Problems of Psychology in the Works of Karl Marx Author(s): Sergej L. Rubintejn and T. J.

Blakeley Source: Studies in Soviet Thought, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Feb., 1987), pp. 111-130 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20100205 . Accessed: 16/04/2013 11:06
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SERGEJ L. RUBINSTEJN (1889-1960)

PROBLEMS

OF PSYCHOLOGY OF KARL MARX*

IN THE

WORKS

? is not among the disciplines which like political economy Psychology ? were are no psy systematically developed by Karl Marx. There treatises among the collected in a works of Marx. But chological one finds a series of remarks on various number of his works, of psychology. not externally these questions Although systematized, an internal unity. As one develops remarks evidence, nevertheless, their whole that content, these fragments begin to form a single, monolithic the entire of worldview Marx. permeates in the field of psychology, Marx must not be treated as a or of the past, to be studied merely great representative historically the most philologically. We must approach him as we would approach our of to confront his with the contemporary contemporaries, thought Therefore, most modern It is on these that psychology must concentrate; problems. us for Marx with the most crucial of psychological supplies insights serve us in the light of Marxist-Leninist which, elaborated methodology,

as guide in the construction of psychology. It is well known that contemporary abroad is in crisis. psychology This crisis that coincided with a rapid growth in experimental research ? is like the crisis in physics that Lenin described in Materialism and ? a crisis. It reflects the Empirio-Criticism methodological general conflict that is going on in contemporary science and that ideological manifests itself in a fundamental methodological crisis in a number of disciplines, this crisis another. have been written beginning with contemporary has led to the formation of It has become unable about mathematics. schools In psychology that are fighting one figures in psychology

so bad that the leading to ignore it. A number of leading psychologists have the critical nature of this period for psychology and this in

congresses. question has repeatedly come up at psychological At the Twelfth Congress of German in Hamburg Psychologists 1931, K. B?hler referred in his opening for rethinking of the bases of psychology. Studies inSoviet Thought 33 (1987) 111-130. ? 1987 byD. Reidel Publishing Company. statement In his own book

to the serious need1, on the "crisis

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SERGEJ L. RUBINSTEJN

in psychology" he advances the same thesis.2 At the Tenth International in of Congress Psychology Copenhagen (August 1932), W. K?hler we not links do within psychology that "if find the connecting warned soon, we will be atomized".3 Even if one rejects Biihler's suggested solution to the crisis, one has was revealed in the tensions to agree with him that the problem We and behaviorist between spiritualist psychologies. introspectionist, cannot go into these in detail here, as our present task is to delineate clearly Marx' The of the current the components can help toward contributions psychology. dominant crisis and then to show context how of a solution in the

Marxist-Leninist

spectionist According

phenomena they are immediately its being essence doomed here internal useless

of the psyche, flowing from an intro understanding it with phenomena of consciousness. identifies psychology, to this conception, is to study the the task of psychology where of consciousness within the individual consciousness,

given. The being of the psyche consists totally in to the search for In contrast in conscious experience. given in the other seemed that one finds sciences, psychology essence of to remain in the Machist position phenomenalism: with of appearance (Husserl). Marx had noted that if the with their external form, then all coincided things On what

coincides essence

science would

would be the this reading, psychology is science, "discovering" already immediately given. of shows that it is based on the assumption of this position Analysis to aims distin of the psychic. the immediate givenness Introspection be nugatory. from all objective position: everything mediations. that This is, of course, a is material, and external the psychic is the primary and

guish

the psychic idealist radically

through the psyche; physical is mediated it shuts itself up in an internal world immediate given. In its immediacy that is purely personal. To every subject are given only the phenomena are given only to him. They and these phenomena of his consciousness

are, as a matter of principle, not available to any other observer. Even of the other's psyche falls by the wayside. indirect objective knowledege ? even ? and this is the heart of the matter At the same time, however cannot have objective of knowledge subject experiencing claim that the data of introspection introspectionists psyche. Radical the absolutely trustworthy.4 the are

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PSYCHOLOGY This means doubt that the data

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113
cannot be thrown into

of consciousness

that nobody can confirm them. by anybody, If the psyche is immediately any objective mediations, given, without to controvert available then there is nothing objective introspectionist can distinguish the subject nor any other observer data on it. Neither knowledge
knowledge,

but this also means

from belief.
i.e., as a science.

