Adorno and Freud: Integration as a political problem

Abstract

This article examines Theodor W. Adorno's engagement with Freudian psychoanalysis, especially in the late 1940s and in the early 1950s. It argues that Adorno developed a powerful psychoanalytic interpretation of fascist mass phenomena, based on Freud's theory of identification. At the same time, he exposed the limitations of purely psychological explanations of social domination. The paper reconstructs Adorno's critique of two major attempts to integrate psychology and sociology: revisionist psychoanalysis (notably Karen Horney), and Talcott Parsons' theory of social action. In both cases, Adorno rejects integration as theoretically misleading and politically conformist, contending that it neutralizes the critical potential of psychoanalysis. According to Adorno, Freud is "right where he is wrong": his psychological one-sidedness preserves a critical insight into social power that is obscured by later sociological corrections. The article concludes by identifying immanent tensions in Adorno's own position, particularly his underestimation of Freud's dialectical concept of reality and of psychoanalytic practice. It suggests that these neglected dimensions could have strengthened Adorno's critical project.