Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the ambiguity of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s notion of repression with regard to the future dimension of human existence: The repression of personal existence by the habitual body can disable the future and enable it. I proceed in three steps: First, I redescribe the cases of pathological repression cited by Merleau-Ponty as a refusal to give up a closed horizon of possibility: Clinging to a past present leads to stagnation and ultimately to the desubstantialization of existence. In the next step, I address the role of what I call non-pathological repression – a general phenomenon we can understand as a condition for having any future at all. I conclude by arguing that the distinction between future-opening and futureclosing repression is not always clear. As agents who evaluate their own existences, we can at times feel unsure whether we are persistently pursuing a worthwhile goal or are pathologically clinging to an impossible future.