Louis Althusser

Abstract

Louis Althusser was a Marxist philosopher and social theorist. He was certainly the most influential Marxist thinker of his time, and one of the most influential social theorists working in any tradition. Essays written by him in the 1960s had the greatest and most long-lasting impact. He continued to publish through the 1970s, becoming increasingly explicit in his criticisms of the French Communist Party leadership Finally the personal turmoil and madness which had been ever present in his life led to tragedy and confinement in a psychiatric institution for much of his last decade.