Le rapport à soi et à autrui : entre faux-semblants et sincérité

Résumé (en anglais)

The discussion with oneself has all chances to be agreeable as far as it stimulates the defense mechanisms. Through omissions and flatteries, these intimate mechanisms proceed to make corrections in such a way that the Self's overall picture gives the comfort wished for, and prevent the infiltration of doubts, which would mean inevitable questionings and reconsiderations. The dialogue with Others could, in return, vex the self-satisfied intimate conversation, but the discomfort, the difficulties and disturbances it brings about are necessary in order to go beyond the complacency. This dialogue could also get the Self closer to its genuine layers and thus make it establish a less dissonant correlation of its conscience with the outside world. We have a double identity road here, with its degrees of illusion and veracity. While the first one takes root in the flattering and soothing internal talk, the second results from interaction between the Self and an interlocutor whose outspokenness is a threat to what oneself pretends to be. This paper aims to closely examine the double identity road, based on an exemplary eighteenth century novel, Le Neveu de Rameau ("Rameau's Nephew"), by Denis Diderot.