The Freudo-Marxist Tradition and the Critique of Psychotherapeutic Ideology

Abstract

The ideology of psychotherapy is questioned through critical concepts taken from the Freudo-Marxist tradition. The paper first analyses in detail six determinant ideological processes detected in psychotherapy that three pioneers of Freudo-Marxism criticised in the 1920s: dualistic scission and metaphysical immobilisation (Luria); idealist generalisation and mechanistic determination (Bernfeld); and repressive adaptation and historical decontextualisation (Reich). Following this, it briefly reviews seven paired analogous processes that were denounced by continuators of the Freudo-Marxist tradition: valorative moralisation and the psychologisation of the social (Fenichel); instinctualrational deprivation and the mechanisation of the subject (Adorno); alienating performance and surplus repression (Marcuse); manipulation and dehumanising alienation (Fromm); abstraction and mythologising (Bleger); authoritarianism and suggestion (Caruso); and depoliticisation and rationalisation (Langer). The argument will show how Freudo-Marxist questionings of these operations -many now forgotten -are still current and can be inspiring and enriching for a modern critique of psychotherapy.

Ethnomedicines and Health Management in Kenya: Which Way Forward?

“…Also called Traditional Psychotherapy, just like any other types of therapies, aims to mitigate social, developmental, behavioural and emotional difficulties and irrational thoughts, beliefs, cognitions, behaviours and feelings by use and application of the knowledge of the science of behaviour and mind, including conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought to interact with another affected person to help change the person and overcome problems in desired ways [59,60]. The rationale of undergoing psychotherapeutic processes is to continuously improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviours, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions and to improve relationships and social skills of the affected person in the society while integrating mind, heart, body and spirit but not spirituality unless it is regarding bereavement [61][62][63][64]. Certain psychotherapies are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders in life of certain individuals [64][65][66][67][68].…”