Renato Parascandolo: Self
Quotes
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Renato Parascandolo : How did you become communist?
Louis Pierre Althusser : I became communist because I was a Catholic. I didn't change my faith, but I found there... I found that... in a sense I remained a Christian, deep down. I don't go to mass, but what does going to church mean today? But I remained a Catholic, by which I mean universalist, internationalist... But I thought that the Communist Party had more adequate means for bringing about universal fraternity. There was the influence of my wife, who'd had a terrible time in the Resistance. She taught me a lot.
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Renato Parascandolo : In books on Marxism and Marxist philosophy, you are credited with the invention of the term overdetermination.
Louis Pierre Althusser : I got it from Freud. I used it to mean that whatever the social reality or event, it's never pure. It is never singly determined, it is always over- or underdetermined.
Renato Parascandolo : Meaning?
Louis Pierre Althusser : Meaning that it isn't single but in plural. And that this plurality is either more or less than the determination that we think, that we believe, that we think we isolated in our research.
Renato Parascandolo : An example?
Louis Pierre Althusser : Take the case of Stalin. A very overdetermined case. The explanation given by Khrushchev was that, in short, Stalin was insane. Or that he went mad. That's a determined explanation. But this explanation is clearly not enough. This explanation is not enough to understand the personality and role of Stalin.
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Renato Parascandolo : Is the term self-determination the same thing as communism?
Louis Pierre Althusser : I don't think so.
Renato Parascandolo : What is the difference?
Louis Pierre Althusser : The term self-determination doesn't yet... It can have a content, but up until now it doesn't. Whereas communism exists. Self-management doesn't exist. Communism does. It exists between us, here on this terrace in Rome.
Renato Parascandolo : In what sense?
Louis Pierre Althusser : In the sense that communism is a means of production in which there is no economic relationship of exploitation, no political relationship of domination or submission, no ideological relationship of intimidation or repression, and no ideological enslavement. Between us there is no such relationship.
Renato Parascandolo : As of this moment?
Louis Pierre Althusser : Yes, as of this moment. There are islands of communism all over the world. In the church, for example. Or in certain unions. Even in certain cells of the Communist Party. We have a cell that is communist. This means communism has been realised. When you play football, what happens? There's no marketplace rapport, no political domination, no ideological intimidation... The teams playing each other, respect the rules, and respect each other. Communism is respect for human beings.
