Wednesday 6 April 2011

Sartre's concept of inauthenticity

 As part of my research from my current work in progress for which I still have no title I have been reading Sartre- A begginer's Guide, by George Myerson.
I think his concept of Inauthenticity tyes in with Doris Lessing's  essay " Group Minds"
Quoting from pages 22-23 from  George Myerson's book, :

We have a basic choice in life. We can choose to be authentic or inauthentic.
To be authentic means to be experience fully the fact of our own unique being. To be inauthentic means to try to escape our own individuality, to live as you were not a distinct person. Sartre calls this 'the inauthentic mode of  "the they"'.....
.... essentially, I am living an inauthentic life when I experience myself just as if I were just one of the 'others'. I go where 'everybody' goes. I choose things not as 'me' but as one of 'they'. These choices are their choices: my clothes, my patter of commuting to work and back, my drinking in the bar.


I ask myself whether these are true choices. I think it is important to be aware of this issue so maybe we can try to connect with ourselves and be as authentic as possible. 
The process of researching and making Art makes me more aware, I feel that it helps to keep me on my toes and maybe be a "tiny weeny" more authentic.

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