The French Marxism Althusser, Louis adopted this term (from the work of Jacques Martin) to describe the source of the theoretical unity of a particular form of discourse. His purpose in doing so was to distinguish the so-called early or Hegelian Marx from the later post-Hegelian Marx. The term is widely used in critical theory today, usually without any reference to Althusser, as a means of indicating a theoretical starting point that is at once perplexing and productive.