Psychology

is no

longer possible

as objective

of the psyche that is adopted it is just this conception Nevertheless, ? ? the the and American of introspectionism, Russian opponents by behaviorists. The whole psychology phenomena not subject that one must argumentation is based in favor of behavior exclude on consciousness from that the the contention

are available only to the subject and "are of consciousness to objective verification and, therefore, cannot be the object of science".5 The behaviorist is based argument against consciousness on the introspectionist view that one must either accept the data of consciousness

or exclude one cannot them completely; completely ? of On the basis of this intro the consciousness. concept change ? of the psyche, and idealism combining understanding spective to behaviorism reduces man to the set of his responses mechanicism, stimuli. the environmental in the "psycho activities practical as to the the concrete stimuli responses subject by logical" tears human activity away from its roots historical person. Behaviorism in a second operation, in human consciousness. behaviorism Further, Behaviorism first isolates man's form of and results, it tears human activity from its products runs the risk of reducing environment its from social and activity away to psychology physiology. isolate's human The twentieth of the dominant trends of the anti-psychologism philosophic ? ? or Rickertian the whether Husserlian century opposed to form of the the and and ideological concept (in value)

logical to the mechanistic trend. The and thereby contributed psychological a effort to rescue the ideological component through "psychology of the with the of Spr?nger) soul" or eigentliche Psychologie Sinnb?nder (e.g. failed found itself in three pieces: and psychology spectionism and "psychology of the soul". The first effort to emerge from this (by B?hler behaviorism, in the West intro and

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114
Kornilov

SERGEJ L. RUBINSTEJN

in trying to treat these three as in the Soviet Union) consisted a of This effort was aspects unitary complementary psychology. forced idealism and mechanicism from the outset as it merely doomed ? a summing up of errors, capable of clarifying nothing. together The basic approach has to be not a "synthesis" but a "fight on two

rather than combine errors accumulated fronts", in order to eliminate error The of introspectionism did not lie in taking schools. different by as its object, but in how it did this; and, behaviorism's consciousness was not false but wrongly done. Therefore, in ignoring neither the psyche nor behavior, but in the of both human conscious understanding radically reconstructing ness and human conduct in their inseparable continuity. This, we claim, concentration the solution on behavior lies He statements. the path that can be clearly inferred from Marx' us to construct the Marxist-Leninist with opportunity provides as a "really concrete and actual6 science". psychology (soderzateTnyj) is exactly The

for this reconstruction is to be found in the point of departure notion of human activity. In the 1844 Manuscripts, Marxian using a as Marx defines human the dis-objec Hegelian terminology, activity an objectification of the subject, which is simultaneously of the ? in "The its and final result great thing object. Hegel's Phenomenology the dialectic of negation as the moving and productive principle", writes tification Marx, of man as that Hegel grasps the self-development as as and tran alienation process, disobjectification, objectification scendence of this alienation; that he thus grasps the nature of work and actual, as the result of comprehends objective man, authentic because "is simply isman's objectification of activity, for Marx, of the revelation of his himself; or, process objective work in Capital, Marx asserts very simply "essential powers". Analyzing the object". Thus, man's activity is that in work the "subject becomes in other words, to external stimuli, nor is it the operation of a subject on an object; it is "the subject becoming the object". Thereby we find the link not only between the subject and his activity but also between the as The of and its very products. activity understanding activity objec ? stresses tification includes this notion: Marx this when already ? in Capital he says that "activity and the object analyzing work that human from activity is subject to object human

his own work".1 All

not a reaction

mutually

each other". To the extent penetrate ? or its the transition objectified, objectification

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PSYCHOLOGY ? is revealed

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115

in the objects of his activity (included are his feelings since the objective being of industry is an open consciousness), book of essential human powers, concretely laying before us human and

"A psychology for which this book, that is, the Therefore, psychology.8 most observably and accessible part of history, remains closed present cannot become an actual, substantial and real science."9 the activity of man reveals not only the link from is subject to object but also that from object to subject. Objectification not a "transition into an object" of a ready-made is who isolated subject What is more, from his own ness. himself human activity. It is not It is in objectification is formed. "Only nature of a given conscious just a projection as transition to the object that the subject unfolded wealth of through the objectively

cultivated short,

is the wealth of the subjective human sensibility either an or created ? a musical for the ear, eye beauty of form, in senses capable of human satisfaction, as themselves confirming

human capacities. For not only the five senses but also the essentially so-called spiritual and moral senses (will, love, etc.), in a word, human sense and the humanity of the senses come into being only through the existence of their object, through nature humanized."10 And, further: the objectification is necessary practically, human
nature."11

"Hence

of the human to humanize to

and essence, both theoretically senses and also create a man's wealth of humanity and

sense

corresponding

the entire

man

In this way, by objectifying in the products of his activities, himself ? ? is formed "in part generated, in part developed" both in to in statement the famous and of consciousness, feeling according . . man in changing external nature, Capital: ". simultaneously changes his own nature". but It is not in active in penetrating labor transforming into immediacy, consciousness the depths of inert the world that man's

is formed.

