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Marx, Sartre and Freud Compared

Karl Marx

Karl Marx believed in the ‘Materialist conception of history’. He believed that the ‘driving force of historical change was material rather than spiritual’. ‘Not in mere ideas and certainly not in any cosmic Spirit, but in the economic conditions of life lay the key to all history. Alienation… is at root neither metaphysical nor religious but social and economic.’ Under capitalism, labor is something alien to the laborer. He works not for himself but for someone else who directs the process and owns the product as private property. Marx sought, “not just to interpret the world, but to change it”. He was convinced that history was ‘moving forward to the revolution where capitalism would give way to communism’. In Marx’s work we find ‘German philosophy, French socialism, and British political economy’. He took these three things together and ‘welded them into the theory of history’, which Engels came to call ‘scientific socialism’. Marx believed that he and Engels had discovered the correct scientific method for the study of human society.

Theory of history

Marx was an atheist as well as a materialist and determinist. He proposed to explain all human phenomena by the methods of science. He believed he had the scientific method for studying historical development of human societies. He looked forward to the day when there would only be a single science. This would include many levels, encompassing biology, chemistry, physics etc… He thought that ‘there are general socioeconomic laws that operate in human history, and that the ‘major social and political changes can be explained by applying these laws to the prevailing conditions’. ‘Marx applied his materialist conception of society in two ways – synchronically and diachronically’. ‘The economic base is supposed to determine the ideological superstructure characteristic of that stage of society’. Each stage would exist only until it was advanced enough for the next stage to take its place. He believed this was inevitable. He also believed that capitalism would give way to communism. It can be suggested; that one of the failings in Marx’s theory is that capitalism, as Marx knew it ceases to exist. Many of the items declared in the Communist Manifesto have come into play in the capitalist system.

Theory of Human Nature

If one was adhere to a strict interpretation of Marx’s theory on human nature, ‘consciousness would be determined by the material conditions of life’. Marx believed that there is no such thing as a fixed, individual human nature. People are shaped by their environment. What may seem instinctual or natural in one environment may not be in another. The only generalization Marx made about human nature is that ‘we are active, productive beings; we are different by nature from other animals because we produce our means of subsistence.

Diagnosis

Marx thought that alienation was the cause of societal problems in the early capitalist era. Alienation occurred because of reasons discussed earlier. Alienation consists in a lack of community, and this makes morale lower, as people cannot see they are contributing to a group of which they are members. Marx’s main discontent was with the institution of private property.

Application

The parts of Marx’s theory to which we can definitely agree are ‘the application of science and technology to produce enough for all; the shortening of the working day; the provision of universal education so that all human beings can develop their potential; the vision of a decentralized society in which people cooperate in communities for the common good and of a society in balance with nature. Marxism became a secular faith. Despite the failings of the 20th century communist regimes, Marx’s ideas are far from dead

Sigmund Freud

Freud’s method of psychoanalysis developed from Breurs own assumptions that ‘hysteria was caused by some intense emotional experience (a “trauma”) that the patient had forgotten; his treatment was to induce the recall of the experience and a “discharge” of the corresponding emotion. Freud believed that neuroses always have a sexual origin. He analyzed everyday errors such as slips of the tongue. He concluded that nothing is an accident, and a slip of the tongue is something beyond the control of the person it happens to. He believed the mind consisted of 3 parts, the ego, the superego and the id. Religion to Freud was a ‘system of false beliefs whose deep root in our minds must be explained psychoanalytically’.

Background Theory

Freud’s hope was to ‘explain all the phenomena of life scientifically’. He assumed that all phenomena fell under the jurisdiction of the laws of the sciences, and that human beings are too subject to the laws. He accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution and that human beings are a species of animal. He proposed to deal with these problems and fix them through science.

