Fromm saw psychoanalysis as filling Marxism’s missing link between ideology and economic base.

Evidence

In that same issue, Fromm attempted to spell out the basic ground rules for a social psychology. He began by criticizing the notion that psychology applied only to the individual, singling out the early work of Wilhelm Reich for espousing this view. Although attacking the idea of a group or mass soul, Fromm felt that individuals were never entirely isolated from their social situation. The real task was to supplement and enrich the basic Marxist framework, which he accepted as a given. Marxism, he argued, had incorrectly been charged with having a simplistic psychology of acquisitiveness; here he pointed an accusing finger at Bertrand Russell and Hendrik de Man for wrongly seeing economic self-interest as the basis of Marx’s view of man. In fact, he argued, Marx’s psychological premises were few - fewer than Fromm was later to assert himself. Man to Marx has certain basic drives (hunger, love, and so forth), which seek gratification; acquisitiveness was merely a product of specific social conditions. Marxism was, however, in need of additional psychological insights, which such Marxists as Kautsky and Bernstein, with their naive, idealistic belief in inborn moral instincts, had failed to provide. Psychoanalysis could provide the missing link between ideological superstructure and socio-economic base. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 329

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Fromm’s early project of a ‘social psychology’ mediating Marx and Freud.
• XREF: During the chapter, the institute’s borrowing took the conflict-depending shape via ‘reification’ — this passage shows the psychological micro-mechanism layer behind that. — connects to: Fromm’s preferred therapy rejected Freud’s authority and adjustment-oriented goals — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 344; Marxist theories of false consciousness merged with Freudian psychoanalysis in the Frankfurt School. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 100; The base-superstructure formula weakened Marxism by reducing ideas to mere reflections — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1693 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Marxism is not economic reductionism and requires attending to ideas in their own terms #corroborates (0.85)
• Marxist theories of false consciousness merged with Freudian psychoanalysis in the Frankfurt School. #corroborates (0.82) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 100
• Treating ideology seriously in its own terms strengthens rather than dilutes Marxist analysis #corroborates (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 335
• Marx distinguishes material economic transformation from ideological forms of consciousness #complicates (0.75)
• Modern thought was decentered by Marx, psychoanalysis, and Saussurean linguistics #expands (0.72) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 147
• The base-superstructure formula weakened Marxism by reducing ideas to mere reflections #complicates (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1693