| Marxism-Leninism: Psychology |
| Monistic Pavlovian Behaviorism |
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Behaviorism says that everything a person does is the result of two purely material reasons: the individual's physical makeup and the influence of the environment on a person's nervous system. The brain is just a collection of nerves and blood vessels and tissues that have been programmed to react a certain way. The programming is done by a person's environment: his education, surroundings, family, background, etc. Just like Pavlov conditioned his dogs to salivate when they heard a bell, humans are conditioned to feel patriotic when they see a flag, or to rescue children from drowning. This conclusion follows logically from their materialist philosophy (only matter exists). However, Marxism has a problem if this is all the further they go. If every man's actions are programmed, how could any individual consciously choose to revolt? The Marxist must water down behaviorism to encourage the worker to actively, consciously strive for Communism. The Marxist's belief in Pavlov's "second stimuli" of language allows the Marxist to claim that while man's actions are largely determined, the individual can obtain a measure of freedom in his use of and response to the stimulus of language. In this way, the Marxist is able to cling to his behavioristic assumptions and still claim that the worker may choose to join the revolution.
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