the-reflection-reflecting

The-reflection-reflecting is the For-itself’s non-objectifying relation to itself: consciousness makes itself be its own lack and possibility without becoming a completed, self-identical thing. The expression marks the inward hinge through which negation reaches beyond the present, the past qualifies the For-itself’s view of the world, and the self remains a project rather than a settled substance.

A non-positional relation to itself

The For-itself exists outside itself in the mode of the-reflection-reflecting. It is at once non-thetically conscious of itself and thetically conscious of being beyond its present being. That double orientation matters: the For-itself does not first stand back as a spectator and then discover a self; its awareness of being already includes a relation to what it is not yet.

This structure prevents self-relation from becoming a static identity. The For-itself is present to a particular thing, or “this,” only through incompleteness: it surpasses what is perceived toward its own possibilities. The thing appears within the circuit of selfness as something surpassed, while the For-itself’s own possibility functions as a complementary negation that is present without becoming an object of detached contemplation.

Lack and its projected suppression

The expression also describes how the For-itself makes itself be its own lack. A lack is not an already established emptiness or an independent thing lodged inside the psyche. Its connection to what is lacking is a refusal: the For-itself is not what it lacks, yet it must be that lack in the mode of a project directed toward its suppression.

That refusal is itself not a finished foundation. The negation that keeps lack from dissolving into mere external separation must also be negated; the For-itself has to be the suppression of its lack, not possess suppression as a settled state. The result is a relation that is inward precisely because it remains unfinished. Particular experienced lacks and affective states become intelligible against this more basic structure, rather than as self-sufficient drives or forces treated as inert things within the psyche.

Time, facticity, and the world

The-reflection-reflecting belongs to a temporal structure in which no dimension explains itself alone. The For-itself reaches toward the future, where its possibilities give meaning to what it is, but it must also be its past in the mode of “was.” Its negation of a thing is therefore qualified by a past it has to be while fleeing it toward the future.

This temporal movement constitutes the For-itself’s point of view on the world. The For-itself negates the “this” in order to escape the past that it is, and flees toward the future in which its engagement gives that negation a meaning. The past is not simply discarded: it remains as facticity, the being behind the negation and the qualification the negation carries with it.

The world, accordingly, is not first disclosed in detached contemplation and only later arranged into practical relations. Things and world appear together within the circuit of selfness; their relations are spatial, without a hidden substantial unity or a privileged representative element standing behind their appearances. In this account, the-reflection-reflecting names the living relation through which consciousness separates from itself, encounters a world, and projects beyond its present determination. Its importance lies in holding together self-relation and distance: the For-itself can be present to itself only by not coinciding with itself.