over-determine

views updated

over-determine, over-determination Terms devised by Sigmund Freud to denote multiple determinations—and hence interpretations—of dreams. The concept was subsequently used by Louis Althusser in For Marx (1966) to indicate multiple historical causation. Althusser contrasted this view of causation with the Hegelian notion of simple contradiction. He argued that revolutions occurred when a combination of factors—a ‘ruptural unity’—was present.

More From encyclopedia.com