i thought i'd repost this message from Mohamed, about the relations
between ideology
and marxist traditions of psychology - i mean, if anyone has thoughts on
this, i'd be thrilled
to pursue these ideas.
elham@rockymountnc.com writes:
>Hi Diane,
>Thank you for your comment.
>Indeology is not ignored, it is integrated in my analysis. I focused on
>the
>sum total of the relations of production which structures society and
>constitutes its real foundation. Therefore, personality is grounded in the
>social relations or in other words it is an ensemble of social relations.
>
>From a Marxist point of view (Marx himself) human individuals are both
>the
>forces and relations of production. They are not just a product of the
>social base like the superstructures (ideologies, ideas, law, etc.) but
>are
>part of the social base. In this sense, human individuals were to be
>understood as active producers of their environment. In other words, human
>individuals are not produced by the social base neither are they produced
>as superstructure because they are an integral part of both base and
>superstructure. In this respect, Vygotsky pointed out that "The nature of
>man's education, therefore, is wholly determined by the social environment
>in which he grows and develops. But this environment does not always
>affect
>man directly and straightforwardly, but also indirectly, through his
>ideology. By ideology, we will understand all the social stimuli that have
>been established in the course of historical development and have become
>hardened in the form of legal statutes, moral precepts, artistic tastes,
>and so on. These standards are permeated through and through with the
>class
>structure of society that generated them and serve as the class
>organization of production. They are responsible for all human behavior,
>and in this sense we are justified in speaking of man's class behavior."
>Educational Pyschology.
>
>In the preface to his Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
>(1859), Marx gives an integral formulation of the fundamental principles
>of
>materialism as applied to human society and its history, in the following
>words: "In the social production of their life, men enter into definite
>relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations
>of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their
>material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production
>constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on
>which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond
>definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material
>life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in
>general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being,
>but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their
>consciousness.
>At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of
>society come in conflict with the existing relations of production, or —
>what is but a legal expression for the same thing — with the property
>relations within which they have been at work hitherto". This passage
>outlines a fundamental thesis which can be summarized as follow: every
>society is organized hierarchially in the following order: 1) forces of
>production, 2) relations of production, or the real foundation of society,
>3) the legal and political superstructure, and the 4) forms of social
>consciousness. In Vygotsky's view "We cannot master the truth about
>personality and personality itself so long as mankind has not master the
>truth about society and sociey itself".
>
>Mohamed Elhammoumi
>
>----------
>> From: Diane Hodges <dhodges@ceo.cudenver.edu>
>> To: elham@rockymountnc.com
>> Cc: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>> Subject: Re: Personality is an ensemble of social relations
>> Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 7:56 AM
>>
>> well WOW! what a summary! thanks to you, very much, for clarifying what
>> has seem rather
>> muddled and misdirected at times.
>>
>> my personal confusion is the Marxist conception of 'ideology' and the
>ways
>> this is
>> abandoned by 'personality' theory or psychology - surely social
>relations
>> are ideologically
>> constructed by the ways they are 'social' relations -
>> why has ideology been removed from these analyses?
>> diane
>
**********************************************************************
:point where everything listens.
and i slow down, learning how to
enter - implicate and unspoken (still) heart-of-the-world.
(Daphne Marlatt, "Coming to you")
***********************************************************************
diane celia hodges
university of british columbia, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction
==================== ==================== =======================
university of colorado, denver, school of education
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