Re: Psychoanalysis Re: "happiness is a transitory state"

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

I think that one of the reasons why capitalism "righted itself" in the rich (imperialist) countries was the widening role of individualism in the culture. Though I think that pschology should play a big role in our understanding of the human condition under capitalism (and should have played a bigger role in Marx), most psychology -- including Freudian psychoanalysis -- is extremely individualistic, especially in practice. Or it focuses on the behavior and/or consciousness of the "average" person in society... 

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

> And if you want to take it even further -- that capitalism 
> has been able
> to deliver, despite episodic crises, a modest but steady 
> improvement in
> living standards and working conditions for the mass of Western wage-
> and salary-earners, despite Marx's belief that it had "exhausted its
> historic potential" a century and a half ago and would produce only
> increasing "immiseration".
> 
> It's reasonable to expect that a reversal of this historic trend,
> especially if abrupt, would be accompanied by a radically changed
> psychology, with few exceptions, among friends, neighbours, relatives,
> and co-workers desperate to recover their lost jobs, homes, 
> and income.
> We caught a glimpse of the relationship between economic (in)security
> and personal and political psychology during the Great Depression
> through World War II until the system righted itself.
> 
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> > Or, if you want to take it further, there's Judith Butler's argument
> > - rooted in that silly doctrine called psychoanalysis - 
> that subjects
> > are formed in subjection (through deference to authority figures,
> > like parents, and their successors, like language and law), and that
> > attitude of deference to authority persists through life, 
> for fear of
> > the disintegration of the subject.
> 
> > Mike Ballard wrote:
> >
> > >Why *don't* the proles revolt?  After all, capitalism
> > >is way past its "use-by" date by now.  That's
> > >demonstrated on this list daily by the countless,
> > >excellent news articles posted.
> > >
> > >Could this condition originate in a conservative
> > >psychological character structure rooted in the
> > >upbringing of individuals within societies where the
> > >monogamous-paternalistic family, private property and
> > >the State permeate social relations?
>