Hegemony and Marxist Psychology

نویسنده

  • Ronald Mather
چکیده

Recently there have been several attempts to arrive at a more precise understanding of the relationship between Marxism and psychology. These have been notable in that they have been informed by Althusserian treatments of Marxism rather than orthodox Freudian or Lacanian themes. Such treatments, it is argued, entail the complete eradication of any notion of subjectivity. The following analyses the Gramscian concept of hegemony and whether it can furnish an alternative to this rejection and provide at least an initial point of departure in formulating a ‘Marxist psychology’. It suggests that hegemony is a dialectical concept in the classical Hegelian tradition, a concept expressible only in and through the Hegelian notion of a ‘speculative proposition’. It is argued that this would necessitate a wholesale rejection of the classical Marxist tradition that assigns primacy to the material base. No grounds for causal primacy can be adduced from a truly dialectical relationship. It is suggested that the ‘logic’ of hegemony is fundamentally at odds with hegemony as an item of real socio-cultural analysis. Gramsci’s own retention of the primacy thesis, the dominance of the economic moment in the constitution of hegemony, requires that hegemony be the result of that moment as a causal factor. A refusal of the Althusserian alternative requires a concept of agentic psychical subjectivity, albeit one open to massive influence by the logic of commodity production.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Physical Order vs. Divine Designer: Celestial Mechanics and Natural Theology Struggling for the System of the World

The concept of cultural hegemony is notoriously difficult. As it is presented in Gramsci’s original writings, hegemony is a cluster of several ideas, insights, and suggestions (see Adamson, 1980; Bates, 1975; Howson & Smith, 2008; G. A. Williams, 1960). This is hardly surprising. One had to remind that the notion was developed to explain very specific historical processes in post-WWI Europe. Re...

متن کامل

Marx and the Bible : José Miranda ’ s Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression

This paper critically examines the “liberation theology” of José Porfirio Miranda, as expressed in his Marx and the Bible (1971), with a focus on the central idea (and subtitle) of this work: the “Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression.” Miranda’s critique is examined via certain key tropes such as “power,” “justice,” and “freedom,” both in the context of late twentieth-century Latin American...

متن کامل

Cultural hegemony in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities

This study delineates the use of cultural hegemony in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities (1859) through the vantage points of Italian critic Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) who clarifies domination of the ruling class over ruled class. Cultural hegemony is the mastery of the middle class and governing groups among the lower divisions. Antonio Gramsci declares that the only means of keeping cult...

متن کامل

[Recent development of psychology in China].

The recent development of psychology in the People's Republic of China is reviewed in some important areas. The foundations of Chinese psychology is traced back to Chinese ancient philosophy and modern Marxist ideology. The difficulty encountered in the building of a new psychology as well as some exemplary research topics are described. Special emphasis is made on the psychological research re...

متن کامل

For Life , Liberty and Property the Nature of Nazi Ideology

episode in German history. Crude Marxist interpretations have seen Fascism and National Socialism as symptoms of a capitalist society overcome by its own contradictions. It was, the Marxists said, a last ditch attempt to save the capitalist system through authoritarianism. Others have sought to combine Marxist theory with psychoanalysis. The proponents of such theories were prominent in the Ger...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2003