cannot be touched or taken away. In this sense, humans are freedom. Sartre wrote, “it is impossible to find in every man some universal essence which would be human nature, yet there does exist a universal human condition.” (Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions, page 38). This human condition is freedom and the power of choice. It is the nature of being human, even if the choices we make are at times as simple as what cereal to eat for breakfast, or what is your favorite color. A desk cannot choose to be anything but a desk, a desk is an object and does not have freedoms. People are not programmed like robots to respond and perform automatically, we are always free, according to Sartre. This corresponds with his key belief that existence precedes essence. Humans are developmental, and we are not predetermined.
Another main part of Sartre’s argument on freedom is that those choices that we make shape ourselves and the world around us. As the first principle of existentialism, “man is nothing else but what he makes of himself” (Sartre, 15). We all shape our own selves throughout our lives by making choices and growing and learning from those choices. We create ourselves and our own personalities and values with our choices, but we affect others as well. We give value to something when we freely choose it. For example, when you buy a product from Macy’s, you are valuing that company and its products. It is like casting a vote, and we are responsible for where we place our values and votes. Sartre argues that we must accept the responsibility for our choices and recognize that leave an impression that others can choose to ignore or follow. We can create a model for others to look at and agree or disagree with. We project our choices out to the world with our values. Those who choose to be influenced by our decisions allow themselves to be manipulated and are ignoring their freedom. Some are more easily manipulated than others and can attempt to relinquish their freedoms by following others. According to Sartre, this is living in bad faith. Bad faith is when someone does not act as a free person, denying their inherent freedoms and abilities. Sartre rejects these kinds of people by saying, “I may pass judgment on those who seek to hide from themselves the complete arbitrariness and the complete freedom of their existence” (Sartre, 46). People live in bad faith deny the core freedom that they possess as a human. They discard the fact that they must make their own decisions. Instead of making choices for themselves, they allow themselves to be manipulated by others and society as a whole. This is what advertising attempts to do, have us all follow the orders or suggestions of someone else, but we are always in control of our own decisions and Sartre likes for all of us to utilize our freedom to its fullest potential and not fall under influence of others.
However, being totally free can be daunting. Freedom to choose everything we do in life can cause despair, anxiety and forlornness in people who are stressed at the idea of making their own decisions. It is because of these fears and worries that people can be lead to and often find letting others influence or make their decisions comforting. Sartre says that you could feel abandoned and alone in your freedom, with no one to call on for help (Sartre, 57). Some people want to get out of making decisions and having to deal with consequences. They do not want blame put on themselves for their decisions. People can also often fear they may have made the wrong choice. They do not want to have their freedom if responsibility comes with it, and Sartre argues that we are all fully responsible for ourselves. Despair, anxiety, and forlornness can drive people to bad faith, but these are necessary and unavoidable consequences of being free. Sartre’s idea of freedom is especially intimidating since he argues that humans are completely free, regarding all aspects of their lives. Our freedom and responsibility are a part of us. So much so, that Sartre argues we are even responsible for our own lives. While some people might say that they did not choose to live or be born, Sartre states that you in fact choose to live every single day when you wake up and continue living. Even life itself is a choice, let alone all of the choices that you make in your lifetime.
In our freedom, we live being-for-itself as opposed to being-in-itself. Sartre defines these terms by saying that act for our own benefits and we project ourselves forwards, or backwards, by our decisions. However, an inanimate object is being-in-itself since it created and does not strive for anything, it just exists with no work needed. A being-in-itself will never change, while humans grow and adapt. These two forms of being are enforced by the notions of transcendence and facticity. These two terms refer to Sartre’s idea of being human: “I am what I am not, and I am not what I am.” Sartre argues that as humans we exist in the past, present, and future. This means that we are shaped by our past, we live and work in the present, and we strive and look towards the future. We do not exist in just one of these realms, but rather we bridge them together through our transcendence and facticity. Transcendence defines the first part of the quote, “I am what I am not.” This refers to our futures. We can exist in the future by looking past ourselves in order to predict outcomes and strive for our goals. You would not be able to plan ahead for anything, you would only be able to live in the present moment and not process what could come next. Facticity, on the other hand, corresponds with, “I am not what I am,” which refers to the past and present of each of our lives. Facticity refers to our society, our environment, our living in the moment, but also our past choices that we can learn from. Our facticity allows us to look back and reflect, and allows our pasts to shape who we are and affect our present decisions. Since we are constantly changing and we encompass all of our past, present, and future we do not escape transcendence and facticity until we die. Until that point we are never finished working and making decisions. We can never truly be defined like an object. Once we die, we are no longer capable of making decisions or being free, we become an object once we are no longer a living person. There is no way to truly bridge the two. You can treat others like objects, like seeing a janitor as merely an entity that cleans for you, but that does not mean that they are. The janitor has a name and a life with freedoms and choices that he has made all on his own. Being a living, human person means that we are not objects, and no one is without freedom, according to Sartre.