One further link is needed finally to demarcate the thought of Marx on the self-generating from that of subject Hegel. I objectify myself When in my activity, I am simultaneously involved in an objective context that is independent of me and my will. I am inserted into objective social relations and the objective results of my ? determine social relations the of my activity are the activity products of social and satisfaction products activity. "Activity (Genuss), both in

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116
their social This content

SERGEJ and mode not

L. RUBINSTEJN are social, social and

of existence,

activity

satisfaction."12 sense, just to my practical activity in the narrower theoretical activity. Every takes its idea that I formulate in and sense in the social usage which it acquires meaning to the objective situation in which I formulate it, and not on I the subjective intents and convictions with which just

applies but also to my objective relationship

depending use it, just as the products of my practical activity and their objective content are products of social activity: "Social activity and satisfaction in the form of an immediate exist merely communal by no means activity and immediate and spirit, experienced

communal i.e., not just in reality satisfaction-, . . . ... in actual association with other men. ? an can I etc. Even as I am scientifically seldom active, pursue activity ? I am socially active because in direct community with others I am ? of my activity active as a man. Not only is the material such as the ? me as a social to in which the thinker is active language given own is I existence social what make from but my product, activity; myself for society, conscious of my nature as social."13 is not the Hegelian the human Therefore, being self-generating if is in consciousness formed for, my my subject; activity through the of this it is formed products activity, objectively through the products of Imake social activity. In its intimate essence, my consciousness are established in social the objective bonds which which one I include of my acts is mediated practice theoretical. and by in

historically This central Marxian via the mediation

every one of my acts, practical and Every is linked to me by thousands of bonds, spun by the culture that mediates my consciousness. accumulating

notion of the formation of the human psyche cuts through to the main problem of these products new of contemporary and opens the way to an effectively psychology to the question solution of its object, over which the contemporary schools have been quarreling. In response of immediacy

on the to the basic idea of introspective psychology as the psychic the experience object of (immediate we inMarx find clear assertion of the objective mediation psychology), to the (concrete) of consciousness. "thanks For, only objectively richness of the human essence" developed human subjective sensibility. All of Marx' is achieved statements the wealth on psychology of

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PSYCHOLOGY this

IN MARX

117

of the psyche. For Marx, idea of the objective mediation for for other and therefore, is existing people language "practically . . ."; his relation with Peter real consciousness "only through myself, the man, similar to himself, does Paul the man come to relate to himself as man", and so on. Thereby is opened a path to objective study of the carry is not subjective and it is not mediated only by psyche. The psyche can known human it be consciousness; indirectly through activity and the products of this activity since it is, in its being, objectively mediated. On but has the basis of this conception, to be reconstrued. The itself cannot introspection and consciousness psyche be excluded can be the

is achieved which is concrete and real. Objectivity object of psychology, not by breaking contact with the psychic but by basically in psychology of human consciousness and activity. transforming the understanding in the form labor The Marxian of human consciousness and analysis what the unique status of man", shows forth in all clarity in this reconstruction consists, how radical it is, and how it opens the of the psyche. path to objective knowledge is well known: "Conscious Marx' basic statement on consciousness "that constitutes ness can be nothing other than conscious being (das {das Bewusstsein) of their is the real process and the bewusste Sein) being of people is a reflection of being, to use the expression lives"14; i.e. consciousness have since to add that "My relationship ? unlike the animal which to my milieu is my ? relates to nothing language is consciousness These two The of consciousness.

of Lenin. We consciousness"15, man's relations

to others

existing for other people assertions form the core of the Marxian essence milieu of consciousness in human to milieu consists is given relation of man

are given to him; and because of that also for myself. notion

consciousness is mediated

to my in the fact that my relationship as a relation, i.e. the real through its ideal reflection which

is the plane on which I fix is practically realized in language. Language of my operation. In this the being reflected by me and the processuality are as I in the the is situation which included the ideal know, way, plane ? I use to change the world and this has to include the operations structure action As nature Lenin of these activities. Mediation dependency the "conscious writes16, and sets himself over against from exclusive through the ideal plane frees the immediately given situation. man" thereby excises himself out of on the world of things. Man ceases to

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118

SERGEJ L, RUBINSTEJN

be a slave of the immediately actions are given situation. His mediated called forth not just by immediate stimuli but also by goals and plans that lie beyond the immediate. He becomes imaginative, goal-oriented and able animal. the human from the distinguish "Work as establishing the unique status of man" has two main traits: (1) "The process of work ends in a result that was present in man to will. These last are what

already at the inception of the process, ideally": the real act contains the ideal, and (2) "the form of given nature changes, as does his own nature as he defines goals that obligate his will".17 The presence of the ideal in is involved the character of the itself. plane changing activity is brilliantly cases. In the research of K?hler, and two by pathological experiments traits emerge as marking primates that are close to humans: (1) the lack of Darstellungsfunktion of speech i.e. the lack of the power of verbal but the presence of affective representation speech, and (2) the on these of the pendency primates immediately given situation. One to become aware of the internal bonding of these two aspects. They of the Marxian assertions. No less telling are negative confirmation on results Jackson, Gelb aphasia and apraxia, obtained by Head, Goldstein, where absence of the goal-directed impossibility of purposeful, As a precondition of the specifically human the consciousness is also is formed ideal plane is connected behavior. human with de has are the and the of the specificity description and activity in their interconnections This of the human of knowlege in animal confirmed forms

its first result.

