This article is written primarily as a reply to this article by David Klugman:

 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1025734528329#:~:text=The%20premise%20of%20this%20paper,gain%20than%20either%2For%20positions

Klugman elaborates a dialectic between constructivism and existentialism in the context of psychotherapy. For Klugman, existential approaches address “I”, the present will of the subject, and constructivist approaches consider the self as an observer and a reflector. However, it is unclear exactly what dialectical concept this dualism expresses – what whole do the two concepts comprise besides the vague ‘self’. Furthermore, psychoanalysis as a phenomenon can be traced back as far as the late industrial revolution; psychoanalysis cannot distance itself from its material underpinnings, and ideological baggage thereof.

To answer these questions, it is necessary to understand the inner destructive kernel of scientific analysis – the twin action of alienation and dis-alienation which destroys the real through objectivisation. The effect that this industrial mechanism has in the subject is at the root of the psychoanalytic commodity. Furthermore, it can be understood as the reification of the commodity form, and a natural consequence of commodity fetishism.

The Althusserian notion of interpellation can then be applied to understand how the subject is reconciled with their own exploitation, and the capitalist system is stabilised by this specific psychoanalytic logic.

Scientisation

Generalised commodity production is the consolidation of many craftsmen into large factories and large-scale competition. The process of generalisation enables and mandates businesses to break down commodity production into its smallest possible (worker and product) components, so as to rebuild them optimally.

The scientific method is the mechanism by which an immediate reality of ‘transcendent’ objects is deconstructed standardised, prepared for generalised commodity production. By reducing a ‘whole’ object to its most fundamental components, the object can be reproduced as cheaply as possible.

This destruction of immediacy destroys the wonder and enchantment of the everyday, and of the productive process. The more deeply we strip reality – to the atom and to the sub-atom – the further from practical experience it becomes. The reality we engage with recedes and is replaced by an invisible, intangible reality.

The scientisation of an object is a process of simultaneous alienation and dis-alienation. While a conscious understanding of natural processes grants a technical dis-alienation, the subject is alienated from the substantial mystery that comprises the essence of the real. Consciousness’s window to the material world ceases to be a set of ‘complete’ sensations and impulses, but is reduced to a known, determinate expression of deeper forces.

This logic applies to the human subject as well. The commodity form and its associated logic is incompatible with conscious experience – the subject is alienated from their species being, as well as control over their labour and its surplus.

As the human spirit cries out for freedom from this brutal destruction of the real, the superstructure of generalised commodity production responds by scientising consciousness itself.

The Existential-Constructivist Dialectic

Existential and constructivist psychoanalysis can be understood as dis-alienation and alienation respectively.

The method of existential psychoanalysis, of placing oneself in the moment and letting it run its course, is an escape from scientisation. Temporarily ‘muting’ consciousness to feel the immediate being and environment restores the subject to their species-being, briefly re-rooting them in the real.

In the existential worldview the ‘real’ of the conscious subject is the unknown element at the core of ‘free will,’ the fundamental decision-maker which defies predetermination. For the existentialist, this ‘inner core’ or (for the vulgar existentialist ‘true self’) is mediated by layers of social concepts, the inner self is isolated from the world by society and ideology.

The existential psychoanalytic method removes these layers of scientific and social meaning and reconnects the ‘pure’ self with the ‘real’ external world. This is the inverse of the scientific process – a method of re-mystifying the impulse and restoring the species-being. In other words, this is a psychoanalytical mechanism for dis-alienation.

The constructivist, on the other hand, does not recognise any true inner self or subject. The constructivist self is a network of ideals, an often-contradictory selection of narratives and roles which the subject acts out but does not fully ‘become’.

The constructivist psychoanalytic method involves consciously deconstructing unconscious programmes and beliefs about the self. By bringing an unconscious narrative to the fore and understanding its roots, the mystified reality of that narrative is destroyed.

This is precisely the mechanism of the scientific method: Through understanding a process, the subject (as a constellation of meanings) attains power over it, and becomes alienated from that its reality. This gives the subject the freedom to consciously reframe the self and the environment, and the new self is interpellated with the clinician and society at large.

As Klugman concludes, a combination of existential and constructivist methods must be used to effectively treat a patient. The conditions for mental health are a patient that is connected with their species-being in a way that is compatible with their material conditions – an outcome which can only be achieved by alienating incompatible knowledge and dis-alienating a more desirable reality. The metaphysics of the constructivist and existential methods provide a tidy metanarrative of leaving a ‘false’ (constructed) self and arriving at a ‘true’ (existential) self.

The Self Industry

In effect, this can function as a scientific method for production of a willing and motivated labour-pool. Consciousness itself – or specific forms of consciousness – can be produced as a commodity.

As with many industrial scientific developments, psychoanalysis represents a powerful tool in the arsenal of capital. As the surplus of the western bourgeoisie has grown, a glut of therapists and psychoanalysts has been produced to treat the symptoms of the capitalist system. 

Psychoanalysis is a fragile and expensive tool, however, when compared to mass-media. As global capitalism struggles with its own dialectical contradictions, psychoanalysis and therapy will struggle to keep up with the increasing disconnect between consciousness and material reality.