Schlagwort-Archiv: Karl Marx

Lasst uns keine Marionetten sein! Plädoyer für Selbstbestimmtheit, Friedensfähigkeit und eine realisierbare Zukunftsvision

von Andreas Peglau

 

Funktioniert nur in meinem Bücherregal: die Verschmelzung von Marxismus und Psychoanalyse.

Im Jahr 2024 habe ich eine lange aufgeschobene Herausforderung angenommen. Während meines 1976 begonnenen Psychologie-Studiums an der Humboldt Universität war ich enttäuscht von dem, was mir als „marxistische Psychologie“ vermittelt wurde. Die Psychoanalyse dagegen begeisterte mich. Von deren Verbindung, von „Marx plus Freud“ erhoffte ich mir den notwendigen Fortschritt hin zu einer wirklich umfassenden Weltanschauung.

Meine freilich schon damals kritische Sicht auf Freuds Menschen- und Gesellschaftsbild erhielt in der Folgezeit reichlich Nahrung. Was den Marxismus betrifft, erzwangen DDR-Zusammenbruch und -Anschluss ebenfalls Neubewertungen. Doch noch lange Zeit akzeptierte ich die von vielen „Linken“ vertretene These, wir im Osten hätten Marx und Engels nur falsch ausgelegt. Das enthielt ja immerhin die frohe Botschaft, in der ursprünglichen Lehre warteten also doch die wesentlichen Antworten.

Obwohl ich auch daran allmählich zweifelte, bin ich dem nie konsequent nachgegangen. So genau wollte ich die Grenzen jener Weltanschauung nicht ausloten, die mir in meiner ersten Lebenshälfte – ich wurde 1957 geboren in Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR – Halt und Orientierung gegeben hatte.

Warum habe ich das jetzt nachgeholt? Weiterlesen →

Menschen sind KEINE Marionetten! Eine Utopie, die über Karl Marx hinausgeht – und deren Verwirklichung heute Abend beginnen kann

von Andreas Peglau

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Wenn wir mit guten Anlagen auf die Welt kommen, müssen wir nur eines tun: dafür sorgen, dass sich diese Anlagen entfalten. Dann werden wir unweigerlich ein diesen Anlagen gemäßes – also ebenfalls gutes – Gemeinwesen errichten. Wer und was sollten uns dann noch daran hindern?

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Es gibt, trotz all ihrer Defizite, keine umfassendere und gründlicher ausgearbeitete Gesellschaftsauffassung als die auf Friedrich Engels und Karl Marx zurückgehende. Sie enthält den detaillierten Nachweis, dass Ausbeuterordnungen wie die kapitalistische zutiefst ungerecht, inhuman und notwendigerweise undemokratisch sind. Seit um 1990 das von der Sowjetunion geführte sozialistische Weltsystem zu Grabe getragen wurde, gelten „linke“, nichtkapitalistische Gesellschaftsentwürfe dennoch zumeist als erledigt. Mein Vorschlag ist, sie stattdessen ganzheitlich zu vervollständigen und grundlegend zu revidieren.

Davon, wie eine bessere Gesellschaft zu erlangen und zu gestalten sei, hatten Marx und Engels nur recht allgemeine, unausgegorene Vorstellungen. Im Glauben an ein vermeintliches Primat der Ökonomie bekämpften sie jede davon abweichende Sichtweise. Während ihre Lehre immer „ökonomistischer“ wurde, verschwand in ihr das, was das Wesenhafteste am Menschen ist: die Psyche.
In dem Beitrag Menschen als Marionetten? Wie Marx und Engels die reale Psyche in ihrer Lehre verdrängten,[1] habe ich diesen Sachverhalt 2024 ausführlich dargelegt. Im nun vorliegenden Text nehme ich den Faden noch einmal auf: Wie kommen wir zu einer menschenwürdigen Gesellschaftsordnung? Weiterlesen →

People are NO puppets! A utopia that goes beyond Karl Marx—and whose realization can begin tonight

by Andreas Peglau

 

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If we are born as good beings, there is only one thing we need to do: ensure that these predisposition is allowed to flourish. Then we will inevitably build a community that is in accordance with these predisposition—and thus a good one as well. Who or what could possibly stand in our way?