? form of activity labor In its essence, conscious

ness "from Marx'

and by and in transformatory activity. Such a penetrating inside" formative social activity is the decisive in element of human consciousness. Some also stresses the role of Bergson of intellect; the latter is formed for the needs to act on the material world. From this postulate,

contrasts

of the formation conception will make this clear. Henri in the formation in order

practice of practice

concludes that the intellect does not express con however, Bergson in its interior essence but only characterizes sciousness the contours of matter as disassociated for purposes must, therefore, go philosopher material world and penetrate into the "immediate data of conscious ness", since practice only reforms, but does not form the internal world of consciousness. The French sociological school of Durkheim of practice.18 The psychologist and this to surface turned the beyond

also

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PSYCHOLOGY the social nature to ideology

IN MARX

119

talked about

psychology social (Ch. Blondel) psychology (H.Wallon).19 Finally, Freud did recognize found

but then they reduced of consciousness, or separated the psychological and (L?vy-Bruhl) or excluded consciousness from the domain of

some social components to the "I" but which is seen as antagonis the driving forces in the unconscious, tically and externally related to consciousness. In this way, decisive is the over for the Marxist-Leninist notion

between social and individual, external and coming of the opposition of the formation of in the internal, accomplished primitive conception nature in the process of human the interior of human consciousness action on the external the formation Central sciousness. in the process of social practice, and in world, of the subject through the products of social practice. to these notions is the assertion of the historicity of con One grows along with the other. "From its very beginning,

"and will remain is a social product", writes Marx, then, consciousness such as long as there are people."20 the view that recognition of We sometimes find in the Soviet Union even and of the genetic of consciousness, the historicity recognition This is in general, is specific to Marxist-Leninist psychology. viewpoint not the case. It is enough to refer to the principle of development in matter not in but in but the is the idea itself view of evolution; Spencer's how it is understood. What Marx is decisive here can best be detected in a contrast between The latter held for a not just quantitative but and L?vy-Bruhl. in the of social-his of the transformation process psyche qualitative ? torical development changes not only in content but also in forms as of consciousness and structures. He saw the historical development reducible

to changes on the individual plane and as bound up with in social formations. He had a, so to speak, dialectical view and changes nature of psychic development. the social However, recognized L?vy Bruhl reduced sociality to a mere matter of ideology which, in turn, he not reduced level of to psychology. Social social consciousness. remain at the relations, on his account, a matter of Social being here becomes to all real link loses nature, to Sociality

experience. socially organized the objective world, and to any real activity of human practice. of the psyche Consequently, study of the historical development

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120
turns not on what

SERGEJ L. RUBINSTEJN

in the sphere of practice, but on what is of man at earlier stages in his develop given in ideology. Psychology ment appears to reflect only his religious-mythological representations. terms. Con defines L?vy-Bruhl "primitive man" solely in ideological happens sequently, practice all his and is pre-logical thought to contradictions. insensitive and mystical, for unsuited at these early stages Man of intellect that K?hler attributed to

lacks even the elements supposedly his apes. There is a caesura between the early cognitive and the here becomes This basically false intellectual. Continuity impossible. on stress outcome shows the differences of and politically reactionary As a result of this idealist treatment, the social ideological mysticism. relations lose their character of driving forces of social consciousness, and social formations become static structures.

in its very foundation; for here people's social to to nature. their relations "Work is counterposed .. man a nature and above all ."21; and it is process occurring between the basic social category. Social relations are, above all, real relations of Marx' idea is different are not relations in the process of their acting among people, production accumulating on nature. Only of the the correct understanding, by Marx, provided can essence man nature of and the social lead to a relationship between correct understanding and basically sufficiently profound of the psyche. torical development Marx' view on the relation of man to nature was clearly of the his

formulated.

