Why Is Freud not Content with Marxism or Communism - Essay Example

Why Freud Is Not Content With Marxism or Communism Student’s Name: Grade course: Tutor’s Name: Date: Freud developed a theory called psychoanalysis theory which seeks to explain the human motives of doing things. Freud believes that all of the human behavior is driven by two major instincts that are life instincts and death instincts and that all these instincts comes from the mind it ids the mind which determines what an individual does and how they behave at all times. Marxism theory is defined as the economic and theory which maintains that the actions and the human institutions determined economically and that the struggle of the classes is the key agency of historic change (Baran 1960). It also argues that communism shall overtake by the capitalism given time or in the future. This theory was put forward by Karl Mark. Communism is defined as the socioeconomic organization is mainly designed to take control of all the structures of production as it seeks to abolish the social stratification into various classes. It therefore advocates that the means of production should be owned by the state and that all the property should be wholesomely owned by the state (Gabbard, Litowitz & William 2011). This theory seeks to discourage private ownership of properties and accumulation of wealth by individuals and calls for equal sharing of properties among the society so that everyone can be able to enjoy all the available resources by having equal access to these resources. Freud is not happy with the Marxism or the communism mainly due to their beliefs as well as their argument about the human nature and what drives the people to do various things and to achieve the things that they achieve. Freud does not necessarily seek to criticize the Marxism theory but he feels that Marxism work is insufficient and he therefore works tries to work on completing this work in his work. These comprises of the following: Freud believes that man is an isolated being which needs other people to assist him or her to attain specific physiological needs as opposed to Marxism which states that man is a complete being and majorly needs the entire universe whose passion is mainly found in the man’s potential drive to attain man’s objectives in life (Parker 2007). This makes Freud to feel that man what man need is very different from what the society wants and therefore man should be viewed as a single being not as a complete being. Marxism argues that things and the circumstances are always against and above man in all that he tries to do or accomplish. This makes Freud to argue that all the things and the circumstances are always together at all times and that man is always able to make things go his way at all times. This therefore portrays the great difference of ideologies that exists between them (Baran 1960). The Marxism theory maintains that what a man does is usually driven by the social consciousness and that everything that an individual does is usually driven by social consciousness. For instance when a man dreams about something, he does this from the things that are contained in his consciousness and that is the reason that he is able to dream or imagine things from what an individual has experience in the future. Man is only able to think about things which exist in the conscious as opposed to those things which h have long been forgotten. Freud is not content about this argument because he believes that what an individual think about is mainly driven by the social consciousness as well as the social sub consciousness (Miklitsch 1998). That is man’s driving force comes from those things which are conscious to him that is those things which he can remember adequately as well as those things which are sub conscious to him or her that is those things which have been removed from his mind and therefore cannot remember them well un less he or she takes time to remember them after careful internalization or rather those things that he does not think of quite often. The Marxism theory argues that there are some external factors which are outside our control which makes or determines what happens to us and also the way we behave. It further advocates that religion is the only way that we can be able to understand these natural powers in our lives. Freud does not also believe in religion, he does not believe that the way man thinks and behaves is usually pre-determined or affected by some supernatural powers that which make people to behave in certain way. He further argues that people depend on religion on some super powers in form of the religion so that they can get explanation of life’s tension and anxieties while not wanting believe in this super power. Freud further maintains that humanity was responsible for the creation of God in their image as opposed to what is portrayed in the Christians theology. Freud believed that it was wrong to believe that religion made people to behave in a moral way mainly because it is only the mind which is responsible in controlling the way a person behaves (Gabbard, Litowitz & William 2011). Marxism theory also argues that what happens to us on daily basis as well as the way we behave is usually determined by things which are well known to us which or rather those things which are conscious to us. They are things which we interact with on daily basis and we can be able to identify them. But Freud maintains that what controlled our day to day actions as well as our behaviors can only be found in our sub conscious mind regardless of other views that maintained that our behaviors and actions are well known to us. He further maintains that the sun conscious mind is usually present in each and every part of our life regardless of whether we are awake or sleeping (Miklitsch 1998). Freud also says that the behavior of man can only be understood by looking for mental processes analysis and that each every individual is affected at all times by the sub conscious mind whether an individual is aware or not. At some point I do not agree with