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Robert Waelder traces the development of psychoanalysis and
discusses the key elements of Freud’s work. Freud’s most
significant contribution to this field has been the discovery of
the repressed unconscious which comes to the surface in some
form or the other. What one usually refers to as a "slip of
tongue" is actually, according to Freud, bringing of the
hidden into the light; the repression finding an outlet.
Furthermore, he believed that the chief constituent of the
unconscious is sexual desires, the suppression of which results
in hysteria and paranoia. Although Freudian theories were quite
outrageous for the bottled up society of his days, yet they
swayed public interest. The book elucidates the process of ‘dream
formation’ and ‘dream interpretation’ while explaining
different methods to carry out dream analysis. Dreams, in Freud’s
view, are "forms of wish fulfillment" through which
unconscious desires are conveyed. For a better understanding of
the mind Freud divided it into three sections — Id, Ego and
Super-Ego.
 Discussing the
last works of Freud, Waelder explains the Freudian assumption
that past events and experiences are not only influential in
shaping an individual’s life but also in drafting the future
of a nation: "The remote past still has power over us;
psychoanalysis has proved that for our individual lives; now we
are told that it is not different in the lives of nations and
even of mankind as a whole." Along with the study of races
and nations, psychology has proved useful in critical
interpretations of literary and artistic works. In fact
psychoanalysis has made it possible to tread new paths as was
believed by Trotsky, a Marxist thinker, who endeavoured to
"transform the pessimistic Freudian vision of the role of
the unconscious into an optmistic revolutionary one."
Leon Trotsky
played an important part in the Russian Democratic Movement. He
formulated the "Theory of Permanent Revolution"
according to which the proletariat and salaried people could not
depend on the capitalists for their liberation. However, after
the death of Lenin he was exiled to Alma Ata and then to Mexico.
Trotskyist canon gave birth to the theory Russia was a
"degenerate worker’s state" and a professional
proletarian revolution was essentially needed to resist any kind
of imperialism.
Although Trotsky’s
emphasis was on the revolutionary character of the working class
yet he held the opinion that Marxian fundamentals cannot be done
away with. In the present book he clarifies that the objective
of Marx was not "to discover the eternal laws of economy
... the history of the development of human society is the
history of the succession of various systems of
economy...." Marx was more concerned about capitalist
economy rather than economics in general. Trotsky touches upon
the various concepts and laws put forward by Marx. The
"theory of labour value," which is central to the
Marxist doctrine has been quite lucidly explained as have been
other concepts like "fascism", idea of
"crisis" and more. In fact, the Marxist premise of
"base and superstructure", that is considered
responsible for social and ideological structures, is extremely
significant for cultural studies. For Marx "it is not the
consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their
social existence that determines their consciousness." The
author also discusses the relevance of Marxism in comparison to
other schools of thought, while focussing on Marx’s Das
Capital.
The contribution
of the two fields in the formation of the idea of identity
cannot be denied but at the same time post-colonial and feminist
critics attack the Eurocentric and phallocentric attitudes of
these thinkers. Nonetheless, whatever tenets one may adhere to,
a wider perception of various theories is crucial to a
meaningful existence. Such philosophical studies are not only
valuable from the academic point of view but also useful for the
layman.
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HUMAN
nature has always fascinated theorists and philosophers around the
globe. Endeavours have been made to understand it on social as well
as personal levels. Both psychoanalysis and Marxism attempt to study
the human mind and its instincts. Sigmund Freud studied the
psychological conflicts within the individual and asserted that it
was not only the conscious but also the unconscious that contributed
to the production of ‘meaning’ and, was responsible for the
social and cultural conflicts in the outside world. Karl Marx
maintains that the cause of all conflict and the source of all
development is the forces of production. While Freudian
psychoanalysis insists that "irrationality", of human
behaviour is an intrinsic part of individual pysche, Marxism
maintains that capitalism provides ground for the unfounded acts of
human beings. In Civilisation and its Discontents Freud
writes: "The communists believe that they have found the path
of deliverance from our evils. According to them, man is wholly
good... but the institution of private property has corrupted his
nature." In spite of Freud’s anti-communist statement, many
Marxist analysts carried out psychoanalytical interpretations to
serve their needs.
