Ronald F. Price. Marx and Education in Russia and China. Pp. 376. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977. $18.50

• Date: 01 January 1979
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944100143
• Author: David Hecht
• Published date: 01 January 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

222

and

toward

issues

concerned

with

emo-

tional

patterns.

As

a

historian,

the

author

contends

that

the

history

of

the

family

has

been

dis-

continuous,

containing

more

than

one

distinct

form,

each

of

which

has

its

own

emotional

pattern;

and

that

these

dif-

ferent

forms

are

not

capable

of

correla-

tion in

their

growth

with

any one

vari-

able

such

as

industrialization,

patriarchy,

economic

system,

or

urbanism.

His

thesis

is

that

the

basic

issues

of

the

family

exist

on

the

psychological

level,

where

varieties

of

emotional

structure

produce

changes

in

deep

individual

needs.

Freud

is

criticized

as

being

ahis-

torical,

unable

to

place

his

contribution

within

a

wider

framework

of

historical

and

social

theory.

In

a

chapter

entitled

&dquo;The

Radicaliza-

tion

of

Eros,&dquo;

Poster

deals

with

the

Marxist

view

of

the

family,

with

ref-

erence

to

the

writings

of

Engels;

the

synthesis

of

Marx

and

Freud

as

at-

tempted

by

Wilhelm

Reich;

Reich’s

anal-

ysis

of

fascism;

the

Frankfurt

School

as

represented

by

Max

Horkheimer;

and

Herbert

Marcuse.

The

following

chap-

ter,

&dquo;Ego

Psychology,

Modernization

and

the

Family,&dquo;

sees

striking

compari-

sons

between

Erikson

and

Parsons

in

their

denial of

Freudian

instinct

theory.

For

Parsons,

social

order

rather

than

anatomy,

is

presented

as

destiny.

Poster

is

also

critical

of

Parsons

for

seeing

the

patriarchal

middle

class

family

as

the

norm.

Jacques

Lacan’s

rebuilding

of

Freudian

theory

in

terms

of

linguistic

and

anthropological

structuralism

is

viewed

as

significant,

as

is

Gregory

Bateson’s

new

approach

in

communica-

tion

theory

as a

foundation

for

psy-

chotherapy.

The

author’s

own

theory

of the

family

is

posited

on

the

need

for

flexibility

and

coherence

of

categories

on

a

psycho-

logical

level

that

recognizes

hierarchies

of

age

and

sex.

Biological

reductionism

is

seen

as

inadequate.

A

critical

theory

of

the

family

would

seek

to

answer

such

questions

as

when

the

modern

family

emerged,

its

historical

significance,

and

what

family

structures

predominated

in

society

before

the

modem

family.

Four

European

models

are

succinctly

de-

scribed,

and

the

author

concludes

by

presenting

a

fifth

synthetic

model

drawn

from

several

disciplines.

This

is

a

scholarly

and

stimulating

book

that

should

be

of

value

to

all

students

interested

in

theoretical

ap-

proaches

to

the

family.

JOHN

E.

OWEN

Arizona

State

University

Tempe

RONALD

F.

PRICE.

Marx

and

Educa-

tion

in

Russia

and

China

.

Pp.

376.

Totowa,

NJ:

Rowman

and

Littlefield,

1977.

$18.50.

As

the

title

implies,

the

author,

Senior

Lecturer

in

Comparative

Education

at

La

Trobe

University,

Melbourne,

Aus-

tralia,

sets

out

diligently

to

present

of-

ficial

educational

theory

and

practice

in

both

the

Soviet

Union

and

Communist

China.

The

study

unfolds

to

familiarize

the

presumably

ignorant

reader

with

the

views

of

Marx

and

Engels

on

the

subject

of

education,

the

ultimate

aim

of

which,

according

to

Mr.

Price,

is

to

mold

a

revolutionized,

well-rounded

individual

within

a

harmoniously

organized

co-

operative

society.

This

individual

is

what

the

author

later

refers

to

as

&dquo;the

new,

socialist

man.&dquo;

Copious

quotations

from

the

socialist

fathers

and

also

such

followers

as

Bukharin,

Stalin,

and

Mao

Tse-tung

(the

last

always

spelled

Mao

Ze-dong

by

Mr.

Price)

plus

commentary,

again

from

various

pundits,

manage

to

fill

up

a

sizable

portion

of

the

book.

Lenin

and

Sun

Yat-sen

are

certainly

downgraded

and

neither

is

even

listed

in

the

far

from

adequate

index.

And

whoever

transliterated

from

the

Russian

has

made

many

grievous

errors.

The

author

moves

on

to

deal

with

schooling

in

the

two

countries

and

edu-

cation

in

the

wider

sense;

that

is,

education

and

the

economy,

labor

and

education,

and

the

collective

as

educa-

tor.

Text

is

accompanied

by

an

imposing

battery

of

tables

and

charts,

usually

of

planned

systems

and

taken

from

other

specialists.

The

whole

is

rounded

off

with

a

long

bibliography

of

titles,

mostly

in

English,

but

including

some

in

Rus-