File spoon-archives/marxism-feminism.archive/marxism-feminism_1997/marxism-feminism.9705, message 27


Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 22:05:16 -0700
From: redflag <redflag-AT-hominy.dominy.amen>
Subject: Re: M-FEM: Don't Leave "Theory; also "gendered division...


Carrol Cox wrote:
> 
>     I agree with most of what Yoshie has to say both in this post and
> her later one "gendered division..." with one qualification. In the
> latter she writes: "Both Freud and Marx give us powerful theoretical
> tools...."
> 
>     I really do not like this constant bracketing of Marx and Freud.
> Let me put it strongly: I tend to bracket Freud with astrology,
> the Vatican, Jerry Falwell, UFO hunters, and true believers in
> the Transition Program.

==>	I'm not so sure we can simply dismiss Freud as easily as 
	"astrology, the Vatican, Jerry Falwell, UFO hunters and thrue 
	believers the Transition Program (I'm assuming that the last item
	is a reference to something Trots sell in the form of of a book)".
	I'm inclined to think that there must be some validity to something
	Freud said (what and how much remains to be seen). Granted, Freud
	was no great feminist but neither was Marx. I won't hold it against 
	either of them when I weigh the validity of their contributions. Or 
	rather, I'll throw their predjudices into the scale only in the 
	context of their time and social background and I'm willing to
	forgive them for it if I feel that the benefits derived from
	their respective contributions outweigh their personal weaknesses
	and limitations.

>    (Red Flag, incidentally (though I need to re-read their post on
> this also), seems to think that the only alternative to an economist
> explanation of "mental illness" is the mysticism of Freudian therapy.
> I hope to deal with that in another post.)

==>	Ouch! I certainly hope you do! Because I don't really believe
	that attributing mental illness to the alienating nature of
	capitalism is economism! Gosh! 
	But then, maybe I'm as addled as Marx was for beliving, like Marx, 
	that the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of the "free
	association of producers" can bring about a sociaety "in which the
	free development each is the condition for the free development of all".
	Gosh, that Marx was just one big economist!
	
redflag


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