Palimpsests in the Writing of Althusser’s Idéologie et Appareils Idéologiques d’État

Abstract

The article identifies a persistent aporia in Althusser’s Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (IISA) and proposes a way to resolve it. The theory of ideology appears grounded either in an anthropological matrix or in the notion of the Subject, the latter being privileged by readings that incorporated psychoanalytic categories, notably Lacanian ones, leading to proposals for a new theory of ideology. Rather than critiquing these proposals, we show–through Spinoza’s nodal presence in IISA – how to displace the foundation toward the anthropological element. Thus, the notion of the Subject proves derivative, reinscribing Althusser’s theory of ideology within the framework of Spinoza’s theory of individuation. To this end, we propose an equivalence, mediated by the notion of centering-in-itself, between Spinoza’s theory of imagination and Freud’s theory of narcissism, both under Althusser’s reading of Feuerbach’s specularity. We conclude by reaffirming this path through Spinoza’s palimpsestic presence in Freud’s writings on the masses.