"Man", he writes, "is a natural being."22 "Man is the immediate object of natural science", "nature is the direct object of the science of man. ? man ? .. .".23Hence, is nature, himself The first object for man "even history is an actual part of the history of nature, the establishment of this "establishment of nature by understanding in how Marx is different of understanding Aufhebung Marx declared that from that in Hegel. On the Hegelian this "is notion, or of his merely the root of Hegel's false positivism apparent criticism .. ,"25? for which "the real is rational", that positivism leading to in The is a Prussian of the monarchy. justification Hegel Aufhebung ? a to lower is transition from combined ideal higher purely operation of this lower form as "untrue", imper with a dialectical understanding the lower form remains intact fect, lower. But, after this Aufhebung, is a correct under the higher form. "Having recognized that man leads an external of nature by man".24 to correct Essential

man"

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PSYCHOLOGY

IN MARX

121
life as such

ized life in law, politics, etc., man leads in this externalized his truly human life."26 "Thus after transcending religion, and

for example, a as it of he self-externalization, yet finds recognizing product confirmation of himself in religion as religion."21 For Marx, Aufhebung is not just an ideal operation, but a process of not just "critique" (of the left Hegelians) real change, needing but ? In the process revolution. of development the including psycho ? of new, higher forms is linked not with the emergence logical of the untruth or imperfection of the lower forms, but with perception their real reconstruction.

The development of man, in this way, is not a a over of the nature of human social process superstructure building a nature but it is of process by man". This develop being, "establishing ment "thus indicates the extent to which his human essence has become a natural become man, for him"28, "the extent to which his human nature has to him".29 Relative to the psychological of development a not to of the historical the does reduce development psyche nature the spirit" over the sensual and instinctual in the fact that over the primitive animal essence

"realm of superstructural levels. It is not exhausted instincts are built "higher "lower drives". The

i.e. thought built over the is deeper than this; what were needs of man become over history human needs. senses develop Human and are thereby included in the whole of . . the senses a ". historical of five is the development: development one labor of the whole of the with world"30; and, history previous spiritual feelings", process of development of this development: "The senses have in their praxis. They try to immediately own sake, but to their subject matter relate themselves (Sache) for its the subject matter itself is an objective human relation to itself and to . . ."31This Marxian man in the remark succinctly states a key question ? on view the historical of perception contemporary development liberation of perception from the embrace of action and from the fixity is the precondition of the forms, their "categorization", ... stresses Marx the historicity of this higher forms of human activity. social-historical conditions affect the process, showing how changing own a a of for their sake". When mineral becomes "things relationship the lower it no longer appears commodity, ceases to be for its own sake.32 Thus, even elementary feelings to the human and instincts eye ? in its beauty, the whole and of shows the essence stroke, Marx therefore become theoreticians

human

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122

SERGEJ

L. RUBINSTEJN uneven

develop in the process of historical ment, but it does participate development. This is how the process of "establishment of nature by man" is to be of man, penetrated understood, i.e., as the psychological development to a greater depth than ever before. at this process of development and change, Marx showed Looking a very how it is subject to social-historical He in showed conditioning. concrete human way how the different divisions of labor conditioned the property of development, conception revolutionary practice with natural necessity from revolutionary If the psy theory. man on nature of is twisted social then relations, chological dependent psyche, In this the latter have as well as the effects of private on the human

? are included in the process of historical development, psyche as it might be. Consciousness is not in even and continuous

psyche. follows

to be changed. In place of the frequent bourgeois notion on of unchanging social structure based human nature, we unchanging nature of all. Also have the notion of the changing falling by the as a is the idealist understanding of change of consciousness wayside mere changing of one's mind, happening and spontaneously becoming decisive for the historical process. Only in actual socially reconstructive ? ? are in labor found the internal contradictions which incite practice
human consciousness to develop.

the politically necessary changes of people's consciousness, restructuring nants of capitalism not only in economics find their theoretical grounding in Marx' under the

All

we

face under

socialism

the

and

the overcoming but also in people's of how of

of rem ? heads

notion

consciousness

develops practice. becomes "Human

social historically transformatory Itself the product of historical consciousness development, ? the precondition of this same historical its development

influence

component. not only reflects the objective world, but also consciousness ? creates it"33, wrote Lenin. A shift in consciousness and its form and ? content are inseparable is a not insignificant element in the historical than physiological process; it is no more epi-phenomenal processes. are in consciousness determines consciousness. But Being changes changes activities in being that signify changed conditions for the effecting of the ? to a great extent through of people who are conditioned ? their consciousnesses conditions. The Leninist problem by objective

free but essential

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PSYCHOLOGY

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123

and conscious of the spontaneous (cf. What but the transition outside course, psychology,

from one

is to be done?34) falls, of to the other is a

profound psychic change. The problem is central to these psychological consid of the person erations of Marx, and is also critical to the crisis in modern psychology since introspectionism reduces him to externals. On the contemporary reduces man to internals and behaviorism

is viewed from a "depth scene, the person or a of Freudianism from perspec psychology" perspective personalist tive (W. Stern), both of which are foreign to Marxism. of Symptomatic the situation of psychology in the USSR is the fact that our psychology ? ? a psychology that wants to be Marxist has been treating the a or of the from Freud-Adler Stern viewpoint. person only problem course, within Marxist-Leninist person should be central and should Outside of its links with the person, development and material production logical because Of of the the problem psychology a receive totally other treatment. one who cannot are understand developing psycho material

are thereby changing their as as well their thought and the products of their thought"35. reality, The forms of consciousness do not develop in some autonomously are or sort of autogenesis; the attributes functions of the real they to In which abstraction from the whole, person, any they belong. account of consciousness consciousness, existing individuals Marxist begins with actually can only be idealistic. To this approach that Marx opposes another that "begins with the and considers consciousness only as their