Sartre’s views on the human condition could be seen as optimistic in comparison to the philosophy of Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud began a new way of think about the human person and he was the father of psychoanalysis. He pioneered this field, just as Sartre is a key figure in existentialism. However, Freud did see his work as more of science of the human mind and facts rather than just a philosophy. Freud, and psychoanalysts past and present that have adopted his theories, argue that there are two realms human psyche (the conscious realm and the unconscious realm). These realms can be separated further into the id, the ego, and the superego. The id, according to Freud, is the completely unconscious realm of the mind. It is the deepest and purest essence of ourselves, and it is fiercely present in all human beings. Freud claims that this space within us is where the majority of the human mind is kept. Within this realm is where the pleasure principle lies; it is where all of our strongest desires and instinctual urges are found and kept in. The id is responsible for carnal and passionate energy like libido, which carries both hate and aggression along with sex and love. These are our most basic desires, according to Freud. He states that these drives are so powerful that they are dangerous and are kept from surfacing at all times, or else we would all descend into chaos if we followed our every urge with no discretion. Everyone represses these drives, and we can do so automatically. The id is a powerful substance that Freud describes as bubbling within each one of us. However, it is not usually seen from our surfaces, since we have mechanisms within ourselves to control it.
If the id is the base of our psyches, then Freud says that the ego and superego are our defenses against the threats of the id. The ego separates the unconscious from the conscious minds and acts as a barrier between the two. The superego, however, is present in both realms of our minds. The superego contains the moral conscious, the guiding force for our actions. It assists in repressing dangerous desires in our actions and also helps a person filter between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. According to Freud though, the repression of these drives is learned. In infancy, the id controls our actions. As a baby, we only know our desires (when we are hungry, tired, etc.). The ego and the superego have to develop. You can see this by looking at the way babies cry without inhibition or how small children will often repeat inappropriate things, act out, or maybe even punch someone they don’t like without realizing their faults. They do not have the capacity to restrain themselves yet. However, even though the ego and superego do develop, Freud argues that humans are still slaves of their id desires.
According to Freud, the id is responsible for every action, and that it provides a deeper, unconscious meaning to our behavior. Freud developed psychoanalysis in order to study unearth the hidden meanings behind our actions that are driven by the id. Since by adulthood we have become accustomed to repressing our drives, it is difficult to delve into the id, and so it must be drawn out through talking or viewed through dream interpretations. The id can also manifest in what Freud calls psychosis or neurosis. Neurosis is when the stress of repressing our drives or the unstoppable strength of the id surfaces in strange quirks that can be different for many people. Psychosis is seen as a complete break from reality and social construct due to the id taking control of behavior and causing someone to become erratic. Mental disorders, according to Freudian psychology, can be seen as a dysfunction in the ego. When the ego is damaged, the id can wreak havoc on the conscious mind. These are ways that the id can be revealed, and Freud wanted to study why and how the id can surface. People’s minds can fall into conflict between the conscious and unconscious minds.
