Marx's Object Relations Theory of Development

Karl Marx is chronically and often carelessly accused of presenting a social theory entirely lacking in a psychological component. This has resulted in several sophisticated attempts to introduce Freud into Marx in order to fill this alleged theoretical lacuna. These efforts have demonstrated important nodes of intersection where the two theories impinge from different angles upon crucial social phenomena, for example, the determination of individual character structure within the socially situated nuclear family. It seems clear that Marxist theory and psychoanalytic theory, despite obvious divergences, are necessary supplements to each other on such issues as repression, ideology, and aggression.*

This paper proceeds in another direction. It attempts to articulate a genetic scheme implicit in the array of Marx's writings which, in important respects, corresponds to Freud's ontogenetic model of the stages of libidinal development. That is, there is already in Marx a phylogenetic historical model which is best articulated with the aid of the concepts and mechanisms of psychoanalytic theory. This becomes most apparent when Freudian theory is reformulated as a theory of object relations. W. R. D. Fairbairn, who was instrumental to this project, claimed that since

libido is primarily object-seeking [rather than pleasure-seeking, as in the classic theory]16a

therefore