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Despite all its shortcomings, there is no more comprehensive and thoroughly developed conception of society than the one traceable to Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. It provides detailed proof that exploitative systems such as the capitalist one are profoundly unjust, inhumane, and necessarily undemocratic. Since the socialist world system led by the Soviet Union was laid to rest around 1990, “left-wing,” non-capitalist social models have nevertheless been largely dismissed as obsolete. In doing so, something was wrongly discarded that should, however, have been holistically completed—and fundamentally revised.

Marx and Engels had only rather general, half-baked ideas about how to achieve and shape a better society. Believing in a supposed primacy of the economy, they fought against any perspective that deviated from it. As their doctrine became increasingly “economistic,” what is most essential to human beings—the psyche—disappeared from it.
In the article People as Puppets? How Marx and Engels Suppressed the Real Psyche in Their Teaching,[1] I elaborated on this point in detail in 2024. In the present text, I take up the thread once again: How do we arrive at a humane social order? Weiterlesen →

Les êtres humains comme marionnettes? Comment Marx et Engels ont refoulé la psyché réelle dans leur doctrine

par Andreas Peglau

 

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Il s’agit d’une traduction DeepL que je n’ai pas vérifiée. Je vous prie de m’excuser pour les éventuelles erreurs et imprécisions qui ont certainement été commises. Veuillez utiliser le texte original allemand de 2024 à titre de comparaison: https://andreas-peglau-psychoanalyse.de/menschen-als-marionetten-wie-marx-und-engels-die-reale-psyche-in-ihrer-lehre-verdraengten/).
A.P

 

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Points de départ

Aujourd’hui, alors que « l’Occident » dirigé par les États-Unis accepte de détruire la planète entière pour préserver son hégémonie « fondée sur des règles », il est plus que jamais nécessaire de trouver des alternatives à la soif irresponsable de profit et de pouvoir, au bellicisme et à la hostilité envers la vie.

Le socialisme, qui a fait ses preuves dans plusieurs pays, au moins dans une certaine mesure, se présentait comme une telle alternative. Son principal fondement théorique était la doctrine de Karl Marx (1818-1883) et Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), souvent présentée de manière déformée dans le cadre du « marxisme-léninisme » . Le « socialisme réel » a été très tôt discrédité, notamment par la terreur d’État sous Staline, puis sous Mao Tsé-Toung et Pol Pot, avant de s’effondrer vers 1990. Depuis lors, ces concepts sont généralement considérés comme définitivement discrédités et le capitalisme comme sans alternative. Weiterlesen →

People as puppets? How Marx and Engels suppressed the real psyche in their teaching (complete text and download)

by Andreas Peglau

 

Download as pdf: AP People as puppets – How Marx and Engels suppressed the real psyche in their teaching

Please note that this text has a continuation as of March 20, 2026: People are NO puppets! A utopia that goes beyond Karl Marx—and whose realization can begin tonight

 

This is a DeepL translation I have not checked.
I apologize for any errors and inaccuracies that are sure to occur.
Please use the original German text, written in 2024, for comparison:
https://andreas-peglau-psychoanalyse.de/menschen-als-marionetten-wie-marx-und-engels-die-reale-psyche-in-ihrer-lehre-verdraengten/).
A.P.

  Weiterlesen →

People as puppets? How Marx and Engels suppressed the real psyche in their teaching, Part 1: Starting points, Max Stirner and „German Ideology“

by Andreas Peglau  

 

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Starting points

Today, as the US-led „West“ accepts the destruction of the entire planet in order to maintain its „rules-based“ hegemony, there is a greater need than ever to find alternatives to irresponsible greed for profit and power, warmongering and hostility towards life.

Socialism, which had been tried out in practice, at least to some extent, in several countries, was seen as such an alternative. Its most important theoretical starting point was the teachings of Karl Marx (1818–1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), which were often distorted in the context of ‚Marxism-Leninism‘. „Real socialism“ was massively discredited early on, particularly by state terror under Stalin and later under Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot, and collapsed around 1990. Since then, such concepts have generally been considered permanently discredited, and capitalism has been regarded as without alternative. Weiterlesen →

People as puppets? How Marx and Engels suppressed the real psyche in their teaching, Part 2: Character masks

by Andreas Peglau

 

