Freud & Marx's Differing Views of Human Nature

Differing views of human nature are found in the theories of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. The two writers address diverse aspects of human life, with Marx centering on the economic and political and Freud on the inner life of the mind and the ways in which that manifests itself in human behavior. The two men have as their starting point a conception of human nature which shows why human beings behave as they do, and for both men the reasons for human behavior are hidden from view, hidden from the understanding of the majority of people responding to them. For Marx, the hidden force is economic and involves the relationship of the human being to labor, while for Freud the hidden force is found in theoretical constructs of the mind which govern different aspects of thought and behavior and whose interaction produces the behavior we can see.

Marx had a conception of human history based on dialectical materialism, which includes the sense that the determining factors in the development, relations, and institutions of mankind are not mystical or ideological but economic. Human actions are rooted in labor activities. Human beings have to secure a livelihood, and to accomplish this they organize their productive forces to operate throughout the economic spectrum. Padover (1978) writes: "These material actions are the overmastering force in all social existence and relationships" (p. 227). Everything else in life rests on this economic foundation.

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is not the satisfaction of a specific need but is rather the means for satisfying other needs. Human nature is being thwarted in this system, reshaped into an objectified thing, and only the abolition of private property will create a situation where true human nature, fulfilling itself in itself, can come to the fore (Nisbet, 1973: pp. 231-233). For Sigmund Freud, human nature is hidden in the mind and is produced by "the irremediable antagonism between the demands of instinct and the restrictions of civilization" (Strachey in Freud, 1961: p. 4). Human nature in the state of nature is thus one thing, while human nature in civilization has been reshaped and produces a different form of alienation in the Freudian conception. As the individual develops during the life cycle, the ego, or the sense of self, changes from encompassing everything to detaching itself from the external world and thus including only the inner world of the self. Freud writes: "In this way one makes the first step towards the introduction of the reality principle which is to dominate future development. This differentiation, of course, serves the practical purpose of enabling one to defend oneself against sensations of unpleasure which one actually feels

Category: Psychology - F