In the
Sartrean sense, transcendence refers to the human ability to change oneself through an act of
will. We are never without freedom or choice, because we can always make a change in how we see ourselves or how we interpret the world. Of course, such changes may not stick, or they may be genuine but immaterial to the people we have affected in the past. Thus, transcendence must be balanced with
facticity, or the unchangable facts of one's past, in order to avoid falling into
bad faith.
Sartre referred to transcendence as "nothingness" in his opus
Being and Nothingness. This is because transcendence is that which changes, and has no nature or immutable properties of its own. Using transcendence as a source of
energy to alter
facticity can be seen as the goal of
cognitive behavioral therapy.