“Herbert Marcuse, prominent Frankfurt School sociologist and philosopher, extensively critiques capitalism in his seminal work, Eros and Civilization, which aims to combine Marx and Freud. One of the most important ideas in this work is that of repression. Marcuse distinguishes between necessary repression (or in his words, basic repression) and surplus repression. This essay quotes exclusively from Eros and Civilization in an effort to explain Marcuse in his own words.
The distinction between the two concepts is fairly simple to understand. Marcuse theorizes that necessary repression is the extent to which human beings are forced to repress their own libidinal instincts in order to survive in this world. Necessary repression originates, according to Marcuse, within the superego. The ego mediates between the “conscience” of the superego and the selfish, sexual instinct of the id resulting in a situation where “[the ego] dethrones the pleasure- principle, which exerts undisputed sway over the processes in the id, and substitutes for it the reality-principle, which promises greater security and greater success”. (31)
For Marcuse, this repression is an inherent part of the human psyche, which has existed through humanity’s history. He writes, “it has been argued that Freud’s concept reality principle obliterates [external factors contributing to the reality principle] by making historical contingencies into biological necessities”. (34) He is quick to note, however, that this does not mean that all historical forms of organization are not equally built from a “repressive organization of the instincts”. (ibid)
In order to distinguish between the biological-internal and sociological- external components of human repression, Marcuse introduces surplus repression. Surplus repression is “the restrictions [on human behaviour] necessitated by social domination”. (35) Marcuse argues that surplus repression is a consequence of the social organization of scarcity and resources (36), specifically that “it has not been distributed collectively in accordance with individual needs” (ibid).
Marcuse explains that while this gap in resource distribution may have been rationalized and useful for a long time in human history, “it remained the rationality of domination… and [was] shaped by the interest of domination”. (37) Domination differs from authority in that authority is “derived from knowledge” (ibid) whereas domination is used “to sustain or enhance [an individual’s] privileged position” (ibid) As domination requires control over human behaviour, it “[introduces] additional controls [on human behaviour] over and above those indispensable for civilized human association” (38), which is what Marcuse refers to by surplus repression. His examples include “the modifications and deflections of instinctual energy necessitated by the perpetuation of the monogamic-patriarchal family, or by a hierarchical division of labor, or by public control over an individual’s private existence” (38)
In particular, he claims that the capitalist division of labor creates a profound sexual stratification where sex is allowed for the capitalist class, but not for the workers—except when it does not affect performance. In this sense, human labor is doubly alienated for Marcuse; alienated in the Marxian sense, but further alienated in the libidinal sense.”
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