"people communication

consciousness".36

cannot be reduced to an analysis of psychology or functions and functions. These very processes impersonal processes of writes are, for Marx, "Man", Marx, "organs individuality". "appro Therefore, essence in an all-sided way, thus as a priates to himself his manifold whole man." In this participates each of his "human relations to the ? world seeing, hearing smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking, perceiving, ? in short, all the organs of his sensing, wishing, acting, loving
individuality.. ,".37

Without conception everything

one cannot activate such an approach, is a social that human consciousness psychic is socially conditioned. Social

the basic Marxian product relations and are that those

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124
where one meets

SERGEJ L. RUBINSTEJN

not just isolated sense organs or psychic processes, as a person. The determining influence of social relations and work is exercised only through the person. inclusion of the person in psychology should not lead to But, but man psychologism. or with is not identical with consciousness person as is asserted in spiritualist psychology. self-consciousness, In his analysis of Hegel's Marx cites among the Phenomenology, errors that of taking the subject always as consciousness or self-con The
sciousness or, more exactly, as abstract consciousness.38 But, although

the person, both consciousness and self are essential the person for the person. Both and its ? relations with others depend on consciousness which since it is a ? is a property property of matter which can be either conscious or not of the human person, without which itwould not be what it is. they consciousness But the essence In a of the person is to be a set of social relations.39 devoted to the history of the word investigation special came notes an Etruscan A. it that from "persona", Trendelenburg source and indicated a social function. B?hler notes that this meaning an internal essence has been subverted so that the word now designates as to extent to which how one and raises the the question ( Wesensart) fulfills one's social essence to the the person's other, and the term "person" indicates now one, and now the other; it comes to the Etruscan closer sense, i.e. "mask"40, than to interior essence. The series of social functions that a man has to fulfill in society remain exterior to his person. bourgeois The human person in general is formed only through his relations to other people. Only in my relations with other people do I form myself as a human being: "Only through his relation with Peter the man, come man to relate to himself as man. similar to himself, does Paul the At is for him the same time, Paul as such, in all his Pauline corporeality, an instance of the species 'man'."41 to the ideas prevalent In counterpoise in contemporary psychology ? where biological and psycho-pathology appears as the conditioning self-sufficient ego, defined by primary immediate given, as the absolute, determined constitutional the depths of biologically ? for Marx and mediations of social bonds pendent inde peculiarities, the person and his to one's essence. Evidently role belongs and his social relations are external for B?hler one

are not

identical

to

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PSYCHOLOGY are mediated

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consciousness mainly rejection

determined

rejection nature is not overcome

is by social relations and its development as of these relations. the However, just by dynamics so is not rejection of the psychological, of psychologism is not rejection of the biological. Psycho-physical of biologism

or neutralized, but mediated by social relations nature becomes man! and, voil?, A revolution in psychological of man was also occa understanding sioned by Marx' notion of human needs. The

to that of instinct, must enjoy a in contrast concept of need, in Lack of attention to needs Marxist-Leninist psychology. higher place to idealism. "People in the context of human conduct leads necessarily are inclined", writes Engels, "to explain their actions through their thoughts, instead of through their needs (which, of course, are reflected in the brain) and, in this way, over time arose the idealist worldview which took over, especially at the end of the ancient world."42 With use of the notion conduct on of need, the whole doctrine on the motivation of human a new different from that based acquires wholly interpretation In contrast to rationalist notions, needs instincts and inclinations. the claims needs of human often "nature" and of the human with are into context organism. instincts and

express Although

brought social relations are inclinations, they are not the same. The mediational a product of history, while instincts are only physiological. to acquire a significant place in The notion of need is beginning to in As his address the noted Tenth Inter contemporary psychology. on hunger A. Katz was concentrating Congress, Psychology and appetite in the context of a "psychology of need".43 E. Clapar?de44 and K. Lewin45 reported along similar lines. ... It appears that in the course of historical development not only are new needs built on the these social rebuilt in function of latter are themselves ? to use Marx' words, the needs relations in the place of abstract conduct, but also in opposi

national

original instincts but the ever-complexifying of man become

human

idealist conceptions tion to a biologistic theory of these needs: the key lies in history, over which these needs are experienced. In this way, the emphasis on needs over instincts provides for the of psychological motivation. This supplies a rich picture of historicity the basic motivations of human activity and overcomes the temptation

Therefore, of need we find human

needs.

