ABSTRACT
Building on a basic principle of Marx's historical materialism, Marcuse introduces a historical perspective into Freud's portrayal of the conflictual relationship between the individual's instinctual desires and the requirements of society. Marcuse coined the term repressive desublimation to describe this undoing of the cultural system that had previously required the repression and sublimation of erotic desire into socially valued activities. In psychoanalytic theory, however, the function of paternal authority in the Oedipus complex is principally symbolic: to bar the small child's desire towards the mother through introducing the structuring law of social relations, the prohibition of incest. Repression represents an internalization of domination by external masters. The destructive processes engendered by the contradictions of capitalist 'development' are obvious in world affairs, in environmental degradation, the ugly inequality and crass commercialism of our cities, homelessness, conspicuous consumption, interpersonal violence and the stupidity of most television entertainment.
