Marxist perspectives on abnormality

Two traditions within Marxist theory, based on the empirical work on physiological reactivity of the “Warsaw School” and social relations effects on personality, are explored as orthogonal continua offering a novel perspective on psychopathology. Individual differences in reactivity are examined in the context of the extent of communality-individuality inherent in the social relations characteristic of a society. The argument is advanced that considerable variance in abnormal behavior is intrinsic to the dialectic relation of the two variables—culture and temperament—and specific psychopathologies are related to given structures of social relations. The diagnoses of psychopathic personality, hysteria, and organization neurosis are discussed within this interactive framework.