What is Class Consciousness?

by Wilhelm Reich

Η βασική θέση αυτού του βιβλίου μπορεί να συνοψιστεί ως εξής: οι εξαντλητικοί αγώνες που οι επαναστάτες όλου του κόσμου διεξάγουν σε πολλά μέτωπα έχουν σαν επακόλουθο να βλέπουν την ανθρώπινη ζωή μονάχα από την άποψη της ιδεολογίας τους είτε να αναγνωρίζουν αυτά μονάχα τα γεγονότα της κοινωνικής ζωής που σχετίζονται σε μεγαλύτερο ή μικρότερο βαθμό με τη σκέψη και τη δράση τους. Όμως οι περισσότεροι κάτοικοι της γης, για λογαριασμό των οποίων αγωνίζονται, γνωρίζοντας ελάχιστα ή τίποτα για τους αγώνες τους, τις θυσίες και τη σκέψη τους ζουν την καταπιεσμένη τους ύπαρξη χωρίς να έχουν συνείδηση της κατάστασής τους, υποστηρίζοντας επομένως την κυριαρχία του κεφαλαίου. Εάν κανείς προσπαθήσει να ανακαλύψει πόσοι από τα 40 εκατομμύρια ενηλίκων γερμανών πολιτών πραγματικά σοκάρονται από τις εκτελέσεις των γερμανών επαναστατών και πόσοι διαβάζουν αδιάφορα την ειδησεογραφία των εφημερίδων, θα καταλάβει αμέσως το σκοπό αυτού του έργου: τον εναρμονισμό της συνείδησης της επαναστατικής πρωτοπορίας με αυτήν της μέσης ανθρώπινης παρίας. Εμείς θα περιοριστούμε να δώσουμε ενδείξεις και να θέτουμε ερωτήματα που μέχρι τώρα παραβλέφθηκαν από το εργατικό κίνημα. Μπορεί να υπάρχουν δευτερεύοντα σφάλματα, αλλά ένας από τους λόγους της αποτυχίας του επαναστατικού κινήματος βρίσκεται ακριβώς στο ότι η πραγματική ζωή των ατόμων διαδραματίζεται σε επίπεδο διαφορετικό από αυτό που πιστεύουν οι πρωτεργάτες της κοινωνικής επανάστασης που βασίζονται σε μια βαθύτερη γνώση του κοινωνικού είναι. Είθε αυτό το έργο να ερμηνευθεί σαν μια έκκληση των μέσων απολιτικών ατόμων προς τους μέλλοντες ηγέτες της επανάστασης για περισσότερη κατανόηση: μια έκκληση ότι θα πρέπει να ζητούν λιγότερη γνώση της "πορείας της ιστορίας" και να εκφράζουν καλύτερα τα δεινά και τις επιθυμίες τους, ότι θα πρέπει να μιλούν λιγότερο θεωρητικά για τον "υποκειμενικό παράγοντα" της ιστορίας και να τον κατανοούν καλύτερα σαν τη ζωή των μαζών. (Από τον πρόλογο της έκδοσης)

Genres: Politics, Psychology

78 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1934

About the author

Wilhelm Reich (24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was a Jewish Austrian-American doctor of medicine, psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. Author of several influential books, he became one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry.

Reich was a respected analyst for much of his life, focusing on character structure, rather than on individual neurotic symptoms. He promoted adolescent sexuality, the availability of contraceptives and abortion, and the importance for women of economic independence. Synthesizing material from psychoanalysis, cultural anthropology, economics, sociology, and ethics, his work influenced writers such as Alexander Lowen, Fritz Perls, Paul Goodman, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, A. S. Neill, and William Burroughs.

He was also a controversial figure, who came to be viewed by the psychoanalytic establishment as having gone astray or as having succumbed to mental illness. His work on the link between human sexuality and neuroses emphasized "orgastic potency" as the foremost criterion for psycho-physical health. He said he had discovered a form of energy, which he called "orgone," that permeated the atmosphere and all living matter, and he built "orgone accumulators," which his patients sat inside to harness the energy for its reputed health benefits. It was this work, in particular, that cemented the rift between Reich and the psychoanalytic establishment.

Reich, of Jewish descent and a communist, was living in Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power. He fled to Scandinavia in 1933 and subsequently to the United States in 1939. In 1947, following a series of critical articles about orgone and his political views in The New Republic and Harper's, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation into his claims, winning an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators. Charged with contempt of court for violating the injunction, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved sending the judge all his books to read, and arguing that a court was no place to decide matters of science. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and in August 1956, several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA. He died of heart failure in jail just over a year later, days before he was due to apply for parole.

Reviews

[Jonas Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reich's book is very clear, and written with an emancipatory and anti-Stalinist attitude that quite appeals to me. It's also a very good corrective against the KPD of the 1930s, but you could draw a lot of parallels with the revolutionary left today in that sense. The two insights that I think are crucial is his condemnation of top-down, abstract propaganda and agitation that play to the weaknesses of the class. The second is the very simple idea of how we develop class consciousness, by fighting alongside activists and militants in struggle, relating the needs, desires and wants at the heart of a struggle to its obstacles, and relating those factors of a particular struggle, either via success or defeat (preferably the latter), to a general totality. However, not just in a negative sense, in a way that highlights how bad the system is (although that's *clearly* a huge part of struggle), but also positively, putting forward an alternative, not just in relation to the system, but also through how we overcome our immediate obstacles in the struggle via fought-for, concrete reforms, thus in the process of struggle, potentially raising the level of class consciousness and working-class organization. Also, another reason I like this so much, is because it retains what Cliff and Lukacs discuss as 'actuality' and 'key-link-in-the-chain', without the idolatry, and *with* an emphasis on learning from the class. It's discussion on women and youth I also think are useful, particularly the latter, in relation to debates around anti-politics.

[Diogo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Limitado, mas elucidativo se visto à luz dos seus dias e apenas então transposto para a contemporaneidade.

[Diogo (Amaral) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good critique of marxism, very bad answer to the problems

[أيمن الجندي]

http://www.4shared.com/office/vQmR7Y6...

[Al Capwned · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely the most interesting book I've read by Wilhelm Reich, even if I don't agree with everything he says.