Pychological theory (Freud, Fronn and Jung)

Psychological Theory

The Problem of Alienation

Historically proponents of liberal, democratic, and socialist revolution believed that religious alienation was the principal obstacle to revolution.

Feuerbach:: “In the consciousness of the infinite the conscious subject has as its object the infinity of his on nature”

• Every quality human beings attribute to God (goodness, wisdom, power, etc.) is in fact a human quality.

• But God is a mere projection of these qualities belief in whom drains humanity of its defining capacities.

• The criticism of religion is thus the beginning of all criticism and the condition of human freedom.

Alienated Labor

Agrees that the criticism of religion is the beginning of all criticism and emancipation, but points out that Feuerbach does not explain where religion comes from.

Locates the source of religion in the commodification of labor power (the fact that under capitalism we must sell our labor power to survive).

Human nature is defined by our creativity

But capitalism makes this a mere means of survival and of the enrichment of another, who owns our creative capacity

This alienation creates the basis in experience for the idea of God.

In order to overcome religious alienation we must also overcome capitalism.

Historically, however ... Religion sometimes a conservative force, but sometimes also a catalyst for revolution

Principal obstacle to liberation is, in stead, fascism and fascistoid movements which attract the support for the working classes

mass movement (racist, misogynist, authoritarian)

seeks to militarize the society in order to

conquer or conserve colonial empire

other aims??

Need to investigate the problem of alienation further

Freud: Socialization

Human beings are defined by two drives: Eros or sexuality and Thanatos or aggression

Big brains and opposable thumbs, which mean that we survive by working (making tools) and cooperation

Our drives are thus opposed to our adaptive strategy and must be sublimated (refined and channeled) in To love (cooperation) and work. This happens through the Oedipal conflict in which fear of castration for boys, or the realization that they are “already castrated ” for girls, forces them to abandon their struggle to phallically possess the mother.

The Unconscious is an individual personality structure that consists of repressed, mostly libidinal content.

Freud on Religion

Religion is a product of this process:

The idea of a father in heaven is basically a reflex of the Oedipal conflict and embodies our guilt, fear of punishment, and desire for forgiveness.

The oceanic feeling of mystical religion is a residue of our physical union with the mother.

Religion once served important social control functions but now that we understand the process of socialization we no longer need it.

Freud's (Implicit) Analysis of Fascism

Human nature requires but is incompatible with civilization

Fascism is a resurgence of raw instinct, especially thanatic instinct, against the

Jung

The Unconscious is

collective as well as individual, specific to each race

contains basic archetypes, mental images which mediate different human possibilities or facets of human personality: animus/anima, shadow, Self; hero, mother, etc.

Most people remain identified with their public persona and dominated by unconscious archetypes, especially the animus or anima, the shadow, etc.

Aim is individuation. By bringing the unconscious to the surface and integrating it we cease to identify with our public roles and instead become an integrated Self.

Jung and Fascism

On the one hand

Associated with German Volkisch (romantic nationalist/populist movement), due to his interest in mythology; this trend was one source of NAZIsm

Racialized the unconscious and said that Aryans have more potential than Jews

On the other hand,

resisted NAZI recruiting and helped allies late in war

Read fascism is a kind of national possession by the archetype of Odin.

Jung on Odin/Wotan and Fascism

In his 1936 essay, “Wotan,” Jung describes the old god as a force all its own, a “personification of psychic forces” that moved through the German people “towards the end of the Weimar Republic”—through the “thousands of unemployed,” who by 1933 “marched in their hundreds of thousands.” Wotan, Jung writes, “is the god of storm and frenzy, the unleasher of passions and the lust of battle; moreover he is a superlative magician and artist in illusion who is versed in all secrets of an occult nature.” In personifying the “German psyche” as a furious god, Jung goes so far as to write, “We who stand outside judge the Germans far too much as if they were responsible agents, but perhaps it would be nearer the truth to regard them also as victims.”

Erich Fromm: General Theory

Human beings defined by creativity, sociality, search for meaning

These basic drives are channeled by the family in ways that promote survival in the society in which one is born.

Resulting in specific character types

Fromm: Character Orientations

Unproductive

receptive

exploitative

hoarding

marketing

Productive

Fromm on Fascism

Fascism is fundamentally a product of socialization which produces an extreme exploitative/receptive, sadomasochistic personality, which people embrace because they have formal freedom but not the means to actually use it.

Racism, Misogyny, Antisemitism

Racism mobilized by authoritarian personality that asserts superiority as a "producer" and law abiding citizen against redundant, criminal masses

Misogyny mobilized by authoritarian personality asserting force over and against "feminized" demands of civilization.

Antisemitism joins both dynamics in attacking the critical rationality promoted by Judaism as unproductive, subversive, and weak.

What Must Be Done?

economic and political struggle must be complemented by struggle in the cultural and psychological arena

build, conserve, and transform institutions which promote critical rationality, psychological self-awareness and what Fromm would have called productive orientations.