Devine, James wrote:what kind of neurosis -- or psychosis -- do we leftists suffer from?
self-importance? determinism? is that a neurosis?
"Leftists" doesn't point to just one way of thinking, feeling and acting does it? I suspect it's possible to find varying degrees of psychopathology among those self-described as leftists. The combination of a feeling of grandiosity with perception of the self as fragmented and completely controlled by external forces, for instance, is explained in Kleinian psychoanalysis as the product of mechanisms of defence against psychotic anxiety. The combination characterized at least two of the founding minds of modernity - Newton and Hume - both of whom had psychotic breakdowns. The "materialism" associated with this is attributed (I think mistakenly) to Marx by some leftists. This determinist version of materialism is connected by Marx himself to vanguardism.
"The materialist doctrine concerning the changing of circumstances and upbringing forgets that circumstances are changed by men and that the educator must himself be educated. This doctrine must, therefore, divide society into two parts, one of which is superior to society."
Klein, by the way, also provides an account of the strong integrated ego relatively free from psychopathology. She identifies it with an idea of "wealth" very like Marx's.
"If in our earliest development we have been able to transfer our interest and love from our mother to other people and other sources of gratification, then, and only then, are we able in later life to derive enjoyment from other sources. This enables us to compensate for a failure or a disappointment in connection with one person by establishing a friendly relationship to others, and to accept substitutes for things we have been unable to obtain or keep. If frustrated greed, resentment and hatred within us do not disturb the relation to the outer world, there are innumerable ways of taking in beauty, goodness and love from without. By doing this we continuously add to our happy memories and gradually build up a store of values by which we gain a security that cannot easily be shaken, and contentment which prevents bitterness of feeling. Moreover all these satisfactions have in addition to the pleasure they afford, the effect of diminishing frustrations (or rather the feeling of frustration) past and present, back to the earliest and fundamental ones. The more true satisfaction we experience, the less do we resent deprivations, and the less shall we be swayed by our greed and hatred. Then we are actually capable of accepting love and goodness from others and of giving love to others; and again receiving more in return. In other words, the essential capacity for 'give and take' has been developed in us in a way that ensures our own contentment, and contributes to the pleasure, comfort or happiness of other people."
Ted