Freud argument about how he seeks to understand man and what drives him to do all the things that mans does as well as the way he goes against the theory of Marxism or the communism. This is mainly due to the following reasons: In order to understand man there is a great need to understand his society or the society that he comes from. Man cannot be able to survive independently without having to rely on the society. Therefore Freud argument of maintaining that man exists as an independently being and that he only requires the world to help him to attain his desires and goals is not collect and it is misguided. Man is also supposed to ensure that his activities are in line to that of the society so that he does not live in constant conflict with the society (Elliott 2002). Freud further argues that when a person dreams about something that dream is usually determined or caused by several factors which are present or have occurred in the life of the individual so that they can surface in his mind and be able to dream or visualize about that thing or something. This therefore means that there are several conditions which lead to the occurrence of a certain event and there are no two separate events that should lay claim to any of the adequate conditions this is mainly because it would cause over determination of the event occurrence. Freud does not also believe in religion, he does not believe that the way man thinks and behaves is usually pre-determined or affected by some supernatural powers that which make people to behave in certain way. Freud further maintains that humanity was responsible for the creation of God in their image as opposed to what is portrayed in the Christians theology. Freud believed that it was wrong to believe that religion made people to behave in a moral way mainly because it is only the mind which is responsible in controlling the way a person behaves. He further argues that people depend on religion on some super powers in form of the religion so that they can get explanation of life’s tension and anxieties while not wanting believe in this super power. In life there are always things or some powers which always protects or guides the way we behave as well as the things which occur to us. Therefore, people need to believe in some natural powers to be able to understand these things as well as to be able to overcome the uncertainties in life (Wolfenstein 1993). Freud maintains that what controlled our day to day actions as well as our behaviors can only be found in our sub conscious mind regardless of other views that maintained that our behaviors and actions are well known to us. He further maintains that the sun conscious mind is usually present in each and every part of our life regardless of whether we are awake or asleep. Freud also says that the behavior of man can only be understood by looking for mental processes analysis and that each every individual is affected at all times by the sub conscious mind whether an individual is aware or not (Elliott 2002). I believe that our behaviors and actions in a day to day life are determined by things that we are aware of, this is mainly because, whenever an individual does something it is usually driven by something or a force that one is well aware of and he is able to identify it. For instance whenever an individual feels hungry or thirsty he or she eats food or drink something so as to get satisfied as well as to quench thirst. Therefore, an individual can be in a position to identify what has made him or her to eat food or take a drink. On the other hand I agree with Freud argument about how man actions and behavior are driven. This is mainly due the following reasons: Freud argument that what controls our day to day actions as well as our behaviors can only be found in our sub conscious mind regardless of other views that argue that our behaviors and actions are well known to us is very true. This is because there is no single action that an individual takes that without having to think about. Therefore an individual first thinks about something before he or she enact on the action or the behavior. He further maintains that the sun conscious mind is usually present in each and every part of our life regardless of whether we are awake or asleep. Freud also says that the behavior of man can only be understood by looking for mental processes analysis and that each every individual is affected at all times by the sub conscious mind whether an individual is aware or not (Wolfenstein 1993). There are some actions that various individuals do during their lifetimes which they cannot explain. I believe these actions or behaviors are usually driven by forces from sub conscious mind. Freud believes that man is an isolated being which needs other people to assist him or her to attain specific physiological needs as opposed to Marxism which states that man is a complete being and majorly needs the entire universe whose passion is mainly found in the man’s potential drive to attain man’s objectives in life (Parker 2007). This argument is fully justified because each and every individual in the entire universe have their own unique needs and the individuals cannot be able to achieve the society needs without first achieving their own personal needs or desires. Therefore an individual exists as an isolated being and only needs the society to help them achieve their own specific physiological needs. References Baran, P., 1960, Marxism and Psychoanalysis, Monthly Review Press, New York. Gabbard, G., Litowitz, B., & Williams, P., 2011, Textbook of Psychoanalysis, American Psychiatric Club, Washington. Elliott, A., 2002, Psychoanalytic Theory: An Introduction, Duke University Press, London. Miklitsch, R., 1998, Psychoanalytic-Marxism: Marxism and Psychoanalysis late in the Twentieth Century, Duke University Press, Virginia. Parker, I., 2007, ‘Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Revolutionary Marxism’, Lacanian Ink, Wooster Press, New York. Wolfenstein, E., 1993, Psychoanalytic-Marxism: Groundwork, Free Association Books, Munich. Read More