[lbo-talk] Marx without quotation marks

[Philip Pilkington]

> Every theory uses terms as conceptual shorthand.  You're fond of Freud; is
> the unconscious "some sort of black box with explanatory power", "an empty
> phrase"?  My ambivalent assessment of Freud notwithstanding, I don't think
> that is a fair assessment of Freud's terminology, because his work
> explicates the characteristics and the psychological significance of the
> unconscious in some detail.  You may disagree with Freud (as I do in some
> respects), but it's not reasonable to claim that Freud failed to explicate
> the meaning of his terms.  --And just so with Foucault.
>
> Miles
>
>
Eh... not to sound narcissitic (a nice Freudian term...) but I presume this
was directed at me.

Anyway, there is NOT a similarity here. Freud was very careful with what he
termed to be "progressive" and "regressive" (read: "good" and "bad") and so
are analysts generally. Suicide, for example, would have been viewed as
negative, as would sexual violence and theft.

I invite you to look over many of Foucault's arguments. There's absolutely
NO dichotemy there. Everything functions... as I said: there's no pathology.
Suicide rates can be tied into the imaginary system which "functions"
according to laws, as can sexual violence, as can theft etc etc. Foucault's
method is of a different variety... so are his politics.