While studying the unconscious, Freud theorized that it could be manipulated. Since it is the unconsciousness, people would not be aware that they are being controlled. As we are all victims of our unconscious desires, if those desires can be manipulated, they we can be controlled indirectly. The idea of subliminal messaging is derived from this idea. Finding a way to communicate with the unconscious is a way to secretly control people. Freud inspired a new way of manipulation by those who were crafty enough to use his findings. In the documentary, The Century of the Self, manipulation of the unconsciousness was used for the benefit of advertising and business. Advertisers and businessmen beginning in the early 20th century essentially created our modern day economy and society based on want versus need. Consumers used to only be concerned with products they needed, but by tapping into the power our unconscious has over us, suddenly people were buying more luxury items and were no longer shopping based on pure necessity. In fact, consumers were, and still are, manipulated into thinking that we do need frivolous things we see advertised. Advertisers switched the mindset of the entire American economy in a few years by appealing to our unconscious desires, as well as our hopes and fears. It also spread to other parts of society as well, not just the economy. the kind of art form that is propaganda developed in the same time period (around the time of World War II). The aim of propaganda is to influence the reader or viewer, just like a product advertisement. Treating himself like a product, Adolf Hitler created Nazi propaganda that an sparked an entire movement and one of the worst conflicts in history. People believed that they were freely choosing to follow this man, when they were actually calculated and commanded to do so, unconsciously. The same could be said for the election of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the same point in history. The skill of advertisement allows people to tap into innate behavior of all people. The documentary proved that people have been using their unconscious impulses to make decisions more ever since the secret to controlling their minds was found. Once our core compulsions are changed, our behavior as a society was altered.
According to the Freudian model of the human condition, human beings are not free. Freedom is an illusion because at our core, we are all being controlled by another entity, the id. We are not truly free. The notion that we cannot help how we feel sometimes is the product of the control we are under due to our unconsciousness. We cannot control our unconscious, therefore, we cannot control our entire selves, and we are not entirely free.
While Sartre is bold in his proclamation that we are entirely free as humans, he is more correct in his ideas of human nature than Freud. Freud is correct in saying that people can be manipulated through the exploitation of their desires, but Sartre is correct in saying that these desires are just merely influences. Not every person can be controlled by utilizing a formula for advertisement. Everyone has different ideas and beliefs, there is no way to control everyone with the same tactics. While it is true that not everyone thinks and acts as an individual, Sartre provides reason for that. People are scared by the idea of their complete freedom. It is like when you stand at the edge of a cliff and you realize that there is nothing holding you back from falling, other than yourself. You feel powerful and totally in control of yourself, but it is also scary to think that you are alone in your decisions. People shy away from these feelings of vertigo. It allows them to be manipulated, which is why it is easier to control some people more than others. Anxiety can be felt by all and no one wants to make the wrong decision, and that is when you allow others to make your decisions for you (so you can deny responsibility and direct blame away from yourself if it does not work out).
Clearly Sartre is not denying the existence of desires and influences. However, you are free to choose whether you want to give into your desires or not. When you want to grab a donut in the dining hall you can choose to give into your desire or you can control yourself and grab an apple instead. We are all rational beings and we can think on our own. Humans cannot be hardwired and programmed in order to follow commands without thinking. You can never truly be without freedom. There is never just one choice that we have, there are always a plethora of options, and those options allow us to be free. If I were just an object, like a consumer, and that was all there was to my person, I could be trained and manipulated completely by advertisers in order to buy their products. However, I am a functioning person. If I am shopping for shampoo for example, I need to think about price, quality, and functionality. I would not be persuading into buy shampoo for dyed hair since I do not color treat my hair. I do not need it and I can recognize that. On the other hand, my favorite color is purple, so I will gravitate towards the purple bottle first, but I will not buy the product solely because of my love of purple. I can choose to be influenced, or choose to follow my desires. Our freedom is all encompassing and we can get overwhelmed by it, but it still is a part of us. We are all free human beings who can make our own decisions.
Freud’s philosophy has merit, but Sartre is able to incorporate the idea of influence and desire along with the concept of freedom. The existence of choices proves the existence of freedom. If humans were not free, we would not have options to decide on. Everything would be predetermined. The smallest of choices allow us to be free. Freedom exists just because we can choose if we want to order Chinese food or pizza on a Friday night.