The Inverted Existential: De Beauvoir’s Dilemma through a Jungian Lens

Simone de Beauvoir’s existential philosophy, when viewed through the lens of Jungian psychology, reveals a profound internal contradiction—an existential dilemma that may have led to the construction of a distorted narrative regarding gender relations. By critically deconstructing her reasoning, we uncover an unconscious self-centeredness and symbolic inversion that shaped her worldview, ultimately leading to a misinterpretation of both male and female roles within historical and psychological frameworks.

I. The Existential Dilemma in De Beauvoir’s Thinking

Existentialism, particularly as articulated by Jean-Paul Sartre—de Beauvoir’s lifelong intellectual companion—centers on freedom, responsibility, and the construction of meaning through conscious choice. It emphasizes the idea of the “Other”: the notion that self-identity is formed in relation to others, and that human beings are co-defined by the interactions and interdependencies they experience.

In The Second Sex, de Beauvoir appropriates this idea and posits that women are historically constructed as the "Other" in relation to men. In this schema, the male subject is positioned as the norm, while the female is positioned as deviation—secondary, inferior, and objectified by the male gaze. While this critique is foundational to feminist existential thought, it paradoxically neglects the very premise of existentialism: that all subjectivity is formed through mutual recognition and reciprocity.

This existential asymmetry aligns with the Jungian archetype of the shadow, wherein repressed or unconscious aspects of the psyche are projected onto others. In de Beauvoir’s framework, masculinity itself becomes the unconscious shadow—externalized and villainized—resulting in a one-sided narrative in which men are the projected source of all female alienation. This projection obscures the deeper psychological reality of mutual dependency and co-constructed identity between the sexes.

II. The Pointevin Code and the Legacy of Gynocentric Inversion

To understand the historical unconscious underpinning de Beauvoir’s inversion, we must look back to the legacy of courtly love and the Pointevin Code, which emerged in the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Within this cultural system, men were degraded

to the status of being merely the "thing" of a woman"—a poetic object of her desire and will. Far from embodying masculine dominance, the knight became subordinate to the idealized feminine, bound by obligation to her whims and approval.

This gynocentric template created a change in the existing gender roles and dynamics: men were now not only agents of subjectivity but have also become the objects of female real authority. It is plausible to suggest that de Beauvoir—despite operating in a modern philosophical context—unconsciously inherited and inverted this narrative structure. In other words, men being the thing of a woman, was inverted and projected into women being the chattelsof men. Her emphasis on women’s objectification overlooked the historical and archetypal strands in which men were origionally cast as degraded instruments in service of female desire or mythic degradation.

Thus, the historical narrative in which men were practically the “things” of women was unconsciously reconfigured by de Beauvoir into a narrative of unilateral female oppression. The medieval conception of male subservience in love was forgotten, and the inversion was masked as revelation.

III. Existentialism and De Beauvoir’s Self-Centered Subjectivity

As an existentialist, de Beauvoir was naturally drawn to the themes of authenticity, autonomy, and liberation. Yet in her application of these principles, she demonstrated a tendency toward solipsism. Her philosophical project became one of securing subjectivity for women alone, while implicitly denying or dismissing the subjectivity of men. This created a distortion of existential reciprocity.

Existentialism requires the individual to recognize not only their freedom but their limits—chiefly, the reality that meaning and identity are co-generated in relation to others. De Beauvoir’s intense focus on liberating the feminine self led her to neglect these limitations. Rather than exploring the co-mutual existential alienation experienced by both men and women in a complex world of socio-cultural interdependencies, she posited an existential binary: men as free agents, women as oppressed subjects.

In doing so, she inverted the problem rather than resolving it. The alleged patriarchal narrative was replaced with a feminist one, but both relied on a static understanding of one-sided subjugation. The tragic irony is that de Beauvoir, while rebelling against a nowhere existing patriarchal essentialism, constructed her own form of existential feminist essentialism—one that essentialized women as oppressed and men as oppressors.

IV. The Gordian Knot and the Chattel Inversion

The metaphor of the Gordian Knot is instructive here. De Beauvoir confronted a deeply entangled problem: the interwoven roles, perceptions, and identities of men and women within history and society. Rather than untangle the knot—i.e., explore the dialectical interdependence between the sexes—she cut it. Like Alexander the Great, she offered a decisive solution: absolute gender equality rooted in the rejection of traditional roles.

But this cutting was not a solution—it was an inversion. In rejecting the traditional gender roles, de Beauvoir did not recognize the dual layers of co-dependence, the sublimation experienced by both genders and vice versa the subordination of men. Instead, she imposed a feminist interpretation upon a far more ambiguous reality. The man, once the "thing" of a woman in courtly tradition, now became the oppressor of woman as “chattel.” This is the chattel inversion—a narrative sleight of hand in which one historical role is substituted for another, thus concealing the very real gynocentric and reciprocal structures that had long coexisted with patriarchy.

V. The Existential Paradox and Missed Understanding

At the heart of de Beauvoir’s philosophy lies an unresolved existential paradox. How can one affirm freedom, choice, and authenticity while also declaring one half of humanity perpetually alienated by the other and on the other hand deny the same existential reality from the other? This contradiction could have led to a more integrative philosophy—one that acknowledged the existential, not gendered, struggles of both men and women within a shared existential framework.

Yet de Beauvoir’s refusal to acknowledge male alienation,objectification, and the historical subordination in gynocentric cultural contexts weakened her analysis. By focusing exclusively on women’s suffering and casting men as the existential enemy, she missed the opportunity to formulate a truly mutualist theory of gendered freedom.

Conclusion: An Inverted Existential Solution

De Beauvoir’s existential philosophy, though outwardly or superficially groundbreaking, ultimately failed to transcend its own limitations. Her intense focus on female subjectivity and emancipation led to the erasure of male subjectivity. In redefining gender relations through a unilateral lens, she replaced one form of essentialism with another.

By unconsciously inverting the narrative of "the thing of a woman" into that of "woman as chattel", she perpetuated a dichotomous and oversimplified view of human relations. The result was a distorted ontology of gender: one in which mutual existential struggle gave way to a one-sided account of oppression and blame.

Existentialism teaches that meaning is born through the recognition of the Other. De Beauvoir missed the full implications of this principle. Rather than confronting the complexities of gendered interdependence and existential allienation, she imposed an inverted solution—one that obscures the subtle, reciprocal dynamics of human identity, suffering, and freedom.

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