Editing Theodor W. Adorno (section)

==Intellectual influences==
Like most theorists of the [[Frankfurt School]], Adorno was influenced by the works of [[Hegel]], [[Marx]], and [[Freud]]. Their major theories fascinated many left-wing intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century. [[Lorenz Jäger]] speaks critically of Adorno's "[[Achilles' heel]]" in his political biography: that Adorno placed "almost unlimited trust in finished teachings, in Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the teachings of the Second Viennese School."<ref>Lorenz Jäger: ''Adorno. Eine politische Biographie''. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2005, p. 32.</ref>

===Hegel===
Adorno's adoption of Hegelian philosophy can be traced back to his inaugural lecture in 1931, in which he postulated, "only dialectically does philosophical interpretation seem possible to me" (''Gesammelte Schriften'' 1: 338). Hegel rejected the idea of separating methods and content, because thinking is always thinking of something; dialectics for him is "the comprehended movement of the object itself."<ref>{{cite book|last=Schweppenhäuser|first=Gerhard|author-link=:de:Gerhard Schweppenhäuser|title=Theodor W. Adorno zur Einführung|language=de|edition=5th|publisher=Junius|location=Hamburg|year=2009|page=31}}</ref> Like {{ill|Gerhard Schweppenhäuser|de}}, Adorno adopted this claim as his own, and based his thinking on one of the Hegelian basic categories, determinate negation,{{sfn|Schweppenhäuser|2009|pp=30–38}} according to which something is not abstractly negated and dissolved into zero, but is preserved in a new, richer concept through its opposite.<ref>In a conversation between Horkheimer, Adorno and Gadamer about Nietzsche's moral criticism, Adorno complained that Nietzsche "lacked the concept of definite negation," that is, "the fact that when one opposes something that is recognized as negative with another, the negated in this other is in a new form must be included". Max Horkheimer: ''Gesammelte Schriften''. Vol. 13: ''Nachgelassene Schriften 1949–1972''. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 116.</ref>

Adorno understood his ''Three Studies of Hegel'' as "preparation of a changed definition of dialectics" and that they stop "where the start should be" (''Gesammelte Schriften'' 5: 249 f.). Adorno dedicated himself to this task in one of his later major works, the ''Negative Dialectics'' (1966). The title expresses "tradition and rebellion in equal measure."<ref>Tilo Wesche: ''Negative Dialektik: Kritik an Hegel.'' In: Richard Klein, Johann Kreuzer, Stefan Müller-Doohm (Hrsg.): ''Adorno-Handbuch. Leben – Werk – Wirkung.'' J. B. Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, p. 318.</ref> Drawing from Hegelian reason's speculative dialectic, Adorno developed his own "negative" dialectic of the "non-identical".<ref>Albrecht Wellmer: ''Adorno, Anwalt des Nicht-Identischen.'' In: id.: ''Zur Dialektik von Moderne und Postmoderne. Vernunftkritik nach Adorno''. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1985, pp. 135–166. In German.</ref>

=== Karl Marx ===
Marx's ''[[Critique of Political Economy]]'' clearly shaped Adorno's thinking. As described by [[Jürgen Habermas]], Marxist critique is, for Adorno, a "silent orthodoxy, whose categories [are revealed] in Adorno's [[Cultural critic|cultural critique]], although their influence is not explicitly named."<ref>[[Jürgen Habermas]]: ''Theorie und Praxis. Sozialphilosophische Studien''. Luchterhand, Neuwied 1963, p. 170.</ref> Marx's influence on Adorno first came by way of [[György Lukács]]'s ''History and Class Consciousness'' (''Geschichte und Klassenbewußtsein''). From this text, Adorno took the Marxist categories of [[commodity fetishism]] and [[Reification (Marxism)|reification]]. These are closely related to Adorno's concept of [[trade]], which stands in the center of his philosophy, not exclusively restricted to economic theory. Adorno's "exchange society" ({{lang|de|Tauschgesellschaft}}), with its "insatiable and destructive appetite for expansion", is easily decoded as a description of capitalism.<ref>''Gesammelte Schriften'', vol. 5, p. 274.</ref> Furthermore, the Marxist concept of [[ideology]] is central for Adorno.<ref>Jan Rehmann: "Ideologiekritik. Die Ideologiekritik der Kritischen Theorie". In: Uwe H. Bittlingmayer / Alex Demirović / Tatjana Freytag (eds.): ''Handbuch Kritische Theorie''. Vol. 1. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2019, pp. 663–700, here p. 664.</ref>

[[Marxian class theory|Class theory]], which appears less frequently in Adorno's work, also has its origins in Marxist thinking. Adorno made explicit reference to class in two of his texts: the first, the subchapter "Classes and Strata" (''Klassen und Schichten''), from his ''Introduction to the Sociology of Music''; the second, an unpublished 1942 essay, "Reflections on Class Theory", published postmortem in his ''Collected Works''.

=== Sigmund Freud ===
[[Psychoanalysis]] is a constitutive element of critical theory.<ref>[[Martin Jay]]: ''III. Die Integration der Psychoanalyse''. In: id.: ''Dialektische Phantasie. Die Geschichte der Frankfurter Schule und des Instituts für Sozialforschung 1923–1950''. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1976, pp. 113–142.</ref> Adorno read [[Sigmund Freud]]'s work early on, although, unlike Horkheimer, he never underwent analysis.<ref>Christian Schneider: ''Die Wunde Freud.'' In: Richard Klein, Johann Kreuzer, Stefan Müller-Doohm (Hrsg.): ''Adorno-Handbuch. Leben – Werk – Wirkung.'' J. B. Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, p. 284.</ref> He first read Freud while working on his initial (withdrawn) habilitation thesis, ''The Concept of the Unconscious in the Transcendental Theory of Mind'' (1927). In it Adorno argued that "the healing of all neuroses is synonymous with the complete understanding of the meaning of their symptoms by the patient". In his essay "On the Relationship between Sociology and Psychology" (1955), he justified the need to "supplement the theory of society with psychology, especially analytically oriented social psychology" in the face of fascism. Adorno emphasized the necessity of researching prevailing [[Drive theory|psychological drives]] in order to explain the cohesion of a repressive society acting against fundamental human interests.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gesammelte Schriften|last=Adorno|first=Theodor W.|date=1997|publisher=Suhrkamp Taschenbuch|volume=8|pages=42|oclc=890842414}}</ref>

Adorno always remained a supporter and defender of Freudian orthodox doctrine, "psychoanalysis in its strict form".<ref>Theodor W. Adorno: "Probleme der Moralphilosophie". Nachgelassene Schriften, section 4, vol. 10: ''Vorlesungen''. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1996, p. 123.</ref> From this position, he attacked [[Erich Fromm]]<ref>Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer: ''Briefwechsel''. Vol. I: 1927–1937. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2003, pp. 129 f.</ref> and later [[Karen Horney]] because of their revisionism. He expressed reservations about sociologized psychoanalysis<ref>He summarizes this in the seemingly paradoxical formulation: "The more psychoanalysis is sociologized, the duller its organ for recognizing socially caused conflicts becomes". (GS 8: 28).{{clarify|date=August 2023|reason=What or who is GS? Gesammelte Schriften?}}</ref> as well as about its reduction to a therapeutic procedure.{{sfn|Müller-Doohm|2005|p=590}}