[Critique of ideology and the reality principle]

The article is based upon a thesis of Helmut Dahmer, according to which psychoanalysis has not yet been looked upon as ideological criticism and confronts it with Franz Alexander's statements as counterthesis, which point to the fact that psychoanalysis ought always to be seen as critical of ideology in its approach. In connection with the psychoanalytical theory of creativity, this psychological approach from the view point of ideological criticism--that should always be worked out anew--cannot leave unreflected psychoanalysis itself, not only in its theoretical inventory but also in its practise and in the political significance of the latter. Especially the ideologically critical approaches of the more recent theory of narcissism and transcultural studies as well as their connection with present-day social phenomena, developments and problems, give reason to relativize the "western" Ego and its problem-complex; at the same time the concept of Self, its modifications, its socio-economical and philosophical transformations are given a basic position.