Freud in Frankfurt: The function of psychoanalysis in Theodor Adorno’s thought

Abstract

The following article is an extensive reflection on the critical appropriation of Freudian work by the theorists of the so-called Frankfurt School and, in particular, in the philosophical development of Theodor W. Adorno. To this end, the author analyzes the Adornian concept of righteous life [richtigen Leben] under the prism of the materialist dimension of Freud’s work, and then inquires into the relationship between psychic life and social subjection in contemporary capitalist society. In this sense, the article involves a reflexive inquiry about the possibility of a critique of the libidinal economy of capitalist society from a critical reception of Freud’s work, but having as a mediation of this possibility the reflexive appropriation of psychoanalytic theory by Theodor W. Adorno.