What *object* or *entity* does psychology study?

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 05:12 PM 1/10/00 -0500, Doug wrote:
>No, but it's also not likely to make struggles over power and 
>resources disappear. The notion that historical materialism wouldn't 
>be needed after the abolition of capitalism makes it sound like they 
>would. That's what struck me as religious. I think Foucault had a 
>point when he said that Marxism was a dream of an end to History.

I think that point was made earlier by Alexander Gerschenkron and the
Polish Marxist-turned-reactionary Leszek Kolakowski.

I think Gerschenkron's point is particularly interesting.  He argued that
the October Revolution  (or at least its outcome) was nothing more than the
implementation of Western European (esp. German) institutions and
industrial organization to overcome Russia's backwardness (a somewhat
similar argument was also proposed by Michael Burawoy) - Marxism was
adopted as a civil religion to mobilize the massess and secure their
support for the government industrialization project.  It may explain why
Marxism was selectively modified and rejected by the Soviet ruling elites.  

I may add that Marxism was not unique in this respect - Huczynski
(_Management gurus : what makes them and how to become one,_ London:
International Thomson Business Press, 1996) argues that virtually every
social science theory or hypothesis  can be molded into a managerial
ideology.  Not to mention possible transformations into cult ideology (cf.
freudism).

wojtek