Nowa Krytyka

Historical materialism and social psychology are in deep and underestimated relationship. As historical materialism constitutes a theoretical framework for social psychology, the social psychology brings a great amount of data which updates the Marxist legacy. The problem often raised is psychology’s focus on individual and explaining the whole reality from its point of view whereas historical materialism definitely stands on the position of methodological anti-individualism. Nevertheless individualistic social psychology does not deny the anti-individualistic approach in social sciences in general. Individuals are social, are part of society and even if individual consciousness and practice are not conclusive for social processes, they must be examined with the same respect. There is a space for individualism in Marxism as well. One of the keypoints of historical materialism is mutual relation between social conditions reflecting in consciousness and humans transforming these conditions through their material practice. This assumption considered from individualistic perspective is equal with human entity shaped by its social relations and historical circumstances and transforming these relations through its behaviour. It corresponds with definitions of social psychology – individuals’ thinking, feeling and behaving stems from their social setup, but they influence this setup as well. The Marxist social psychology is then legit and can be continued with the psychology’s data already collected.