Freudo-Marxism

[JazzRemington]

An assignment for the graduate students in my human sexuality class is to read an additional book or 5 papers that tie sexuality to whatever our major is. Because mine is human behavior and society (sociology and psychology), I chose "Eros and Civilization" by Herbert Marcuse.

The book is actually very interesting. It makes a synthesis of Marx and Freud and it actually is very consistent with Marx's works. For example, we have the idea that humans are dominated by the pleasure principle (all their emotions, lusts, wants, needs, desires) but upon entering into relationships with other people, they became dominated by a reality principle, which placed limitations (as well as a focus) on the pleasure principle. When one group of people (i.e. a class) became dominant, they saw it fit to enact further limitations on people's (sexual) desires. Domination creates what Marcuse called "surplus repression." People are also controlled by what Marcuse calls the "performance principle," in which people find themselves part of a stratified layer based on competition within the economic structure of a particular socio-historical stage in human development.

I've only read up to chapter 3 thus far, but it's actually better than what I expected. Does anyone else know of any further works about this so-called "Freudo-Marxism"? I've seen another book called "Marxism and Psychoanalysis," I believe it was called.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Sorry Jazz, does not sound very Marxian to me:


For example, we have the idea that humans are dominated by the pleasure principle (all their emotions, lusts, wants, needs, desires) but upon entering into relationships with other people, they became dominated by a reality principle, which placed limitations (as well as a focus) on the pleasure principle. When one group of people (i.e. a class) became dominant, they saw it fit to enact further limitations on people's (sexual) desires. Domination creates what Marcuse called "surplus repression." People are also controlled by what Marcuse calls the "performance principle," in which people find themselves part of a stratified layer based on competition within the economic structure of a particular socio-historical stage in human development.

This is, of course, quite apart from the fact that Freud was a complete charlatan, who made things up things as he went along, and who invented the 'evidence' to support his wild claims.

Marxists should have absolutely nothing to do with this Freudian fraudster.

[black magick hustla]

Marcuse is a noted Hegelian too. I woiuldn't dismiss all the stuff he said because of that though. The basic concept that under civilization, individuals' desires are restrained by ruling class ideology is true.

[Raúl Duke]

Other than this....(which is quite unfortunate: mixing Fredian ideas with Marxism)

Has there been any other attempt at mixing psychology with Marxism?

[rouchambeau]

Maybe try Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Deluze. I haven't read it, but I would assume that it ties into what you're talking about.

[JimFar]

JD asks

Has there been any other attempt at mixing psychology with Marxism?

There have been a number of such attempts. Marcuse's fellow Frankfurters like Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Erich Fromm, all attempted to combine Marxism with psychanalysis. In France, Althusser and Lacan attempted to synthesize Marxism with, you guessed it, Lacan's version of psychoanalysis.

In the Soviet Union, many people attempted to combine Marxism with Pavlov's reflexology, while the psychologist, Lev Vygotsky developed his own 'psychology of activity' which he maintained was the psychology that best reflected dialectical materialist principles. The Soviet philosopher Ilyenkov was strongly influenced by Vygotsky (whose works were largely banned under Stalin) but which were later made available under Khrushchev.

[Janus]

Marxism and psychoanalysis-notes on Wilhelm Reich (http://www.marxist.com/scienceandtech/psychoanalysis_reich.htm)

Psychoanalysis in USSR (http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jun1999/freu-j11.shtml)
response to above article (http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/nov1999/freu-n30.shtml)