Theory of Human Nature

Freud’s first basic assumption is materialism. He felt there was a distinction between mental and physiological states. This, for him, was not a separation of mind and body, but each had to be addressed differently. He strictly conformed to determinism whereby everything was preceded by an event. Every event was preceded by an action. He believed that nothing said or done by a person was haphazard or accidental. Everything can be explained by something in the persons mind. This idea is a denial of free will. Marx and Freud both believed that ‘ the contents of our consciousness, far from being perfectly “free” and uniquely “rational,” are determined by causes of which we are not normally aware. While Marx believed these are social and economic in nature, Freud believed they are individual and psychological. Freud thought that “the mind is like an iceberg, with only a small proportion of it visible above the surface and but with a vast hidden bulk exerting its influence on the rest. Freud believed that our unconscious can directly influence our conscious and can force us to do things that we are not aware of. If we do become aware, we are not sure as to why we are doing these things. The breakup of the mind is into, ID, Ego, and superego. ‘The id is said to contain all the instinctual drives that seek immediate satisfaction like a small child; the ego contains the conscious mental states, and its function is to perceive the real world and to decide how to act, mediating between the world and the id. The superego is identified as a special part of the mind that contains the conscience, the moral norms acquired from ones parents and others who were influential in ones early childhood. The superego has a connection with the id; it can confront the ego with rules and prohibitions. Forces of repression can be found in the ego and superego and usually operate unconsciously. Instincts or drives are where all the energy in our minds comes from. He thought that all instincts could be derived from few basic ones. These were essentially the “Life” instinct and the “Death” instinct. He maintained that the first five years of a person’s life are the basis in which each person’s individual personality is laid down. He also widened the idea of sexuality to anything that provokes pleasure. He believed that the first sexual experience a young child had is with its mouth, sucking on it’s mothers’ breast. After this, the anal stage kicks in. Then the phallic stage, where girls develop ‘penis envy’, and little boys lust for their mother and fear their fathers.

Diagnosis

Freud says that for an individual to be healthy, an equilibrium must be reached among the various parts of the mind and between the person and the external social world. Neurotic illnesses result from the frustration of the sexual instinct, either because of external obstacles or because of internal mental imbalance. Freud believed that repression was crucial in causing neurotic illness. In a situation of extreme mental conflict in which someone experiences an impulse which goes against the standards which the person feels they must uphold, it is likely that he or she will repress it. The basic repressions in early childhood are sexual. It is essential for adult health that the child pass through the normal developments of sexuality.

Prescription

Freud wanted to restore a harmonious balance between the parts of the mind and to suggest ways to improve individual adjustment to the world. Freud didn’t believe that psychoanalysis could answer every human problem. He didn’t intend to reform the world with his methods, or start a new way of life. He did believe though, that psychoanalysis had wider applications than just the treatment of neurotics.

Jean-Paul Sartre

There are 3 things that are commonplace to existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre. 1. General theories about human nature leave out the uniqueness of each individual and his/her life situation. 2. There is a concern with the meaning or purpose of human lives. 3. There is a strong emphasis on the freedom of human beings and on each individuals freedom to choose their attitude, purpose, value, and action. Sartre was politically active on the left and joined the Communist party in France, but resigned at the time of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.

Theory of the Universe

His most important metaphysical assertion is the denial of the existence of God. ‘Sartre claims that the very idea of God is self-contradictory’. If God does not exist, then everything is permitted, and there are no divine laws set for us. We have in a sense been abandoned on this earth, and it is the responsibility of us to decide for ourselves how to best look after ourselves.

Theory of Human Nature

In one sense, Sartre would deny there is any such thing as “human nature”. By this he means that we have no “essential” nature and have not been created to serve any specific purpose, by God, or evolution or anything else. We exist by no choice of our own, and have to decide what we want to make of ourselves. He says that there are no general truths about what human beings want to be or ought to be. We are “condemned to be free”. ‘For Sartre, all consciousness is consciousness of the world, or at least of something conceived of as in the world. A judgment about the world can be negative as well as positive. We can recognize what is not the case as well as what is the case. To be conscious is to be free. Sartre’s position on this is in direct contradiction with Freud’s. Freud believed that we are not in control of ourselves, whereas Sartre asserts exactly the opposite. For example, when I am sad, I am only sad because I choose to make myself sad. We are completely responsible for our emotions and behaviours. We are simply playing a role. If we have a job, nothing is holding us in that job but us. We choose to maintain our job. We can quit at anytime, and there is nothing physically forcing us to do the work required for the job. Every moment we spend doing something, we require a renewed choice. We need to constantly tell ourselves to continue doing what it is we are doing, and why.

Diagnosis

Sartre believes that it is desirable for humans to reach a state where there are no options left from which to choose in which we simply exist like inanimate objects. Anything we feel only exists because of a constantly remade decision by us to feel it. ‘ The crucial point is that we are always free to become different from what we already are’. Instead of looking for the cause of behavior, such as done by Freud, Sartre looks for the meaning of the behavior, in what is called ‘existential psychoanalysis’. Sartre ‘wants to extend the concept of choice far beyond its normal use, to hold us responsible not just for our actions but for our emotions and even for our characters’.