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No definitive solutions

The old Engels would certainly have agreed that Marx’s teachings should be critically revisited. In 1895, six months before his death, he recapitulated in a letter: „But Marx’s whole approach is not a doctrine, but a method. It does not provide ready-made dogmas, but points of reference for further investigation.“[1] Five years earlier, he had said that the „conception of history“ developed by him and Marx was „above all a guide to study“.[2] As early as 1886, he described it as a „great fundamental idea“ of materialist dialectics „that the world should not be understood as a complex of finished things, but as a complex of processes in which the seemingly stable things undergo no less than their mental images in our heads, the concepts, a continuous change of becoming and passing away.“ Therefore, „the demand for definitive solutions and eternal truths must cease once and for all; one must always be aware of the necessary limitations of all knowledge gained.“[3]
However, anyone who consistently applied this to the concept of Marxism quickly found themselves labelled a dissident in „real socialism“ and ran the risk of being persecuted or – under Stalin – murdered.

Why should anything be further developed that Lenin had defined in 1913 as follows: „Marx’s doctrine is all-powerful because it is true. It is self-contained and harmonious; it gives people a unified world view.“[4]  Weiterlesen →

People as puppets? How Marx and Engels suppressed the real psyche in their teaching, Part 3: Individual scope, Friedrich Engels, Robert Owen

by Andreas Peglau

 

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Individual scope

For those who, in the second half of the 19th century, still mostly worked more than 10 hours a day for little money, there was indeed little energy and opportunity left to rise above their circumstances. For this reason alone, and because of the power imbalance, the responsibility of an individual proletarian for the capitalist economic system was minimal.
But throughout history, people have broken out of their circumstances. In 73 BCE, for example, the slaves who liberated themselves in the Spartacus uprising did so – an example that Marx was familiar with.[1] Since then, countless people have committed themselves to other people, to a wide variety of goals and ideas, even when they knew that they were putting their physical integrity or their very existence at risk. During the lifetimes of Marx and Engels, this was already happening in the struggle for liberation from capitalist oppression, as in the Paris Commune uprising of 1871. During its suppression, up to 35,000 people were massacred and thousands more were later deported.[2]

In the same year, Marx commemorated the „self-sacrificing pioneers of a new and better society“ in his work The Civil War in France.[3] Had these pioneers not cast off their „character masks“? Weiterlesen →

People as puppets? How Marx and Engels suppressed the real psyche in their teaching, Part 4: Condition of the working class, empty heads and human-creating work

by Andreas Peglau

 

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The condition of the working class

After spending 21 months in Great Britain researching industrial development and its consequences, Engels published his book The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1845. It contains harrowing accounts of the living conditions of the English proletariat. Engels writes of the dwellings in the London district of St. Giles, saying that

„the filth and dilapidation exceed all imagination – there is hardly a window pane intact, the walls are crumbling, the doorposts and window frames are broken and loose, the doors are nailed together from old boards or do not exist at all – here in this thieves‘ quarter, doors are not even necessary because there is nothing to steal. Piles of dirt and ashes lie everywhere, and the dirty liquids poured out in front of the doors collect in stinking puddles. This is where the poorest of the poor live, the lowest-paid workers […]“.[1]

Weiterlesen →

People as puppets? How Marx and Engels suppressed the real psyche in their teaching, Part 5: What is „capital“?/ The animated monster

by Andreas Peglau

 

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What is „capital“?

Marx’s three-volume work of the same name does not provide a definition of the subject referred to in the title, but rather a multitude of sometimes contradictory statements on the subject. [1]
A small selection: Capital is what becomes of a value that is ‚exploited‘ and turns into ’surplus value‘.[2] „Every new capital enters the stage for the first time […] still as money, […] which is to be transformed into capital through certain processes.“[3] „Capital is money, capital is commodity.“[4] In the third volume of Capital, it then states:

„But capital is not a thing, but a specific social relation of production belonging to a specific historical social formation, which is represented by a thing. Capital is not the sum of the material and produced means of production. Capital is the means of production transformed into capital, which in themselves are as little capital as gold and silver are money in themselves. It is the means of production monopolised by a certain section of society, which have become independent of living labour and the conditions under which this labour is performed.“[5]

According to Marx, capital is therefore simultaneously surplus value, money, commodities, products and means of production. But he believes that it is nevertheless „not a thing“ – rather, it is a production relationship, and thus, in his understanding, an extremely comprehensive category that includes raw materials, means of production and human labour, as well as the processes that take place between them and the existing „conditions of activity“.[6] Weiterlesen →