Jeffry Ocay

The conclusion arrived at in the article titled “Heidegger, Hegel, Marx: Marcuse and the Theory of Historicity,” which appeared in a previous issue of this journal, accounts for Herbert Marcuse’s view of the possibility of the individual to become disposed to radical action.1 Marcuse thus wants to suggest that there is still hope for the Enlightenment’s project of “emancipation,” and that there is still a revolutionary subject who can carry out this political struggle for liberation. The progression of consciousness which results in a historically conscious individual exemplified by the “conscious slave” in Hegel’s discussion of master-slave relation provided Marcuse the basis of his claim that the individual can be an active and dynamic political subject. Yet the slave who realizes via the notion of labor that it is himself and not the master who is truly free is, after all, still a slave. This means that individuals still need to fight for their freedom.2 Like Marx, Marcuse believes that the internal logic of overproduction and excessive consumption vis-à-vis massive pauperization3 in a capitalist society lead to the self-destruction of society. The capitalist system of overproduction coupled with excessive consumption creates insatiable individuals whose needs and desires are impossible to satisfy.4 This is dangerous for Marcuse because as the society produces more and more to address the yearnings of such unquenchable individuals, a discrepancy between the purchasing power of the individuals and the volume of goods and services produced by the capitalist society would ensue at some point in time. Marcuse avers that this would cause the disintegration of the capitalist order.5 We might view the current financial crisis in this light.6 One can also reflect on how the Wall Street meltdown, which started with the collapse of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and other key financial institutions in the United States, has profoundly affected the world economy. In fact, few months after the Wall Street meltdown, the European economy along with the Asian and Australian economies began to plunge. And what is interesting now is that these capitalist economies have resorted to some of the basic principles of socialism: the partial or full nationalization of the State’s major industries. In the United States, the intervention of the government to rescue the American International Group (AIG) signals the transition from capitalism to socialism. With this, it appears that Marx’s prediction that capitalism will self-destruct is beginning to dawn. As we can observe, Marcuse was utterly convinced that “historicity” would necessarily engender a historically conscious individual who is disposed to radical action. This type of individual is for Marcuse the key factor of the transition from capitalism to socialism. But since the self-destruction of capitalism would not necessarily lead to socialism, it therefore needs a subject who can arrest the situation and appropriate it in order to realize socialism. This is precisely the role of the historically conscious individual who is disposed to radical action. Contrary to what Marx predicted, however, Marcuse realized that the transition from capitalism to socialism did not happen. What happened instead were the integration of the proletariat into the status quo, the stabilization of capitalism, the bureaucratization of socialism (as in the case of the former Soviet Union), and the absence of a revolutionary agent for progressive social change. Marcuse saw that the capitalist society had developed a technique that effectively dissolves “opposition” in the society and reduces the individuals into acquiescence or even complicity. The result is obvious for Marcuse: a conformist society.7 This explains why Marcuse attempted to complement his revitalization of Marxism with Freud. Marcuse’s attempt to revitalize Marxism through Heidegger and Hegel, therefore, does not suffice. It needs another decisive piece to complete the methodological puzzle: Freud’s psychoanalysis.

KRITIKE: An Online Journal of Philosophy

Vol. 3 (1) (JUNE 2009) 10-23

2009

Ocay, J. V. (2009). Eroticizing Marx, revolutionizing Freud: Marcuse’s psychoanalytic turn. Kritike: An Online Journal of Philosophy, 3(1), 10-23.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c38c/7f3ab50b83f3ac43b68459f9bea571da3ad2.pdf