Introduction: “Authenticity” and Poetic Depth

Merleau-Ponty’s analysis shows that the imaginary, together with the impossibility of authenticity defined as complete fidelity to oneself, pervades all existence. But careful examination of the exact nature of the imaginary has shown that it never totally loses its relation to reality, and specifically its relation to the syncretic background that makes reality possible as a superficial crystallization. In a certain way, then, there is in the imaginary some of the ballast that is necessary for authenticity: it is not a pure nothingness. But neither is it embedded in a fixed and determinate real. The imaginary draws us nearer to the living source of all sense, but then points out the path for an authenticity whose definition must be profoundly revised. The search for sound and specifically assignable principles for perception and action is futile, yet we are not condemned to the absurd frivolity of a freedom conceived as nothing.