The common idea of love is a fusion of the individuals into one. The idea has permeated throughout society so that it has now been taken for granted. Such an idea of fusion of two individuals is actually harmful rather than helpful. Starting with Sartre, he is the paradigmatic example of the traditional model of love going wrong. By taking the fusion model to its final culmination, love is impossible or-among other things- sadomasochistic. Beauvoir reads Sartres view as a bad-faith version of love. She inserts her view by giving an account of the "woman in love" which is an...