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126
?

SERGEJ L. RUBINSTEJN ? to look for one source. The

e.g. in Freudian pan-sexualism wealth and variety of historically circle of motivations ever-widening which depends directly on "the importance

single

needs provide for the accumulating of human conduct, the meaning of concrete conditions. "We saw", historical

writes Marx, under socialism of a wealth of human and a new object of production: needs, both a new sort of production of essential human there is a new manifestation forces and a new enrichment property", assertion, dependence. historically of human stresses "we observe But, on essence."46 in view "Under of the the dominance social Marx of private of this conditioning

developing ? opens higher planes stimuli for human activity. to these ideas on motivation, In addition there isMarx' understand as conditioned of and interests historically socially driving forces of ing human the of needs is connected by Marx with activity. The historicity idea of historically variable talents. "Differences among natural in individuals", writes Marx, "is not only cause but also endowments Marx in Capital of writes that industrial of division the labor."47 effect with individuals requires those talents that are needed of in turn, and, for production.48 This means are the ground of the emergence of certain talents

the opposite": every new need creates a new the "hypothesis of socialism" this wealth of ? on ever ever varied and developing needs the path to rich, full and dynamically developing

production

develops that the natural the division

gifts of the workers the natural gifts labor, but this division also influences in that are not given in a fixed form, but vary over history, especially to developed In forms of capitalism.49 the emergence from primitive

fact, the division of labor leads to the formation of specialists who bear . . ."50, and the further of development only "part of a social function are but aggregates of unintegrated forms individuals who automation social functions. nature of the person in his needs is concretised The psychological and mediated and talents. This nature is in essence conditioned by the same social-historical in which conditions, they are formed. This of the person and his structures on the social-historical in his account of the reign of is acutely described by Marx confirms Even Proudhon's Communism objectively private property. to abstract from the power of private property, through its attempt dependence formation

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PSYCHOLOGY

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individual of reference positive The

talents.51 Denial to the fact

of the person is, essentially, "only one way that private property tries to affirm itself as

products tions of human

sociality".52 of human essence

alienated objectivity, result every new need becomes Only

activity that are "concretized" objectifica are, thanks to their (of the essential powers) under the domination of private property. As a

that can be the source of new human wealth a new dependency alienation occurs. and, as these accumulate, ? not of the overcoming this alienation ideally and metaphysi

i.e. by establishing cally, but actually and concretely through revolution, ? can Communism full the of the individual. guarantee development "The overcoming of private property means therefore the complete of all human senses and aptitudes but it emancipation (Eigenschaften), means senses this emancipation because these and precisely aptitudes have become human both subjectively and objectively."53 the accomplishment the development guarantees Only relations strength to people is not of the individual of true human relations in the collective of the human person. The wealth of actual the actual, spiritual wealth of man, and the is to be found in that of the collective. The

toward to genuine and impersonality is foreign tendency levelling Communism. Marx pursued the question of the levelling of talents in his polemic with Lassalle in the Critique of the Gotha Program. Lenin further developed these ideas when discussing the rights of vagabonds in State and Revolution. and for care realizations Only The current campaign against "wage-levelling" are practical in appreciating the gifts of each worker under socialism of this theoretical assertion of Marx. did Marx see the individual as able free. When to in the collective is the person

develop Marx talks of "personal freedom" he is consciously departing from the that term has in bourgeois meaning society, where the person is free as a bird ? free to die of hunger! can be formal and negative or concrete and positive: Freedom the former asks shows 'free from what', while the latter asks 'free for what?' Marx caj guarantee that only the collective in the second freedom sense since it opens the path to full development of the individual. In the 1844 Manuscripts Marx describes the true collectivity: "Commun as ism of private property as human self-alienation, positive overcoming

in the collectivity fully his gifts; only

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and thus as the actual

SERGEJ

L. RUBINSTEJN

appropriation of the human essence through and for man; therefore as the complete and conscious restoration of man to himself within the total wealth of previous development, the restoration as com of man as a social, that is, human being. This Communism as completed is humanism, humanism it is naturalism. pleted naturalism It is the genuine between man and nature resolution of the antagonism it is the true resolution and between man and man; of the conflict between and self-affirmation, objectification freedom and necessity, and species. It is the riddle of history solved and knows itself as this solution."54 essence, individual We have existence and

in this article, of course, not resolved the wealth of ideas can which psychology gain from the works of Marx. We have only some to touched mentions that are relevant upon by Marx lightly on central problems, that the of object psychology including (the and and of its relations to human existence), problem of consciousness even on on scan and the person. But that this rapid shows development us that Marx provides psychology with a complete system of ideas. In the context ideas
science".

