Toward the conclusion of Being and Nothingness Jean-Paul Sartre proposes "existential psychoanalysis" as an alternative to the Freudian version that he had criticized. Respecting individual freedom and responsibility, its basic principle is that "man is a totality and not a collection" of drives and complexes. By a comparative hermeneutic of the complex, multilevel symbolic expressions of an agent's actions it uncovers bad faith and ferrets out that fundamental project that gives unity and direction to our lives. It thereby renders possible "conversion" to an authentic existence, in which one can resist the need to create a substantialized self. Rejecting the hypothesis of an unconscious, this method relies heavily on prereflective consciousness and the distinction between what we prereflectively comprehend and reflectively know. The analyst's empathetic understanding helps bring this comprehension to knowledge. Since all consciousness is practical, for Sartre, this transformation involves a reorientation...