by Andreas Peglau
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Vulgar psychology
In his 1933 book Massenpsychologie des Faschismus, Wilhelm Reich dealt with „vulgar Marxism“ – which he understood as the opposite of the teachings of Marx and Engels. According to Reich, vulgar Marxists „schematically separated social, mostly economic existence from existence itself,“[1] claimed that ideology and consciousness were „determined solely and directly by economic existence,“[2] and dismissed the study of drives, needs and mental processes as idealistic.
However, these accusations could also have been levelled at Marx and Engels in a milder form. They contradicted the idea that ideological processes were solely and directly determined by economics, albeit rarely. Although they viewed social existence in the context of „existence in general,“ they gave undue priority to economic existence. They did not deny the existence of psychological processes, but rather their real significance and momentum. Weiterlesen