The Confessions, by Jean Jacques Rousseau is an autobiographical work published in 1782. The book covers the first fifty of Rousseau’s life, and details key aspects of his philosophy, including his view on politics, the ideal role of social institutions in collective life, as well as his own conception of the good and moral life. Given Rousseau’s crucial position with regard to the philosophy and politics of the French Revolution, and the development of the European Enlightenment in general, it is possible to understand the book as a cross-section of the various social and philosophical conflicts and opinions contained within the 18th century. As well as this, the book also holds historic importance with regard to its genre. The Confessions takes its name from St. Augustine, whose Confessions served as a model for descriptions of religious experience and conversion. Rousseau references Augustine’s work, however rather than focusing on spiritual conversion, the subject of the former’s writing is his own secular philosophy and the development of feelings concerning the correct nature of governance, as well as his individual personality. As such, the book can be argued to present a secularization of the genre of autobiography, which complements its existence as an example of secular political philosophy.

One of the most striking things about the book is its deeply personal nature. Rousseau opens his writing by insisting that he will present an autobiography that hides nothing and that is true to his development as a person. His fidelity to this statement leads him to reveal several things which would most likely have been considered inappropriate material for an autobiography, and which seem contemporary in their concerns. For example, at one point in his descriptions of his childhood, Rousseau describes his entrance into the world of adult sexuality via a beating which he receives from a governess. Importantly, he writes that, although the beating came with feelings of guilt and shame, it was nonetheless something that he enjoyed, and that he wished could be repeated. In this sense, therefore, the book presents a view of sexuality which anticipates psycho-analysis in its direct correlation of sexual excitement with the awareness of transgression and with the enjoyment of a feeling of guilt.

As well as this, Rousseau is candid in his descriptions of masturbation; something that that he describes as a form of mental rape, whereby an individual violates women in their absence. For me, this was a point in the novel when its modern quality and its 18th century nature converged. While writing candidly about sexual experience seems modern, and even emancipatory in its intent, Rousseau takes what appears to be an extremely conservative position with regard to masturbation; insisting that it is a sign of a general social sickness and unhappiness.

It is this contradiction between a surprisingly modern outlook and occasionally reactionary views which marked my experience of The Confessions as a whole. Although this contradiction may be deeply frustrating, it is also something that again positions the work firmly within its historical moment, and that aptly demonstrates the conflicts present within the decades leading up to the French Revolution. In this sense, therefore, I would recommend reading the book as a historical treatise on the nature of life in the 18th century, an early example of psycho-analysis and a secularization of religious autobiography. Indeed, I would argue that it is within the moments in the text which these qualities appear to stand in contradiction to each other that one can the importance of The Confessions both as a piece of literature and as a historical document.