Work And Its Discontents: The Ideological Containment Of Social Contradictions.

Abstract

An argument is presented for restoring a critical connotation to the concept of ideology and then illustrated through analysis of interviews with an auto worker. In the introductory chapter, a review of the use of the concept of ideology concludes that interworked epistemological, theoretical, and political considerations have suppressed its critical connotation. In this connection, shortcomings of survey research-based approaches to the study of ideology are indicated. Then, currents within Marxist theory and non-marxist philosophy of science are analyzed regarding their treatment of subjects' interpretations of their situations and motivations. The notion of contradictions between institutionalized discourses is then advanced to define a principal problem in the reproduction of core social relations addressed by ideology. To illustrate, the contradiction between hierarchical and democratic-egalitarian discourses within the capitalist firm is selected as a characteristic problem of the reproduction of capitalist-democratic social relations. Ideology is given a preliminary definition as a metadiscourse, propagated within coercive social relations, regulating the interpretive management of experiences taking shape within contradictions. In chapter three, an appropriation of psychoanalytic theory is carried out under the rubric of Habermas and Lorenzer's concept of systematically distorted communication. In distinguishing this employment from characterological orientations, I stress the analysis of defensive suppression/repression of specific experiences of suffering that might otherwise instigate social critique informed by democratic-egalitarian discourse. In chapter four, the relationship between this suffering, immanent to the social order, and a critical interpretive, or critical hermeneutic, approach to research and praxis is considered in light of the theory of the therapeutic process. In chapter five interviews with a Chrysler worker, Pat, are analyzed, emphasis being placed on the implication of defensive processes in his discussion of grievances and democratic-egalitarian forms of social relations potentially addressing them. In particular, I point out a syntonicity between defensive processing and pivotal rationales discounting alternative arrangements. The chapter concludes with consideration of the contribution of Pat's childhood recollections to understanding contemporary defensive processing and associated transferences. The final chapter generally assesses implications of processes of systematically distorted communication for political education, and ends with suggestions regarding further research.