The readings for this section are Turner, pp. Herbert Marcuse was of German, Jewish background and studied philosophy at Berlin and Freiburg. He was a part of the Institute for Social Research in its early days in Germany and emigrated to the United States in In he became a professor at Columbia University, and later was associated with Harvard and Brandeis universities, and the University of California at San Diego, retiring in Associated with the Institute from the early days, he achieved greatest fame in the s, as a guru of the new social movements that emerged in the United States and Western Europe.
Of the original critical theorists, he was the only one who developed a relationship with the new left of the s. His writings provided a critical view of the capitalism and modernity that existed in the mid-twentieth century, with an historical and social analysis.
At the same time, in his major writings he did not provide a political or social guide to those who attempted to counteract the powerful forms of control and limits on freedom that he described. But his critical analysis provided social movement activists with a means of analyzing problems of modern society. Marcuse was generally sympathetic to the new social movements student, anti-war, feminist, civil rights, gay rights and became a sort of guru to the new left of the s.
At the same time, he did not pin his hopes for revolutionary change on university students Calhoun, p. Marcuse did not just critique western society but also Soviet society and the socialism of Eastern Europe. In general, his writings show a concern with issues of human liberation in general.
Elliott pp. He used ideas, concepts, and analysis of Freud and connected psychological repression with political repression, attempting to investigate how human emancipation might be achieved. From Freud, Marcuse emphasized the unconscious, desire, the sexual and erotic, and the search for pleasure and libidinal enjoyment Elliott, p. He argues that some repression of sexual and other desires is necessary for society to operate.
