Sane or Insane? A Psychoanalytic Study of Antoine Roquentin

Abstract

Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea breaks stereotypical assumptions about the semantics of novel formation in multiple ways. An introspective narrative which deals with strong incidences of uncanny experiences that the protagonist terms as “nausea”, it is a true “writerly” novel. Roquentin is a character that challenges the boundaries of the socially accepted norms of sanity at every step. His diary entries are in many ways the best possible way of understanding his disturbed self, and may be comprehended as confessional writing, making the novel as much a psychological novel as philosophical. The paper uses the praxis of Psychiatry, particularly the diagnostic criteria of Borderline Personality Disorder to unravel the aporia that Antoine Roquetin in particular and modern man in general poses.