In introducing the Marxist concept of ‘ideology critique’ into critical
social science, Habermas also draws heavily on the methodological
procedures of psychoanalysis. In particular, he draws on the
psychoanalytic method of self-reflection as a way of bringing to
consciousness those distortions in patients’ self-formative processes
which prevent a correct understanding of themselves and their actions.
In psychoanalysis, the aim of critique is not just for the theorist to be
able to understand or explain the individual, but for the individual to
be able, through his or her own transformed self-understanding, to
interpret herself and her situation differently and so alter those
conditions which are repressive. The purpose of critique, then, is to
provide a form of therapeutic self-knowledge which will liberate
individuals from the irrational compulsions of their individual history
through a process of critical self-reflection.