Bad Faith

In class, bad faith was described as lying to one’s self.  The examples of bad faith that were given by Sartre in the selection were the extremely peppy waiter, the woman on the date who is just there, and the friend pressuring his buddy to admit that he is gay. I think these are great examples of what Sartre would call “bad faith,” but I think that sometimes acting in bad faith is sort of necessary. He

What I mean by that is sometimes lying to yourself is necessary to keep yourself sane. Of course, you’re still lying to yourself, and acting in bad faith, but sanity is better than insanity, obviously.

An example of lying to one’s self to keep themselves sane would be believing that there is “someone out there for everyone.” I hear this all the time when someone is upset about being single or they just broke up with their significant other. I’ve actually been told this myself many times. Honestly, this is total bull crap. There are some people that will never find love or get married. They are just destined to be alone. Is it extremely sad? Absolutely! Would it make a person go kind of crazy or get extremely depressed? Probably. This is why I think that sometimes being in bad faith is necessary. If you are someone who is very dependent on others, or you are desperate for love, not getting that could really be detrimental to mental health. I think that sometimes we just have to tell ourselves these things, or listen to what others tell us because people who are so obsessed with finding love will spiral into a deep depression at the mere thought of being alone for the rest of their life.

Of course this is extremely sad to think about, but that’s why I think that sometimes acting in bad faith can be okay if it keeps someone from going insane.