False Consciousness: An Essay on Reification

The problem of false consciousness is not merely central to Marxian doctrine, it constitutes its entire framework; a great many — if not all — of the problems that Marxist thought poses are, in the last analysis, problems of false consciousness. A Marxist theory of mental derangement is not therefore an 'external' application of Marxism to a scientific problem (e.g. ' dialectical materialism and mathematics') but rather a kind of quintessential explanation: as a dialectical criticism of ideology, Marxism is already in fact a theory of mental derangement. The rise of totalitarian thought confirms the validity and even the actuality of this part of Marxist theory, whereas there remains so little of real value in Marx's economic thought, once considered central to his system [the history of capitalist crisis since 1973 has proven Gabel fabulously wrong on this last point - ISR].