Ideological State Apparatus And RSA, By Louis Althusser

The mental frameworks we use to make sense of the world is known as ideology. Louis Althusser, a French Marxist, described it as “an imaginary relationship of an individual to real conditions of existence”. Althusser’s goal is to display how ideology works and for us to challenge it, he does this by splitting ideology into Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) and Repressive State Apparatus (RSA). In season 6 episode 24 of Grey’s Anatomy ISA and RSA are both used by multiple characters and both are also used in life or death predicaments throughout the duration of the episode. Ideological State Apparatus is described by Althusser as someone that operates out of persuasion. Someone not committing a crime because they feel that it is morally or …show more content…
The gunman Clark represents RSA to the fullest. I noticed this at the very beginning of this episode and chose this as my theory right then and there. Clark had already shot Derek in the heart and was about to shoot him one more time before he saw the SWAT team scanning the building for him, so he fled. This shows that Clark definitely was not operating under ISA since he had already taken multiple individuals lives with no remorse whatsoever, but he was however influenced by RSA as he chose against shooting Derek one more time to avoid getting caught and facing the consequences. Clark demonstrates RSA one last time at the end of the episode when he is alone with the head of the hospital Richard, in the room his wife passed away in. He explains that he planned to have two bullets left, one for Richard and one for himself, but he only has one left. Richard explains to him what is going to happen if he uses that last bullet on him, he will spend the rest of his life locked away. Clark ends up listening and commits suicide. This is the perfect example of RSA as Clark did not want to kill Richard only because he would be in prison forever. Clark acted out of fear and chose the easy way