"Contemporary social theory suggests that mind and
thought are the result of the 'discourses that push and pull us'. However, the
question remains: Who has created societal discourses and why do they exist? Why
have particular ideas been "selected out" (from among the multitude of ideas
that people have put forth) to become elements of culture? Why are specific
beliefs embraced and perpetuated, and not others? Why do certain ideologies
evoke such passion? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to
articulate the meaning of culturally constituted ideas, to delineate the psychic
work that these ideas perform for the people who embrace
them."
Richard
Koenigsberg
WHY DO IDEOLOGIES EXIST:
The Psychological Function of Culture
Contemporary social theory does not address the
question of the reasons why particular ideologies exist. People write about
"dominant discourses," but the question is why particular discourses become
dominant. To answer the question of why particular ideas are embraced and
perpetuated, I suggest a psychological approach. What does the ideology do for
the people who embrace it? What role does this ideology play in the psychic life
of its adherents?
Culture is not a domain separate from
human beings. Ideologies exist to the extent that people produce, espouse and
perpetuate them. Ideologies are created by human beings for human beings.
Ideologies perform psychic work, functioning to allow people to encounter, work
through and attempt to master fundamental desires, fantasies, conflicts and
existential dilemmas.
The complete paper by Richard A. Koenigsberg is
available for the first time as an on-line publication.
To read: WHY DO IDEOLOGIES EXIST: The Psychological
Function of Culture
How are we to explain the nature and shape of the
entire panoply of ideas, material objects and social arrangements that we call
culture? What inhibits us from posing the question: Why do specific ideologies
and societal discourses exist?
When people examine cultural forms such
as musical symphonies, light-bulbs or air-conditioners, it is not difficult to
acknowledge that human beings are the source; to say that these inventions
represent a response to our desires and fantasies; that they exist to the extent
that they fulfill human needs. We do not hesitate to conclude that symphonies,
light-bulbs and air-conditioners exist and are perpetuated as elements of
culture because they provide physical and psychological
gratification.
It is more difficult for people to say
that cultural inventions such as war and genocide exist because they provide
psychological gratification. We shy away from the idea that ideologies of war
and genocide represent the fulfillment of human desires and fantasies. We prefer
to imagine that war and genocide come from a place outside the self. We would
rather understand war and genocide from the perspective of the political
situations out of which events grow; or to declare that what occurs is generated
by "historical forces."
I theorize that war and genocide--like
symphonies, light-bulbs and air-conditioners--exist because they represent the
fulfillment of psychological needs. Why do ideologies of war and genocide exist?
Why have they been perpetuated as elements of culture? Because--like symphonies,
light-bulbs and air-conditioners--they are responsive to and serve to articulate
human desires, anxieties and fantasies.