How Surgeons Can Achieve Being-for-Itself in Clinical Surgery:An Analysis Based on Sartre’s Theory of the Look

Sartre’s theory of the look offers a fresh way of re-examining the doctor–patient relationship in clinical surgery. The look is an existential mode through which individuals strive for subjectivity. In the context of clinical surgery, the patient’s look makes the surgeon feel that his or her subjectivity is negated, and this feeling of negation cannot be dissolved regardless of the patient’s condition. It is therefore necessary to move beyond the infinite cycle of the look and to rediscover a path by which the surgeon can return to being-for-itself. From the standpoint of existential ontology, the surgeon attains subjectivity through autonomous surgical action and the assumption of responsibility. From the standpoint of existential sociology, the co-presence of doctor and patient elevates the surgeon’s being-for-itself into a being-for-itself of “us,” and the surgeon’s being-for-itself is made manifest through the process of being responsible for the patient. In terms of existential faith, the awareness of life is fundamental: through an attitude of in spite of, the surgeon cultivates this awareness of life and becomes a being-for-itself.