Marxist Psychology – Capitalism’s Failure and Socialism’s Success

QUESTION: Marxist Psychology – Capitalism’s Failure and Socialism’s Success

ANSWER:

To Marxists, socialist society encourages desirable behavior better than capitalist society. The major flaw in capitalist society, they believe, is the divisive nature of social classes—the oppression of one or more classes by a ruling class creates deviant behavior. The only way to eradicate this deviant behavior is by restructuring society.

Marxist Psychology – Benefits of a Socialist Society
L.P. Bueva describes the problem with a capitalist society that allows religious faith: “The essence of man is presented in a mystical way, the idea of the primacy of the spirit and of a full non-acceptance of objectivity, a rejection of the real world in favor of God, the idea of ‘a revolution within man’ through his spiritual renaissance based on religious faith—these are all ideological expressions of the crisis of capitalism’s social system and of the contemporary bourgeois world’s values.”¹

Bueva goes on to explain the benefits of a socialist society over a capitalist one: “Socialist social relations develop an ability of the individual for self-regulation, control over his social behavior and for developing an active attitude in relation to life.”² Marxists hold that only socialist society can encourage and shape psychologically healthy citizens and prevent us from turning to religious faith.

Notes:

Rendered with permission from the book,Understanding the Times: The Collision of Today’s Competing Worldviews(Rev. 2^nd ed), David Noebel, Summit Press, 2006. Compliments of John Stonestreet, David Noebel, and the Christian Worldview Ministry at Summit Ministries. All rights reserved in the original.

¹ L.P. Bueva, Man: His Behaviour and Social Relations (Moscow, USSR: Progress Publishers, 1979), 28.
² Ibid., 179.