On Psychology, Ideology and Individuals' Societal Nature

This paper attempts to show the relevance of a subject-orientated understanding of ideology as it has been developed by Critical Psychology, an approach closely associated with the name of Klaus Holz-kamp. Ideology, in this view, is understood as a one-sided world view from the perspective of the dominant classes; it doesn't need to be imposed but is `voluntarily' sustained by subordinated classes since it appears to embody a proven method of coming to terms with life under given power relations. One of ideology's essential functions is to explain away or justify the asocial consequences of suppression and one's own unavoidable participation in it. Contrary to the common-sense view, participation doesn't alleviate our own suppression but rather aggrevates it. To understand this fully, we need to examine the prevailing dichotomy of individual and society and to critically review both the ideology of people's natural asociality and the `progressive' inclination to avoid the issue of `human nature' altogether.