Reified social wholes are objective forces that decide individual existence

Evidence

This is a genuine “translation” of hypostatized universals into concreteness, and yet it acknowledges the reality of the universal while calling it by its true name. The hypostatized whole resists analytic dissolution, not because it is a mythical entity behind the particular entities and performances but because it is the concrete, objective ground of their functioning in the given social and historical context. As such, it is a real force, felt and exercised by the individuals in their actions, circumstances, and relationships. They share in it (in a very unequal way); it decides on their existence and their possibilities. The real ghost is of a very forcible reality—that of the separate and independent power of the whole over the individuals. And this whole is not merely a perceived Gestalt (as in psychology), nor a metaphysical absolute (as in Hegel), nor a totalitarian state (as in poor political science)—it is the established state of affairs which determines the life of the individuals. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 735

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Marcuse’s distinction of the hypostatized whole from Gestalt, Hegelian absolute, and totalitarian state — defining reification as the ‘established state of affairs’ — is a dense, paradigm-level formulation worth sitting with.
• XREF: The ‘real ghost’ of collective power determining life matches the reader’s corpus on sacrifice and sacred kingship where the whole consumes individuals. — connects to: Human subjectivity itself is constituted by the social process of production. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 254; Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 687; Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence #expands (0.82) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517
• Social structure and individual agency are mutually constitutive, not opposed #complicates (0.75)
• Social relations crystallize into fixed external forms that cannot keep pace with inner life #complicates (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 778