For Marx

Introduction

Althusser published the volume in 1965 in a series he edited, the same year as the collective Reading Capital. It collects essays written between 1960 and 1964, among them “On the Young Marx”, “Contradiction and Overdetermination” and “Marxism and Humanism”, and an essay on a Brecht-inspired theatre production. Borrowing the concept of overdetermination from Freud, Althusser argues that social contradictions are never simple expressions of the economy but are shaped by many levels at once. He dates Marx’s break to 1845 and calls Marx’s mature theory a “theoretical anti-humanism”. The book became a reference text for structuralist Marxism in France and abroad.

Connections

Builds on

• Capital1867 · Karl Marx

Criticizes

• Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 18441844 · Karl Marx

Taken up in

• Political Power and Social Classes1968 · Nicos Poulantzas

More works by Louis Althusser

• 1970Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses