Abstract

URIAS HORCASITAS, Beatriz. Between Marx and Freud: totalitarianism by Serge, Fromm and Marcuse. Estud. sociol [online]. 2023, vol.41, n.121, pp.37-64.  Epub June 09, 2023. ISSN 2448-6442.  https://doi.org/10.24201/es.2023v41n121.2287.

Victor Serge, Erich Fromm y Herbert Marcuse provided some of the first interpretations of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism . A special feature of their work in early 1940 was to link Marxist and psychoanalytical concepts to understand the rationality underlying Nazism and Stalinism. At the same time, they formulated proposals to renew socialism in a democratic sense. These three authors posited that, beyond political repression and bureaucratic control, totalitarian rule was implemented through a powerful ideological apparatus that had taken root in the individual and collective subconscious. Moreover, they considered that the importance of intellectual work was linked to the psychological mechanisms that sustained the totalitarian phenomenon with the aim of eradicating it.

Keywords : Marxism; psychoanalysis; totalitarism; Serge; Fromm; Marcuse.