of

the foundations

trace the basic

the path along which A serious task now

of Marxist-Leninist his methodology lines of a psychological and toward system point can become "a contentful and genuine psychology stands before to actualize to use concrete Soviet psychology: the potentialities, by accomplishing and the factual material, both in theory its methodological position and conscious of Marx is under way in society which and Lenin are carrying on what

research work

in order

the unity of both methodology to strengthen and in practice, service to the construction where we the USSR, students

of a classless life of Marx.

was central for the whole

NOTES
in Sovetskaja Vol. 7, No. 1, 1934. On Rubin Originally psichotechnika, published see Ted Payne, S. L. Rubinstejn and the Philosophical Founda stejn's life and career, tion of Soviet Psychology, 1968. Dordrecht, Reidel, 1 Cf. Bericht ?ber die XII Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft f?r Psychologie, hrsg. von Kafka, Jena, 1932, S. 3-6. 2 Cf. K. B?hler, Die Krise der Psychologie, Jena, 1929. (Izd. 2-e. Cf. s. 1?2 and 27 28). *

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PSYCHOLOGY
3 4 5

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129

Grot, aWundtian. J. B. Watson, the Standpoint Psychology from of Behaviorism, Philadelphia, 1924. Lippincott, 6 i F. Engel's, K. Marks the Early Works), Iz rannich M., Gt, proizvedenij (From str. 595. 1956. L. D. Easton, Kurt H. Guddat of the Young (English: (eds), Writings Marx on Philosophy and Society, Anchor, 1967. p. 311). 7 Ibid. str. 627. (English: p. 321) 8 Ibid. str. 594. (English: p. 309) 9 Ibid. str. 595. (English: p. 311) 10 Ibid. str. 593-594. (English: 309) 11 Ibid. str. 594. (English: 309) 12 Ibid. str. 589. (English: 305) 13 Ibid. str. 590. (English: 306) 14 iF. Engel's K. Marks Soc. t 3, str. 25. 15 Ibid. str. 29 (note 2). 16 Cf. V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soc., t. 29, str. 85. 17 Marks iEngel's, Soc., t. 23, str. 189. 18 Cf. H. Bergson, Evolution cr?atrice, Paris, 1911. 19 Cf. H. Wallon, Le probl?me de la conscience, 1929. later Paris, biologique (Wallon abandoned this position) 20 Marks iEngel's Soc., t. 3, str. 29. 21 Ibid. t. 23, str. 188. 22 . . ., str. 631. Marks iEngel's, Iz rannich (English: p. 325) 23 Ibid. str. 596. 24 Loc. cit. 25 Ibid. str. 634. (English: 329) 26 Ibid. str. 634. (English: 329) 27 Loc. cit. 28 Ibid. str. 587. (English: 303) 29 Loc. cit. 30 Ibid. str. 594. (English: 309) 31 Ibid. str. 592. (English: 308) 32 Ibid. str. 594. (English: 309) 33 V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soc., t. 29, str. 194. 34 /?>/?,t.6,str.28-53. 35 Marks iEngel's Soc., t. 3, str. 25. 36 Loc. cit. 37 . . . , str. 591. Marks iEngel's, Iz rannich (English: 307) 38 str. 625. Ibid., 39 Marks iEngel's, Soc., t. 3, str. 3. 40 A. Trendelenburg, 'Zur Geschichte des Wortes "Person"', Kantstudien 13, S. 1908, 4-5. 41 Marks iEngel's, Soc., t. 23, str. 62 (Note 18). 42 Ibid., t. 20, str. 493. 43 See his address and Appetite' ?ber den Kongress der Deutschen 'Hunger (Bericht Cf. f?r Gesellschaft same theme. Psychologie, hrsg. XII von Kafka, 1932, S. 285) and his book on the

Cf. Zeitschrift f?r A ngewandte Psychologie In Russia, this position was taken by Nikolai

1933,1.

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130
44

SERGEJ L. RUBINSTEJN

Revue philosophique 'La psychologie Cf. E. Clapar?de, fonctionnelle', 1926. K. Lewin, Cf. especially Versatz. Wille und Bed?rfnis, Berlin, 46 . . . , str. 599. iEngel's, Marks Iz rannich 47 Ibid. str. 611. 48 Marks iEngel's, Soc., t. 23, str. 361. 49 to Chapters 12 and 13). Ibid. (Notes 50 Ibid. str. 499. 51 . . ., str. 586. Marks iEngel's, Iz rannich 52 Ibid. str. 587. 53 Ibid. str. 592. (English: 308) 54 Ibid. str. 588. (English: 304) 45

1933,1?2.

Translated
byT.

from the Russian

J. BLAKELEY

(Boston College) with ALEX the editorial KOZULIN help of

(Boston University)

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