French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Giovannoni, Les Figures de l'homme trompé
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Augustin Giovannoni, Figures de l'homme trompé

Paris: Presses universitaires de France, coll. Interrogation philosophique

2011, 408 pages

• ISBN: 978-2-13-058586-2
• Price: 30 euros

Publisher's overview:

The figure of the deceived man brings into play the most complex of all relationships: the one we maintain with ourselves. If deception is tied to the very foundations of human subjectivity and the nature of interpersonal relations, then credulity and fallibility emerge as key components of our relationship with ourselves and with others. To posit that the subject is partially opaque to itself is also to highlight deception as a category of political, and even clinical, analysis. Hence the central problem of this book: how does the logic of denial and deception operate within our experience of the world—we deceive one another as individuals, groups, and states, but we also deceive ourselves.
To grasp the nature of this phenomenon, we must rethink the question of the subject and bring to light the paradoxical manifestations and discrepancies that constitute the condition of the deceived subjectivity: blindness, misrecognition, fickleness, subjugation. It then becomes possible to explore the flaws of affective life: the illusions of personal identity, weakness of will, irrational beliefs, voluntary servitude, the realm of identity failure, the dissonance between being and seeming, the status of melancholy, and the question of recognition.
This demonstrates how deeply this work addresses a subject as essential as it is neglected by contemporary philosophical thought. We are all immersed in storytelling and other narratives where we play the hero. Augustin Giovannoni dissects their mechanisms with great analytical subtlety and numerous examples.

Table of contents:

Introduction. — The Aporia of Self-Deception

Chapter I. — The Relationship with the Self and the Structure of Deceived Subjectivity

Chapter II. — From Self-Deception to Exilic Subjectivation. Passivation, Denial, Bodily Subjugation

Chapter III. — The Paradoxes of Self-Illusion

Chapter IV. — Mutual Recognition

Conclusion

Bibliography

Augustin Giovannoni is an agrégé and holds a PhD in philosophy. He currently teaches at the University of Provence.

Positioned within the tradition of philosophical inquiry into human subjectivity, this study examines how fallibility and credulity shape both individual experience and interpersonal relations. The author investigates the internal discrepancies that define deceived subjectivity, including blindness, misrecognition, and the weakness of will. By bridging personal identity illusions with broader frameworks of political and clinical analysis, the work sheds light on phenomena such as voluntary servitude, melancholy, and the persistent dissonance between being and seeming across various human endeavors.

This publication serves as a valuable resource for students, researchers, and readers of philosophy interested in the mechanics of denial, illusion, and narrative self-deception. It addresses neglected aspects of human consciousness by analyzing how individuals, groups, and states construct narratives in which they play the hero. Readers seeking a rigorous exploration of affective flaws, mutual recognition, and the paradoxes of self-illusion will find this volume an insightful guide to the opaque nature of the modern self.