Dennis Perrin wrote:
> The funny thing about communists is that many of them share the same
> spiritual idea of humanity, only in godless terms. There is One Spirit
> that
> unites us, but it's of this world, here and now, and if only enough
> people
> understood the emancipating power of socialism, they would flock to the
> ideal. So, in general terms, the atheist left isn't that far from the
> spiritual left -- the difference lies in the definition of reality,
> and the
> point of life itself.
I think it depends on what's meant by "illusion of the self." If this involves as its ideal the dissolution of a particular kind of self, it's consistent in this respect with the view of the ideal I would attribute to Marx. This isn't so if it involves dissolution of the self per se, however.
Viewed within the framework of Kleinian psychoanalysis, the dissolution of the ego would be an attempt to escape the fear of such dissolution as this fear is experienced by a particular kind of ego (a very weak unintegrated one). Another way of attempting to escape the fear would be to deflect the temptation to self-annihilation into violence directed outside (also the response of a very weak unintegrated ego). Still another would be to transform the temptation into, among other things, greed and a sadistic obsessional approach to "knowing" as in the scientific materialist conception of "science" dominant in "modernity" (the response of a somewhat stronger but still immature fragmented narcissistic self). At the other end of this continuum is the strong, integrated rational ego accepting its own mortality and seeking union through rational knowing and acting, the highest form of this union being union with other selves in relations of mutual recognition.
This seems to me to be Marx's idea of the actualized human "essence." It's consistent with Melanie Klein's psychoanalytic view of a self largely free from psychopathology.
"The infant can only experience complete enjoyment if the capacity for love is sufficiently developed; and it is enjoyment that forms the basis for gratitude. Freud [in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality] described the infant's bliss in being suckled as the prototype of sexual gratification. In my view these experiences constitute not only the basis of sexual gratification but of all later happiness, and make possible the feeling of unity with another person; such unity means being fully understood, which is essential for every happy love relation or friendship. At best, such an understanding needs no words to express it, which demonstrates its derivation from the earliest closeness with the mother in the preverbal stage. The capacity to enjoy fully the first relation to the breast forms the foundation for experiencing pleasure from various sources." (Klein Collected Writings vol. III, p. 188)
"If in our earliest development we have been able to transfer our interest and love from our mother to other people and other sources of gratification, then, and only then, are we able in later life to derive enjoyment from other sources. This enables us to compensate for a failure or a disappointment in connection with one person by establishing a friendly relationship to others, and to accept substitutes for things we have been unable to obtain or keep. If frustrated greed, resentment and hatred within us do not disturb the relation to the outer world, there are innumerable ways of taking in beauty, goodness and love from without. By doing this we continuously add to our happy memories and gradually build up a store of values by which we gain a security that cannot easily be shaken, and contentment which prevents bitterness of feeling. Moreover all these satisfactions have in addition to the pleasure they afford, the effect of diminishing frustrations (or rather the feeling of frustration) past and present, back to the earliest and fundamental ones. The more true satisfaction we experience, the less do we resent deprivations, and the less shall we be swayed by our greed and hatred. Then we are actually capable of accepting love and goodness from others and of giving love to others; and again receiving more in return. In other words, the essential capacity for 'give and take' has been developed in us in a way that ensures our own contentment, and contributes to the pleasure, comfort or happiness of other people.
"In conclusion, a good relation to ourselves is a condition for love, tolerance and wisdom towards others. This good relation to ourselves has, as I have endeavoured to show, developed in part from a friendly, loving and understanding attitude towards other people, namely, those who meant much to us in the past, and our relationship to whom has become part of our minds and personalities. If we have become able, deep in our unconscious minds, to clear our feelings to some extent towards our parents of grievances, and have forgiven them for the frustrations we had to bear, then we can be at peace with ourselves and are able to love others in the true sense of the word." (Klein Collected Writings vol. I, pp. 342-3)
"I would suggest that a securely established good object, implying a securely established love for it, gives the ego a feeling of riches and abundance which allows for an outpouring of libido and projection of good parts of the self into the external world without a sense of depletion arising. The ego can then also feel that it is able to re-introject the love it has given out, as well as take in goodness from other sources, and thus be enriched by the whole process. In other words, in such cases there is a balance between giving out and taking in, between projection and introjection." (Klein Collected Writings vol. III, p. 144)
Ted