Abstract
Psychoanalysis is once again on the agenda since the events of May 1968 and it is, of course, up to Marxism to extract the ‘rational kernel’ of scientific observations that it contains, by freeing it of its illusions. The Marxists who have intervened in the discussion organized by La Nouvelle Critique have made a theoretical clarification and indicated the way to a solution. It is certain that Freud’s work has been ’plagued by the ideological parasites of his time: psychological biologism and Durkheimian sociologism. Consequently, psychoanalysis finds itself incapable of understanding human life in its real essence as social essence, the true foundation of the individual psychism. Only historical materialism, by developing the theory of the sociohistorical forms of individuality, can correctly interpret the rich material of objective data accumulated by psychoanalysis.
“… these petrified conditions must be made to dance by singing to them their own melody.” [Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’, Introduction, p. 134.]
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© 1984 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Thao, T.D. (1984). Marxism and Psychoanalysis — The Origins of the Oedipal Crisis. In: Investigations into the Origin of Language and Consciousness. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 44. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6236-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6236-1_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-009-6238-5
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