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    Critical Theory: Frankfurt School

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    Rachel G Moore
    The Frankfurt School was a group of philosophers led by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno who criticized modern capitalist societies. They believed such societies were prone to authoritarianism and totalitarianism. While Marx predicted workers would revolt, the Frankfurt School turned to Freudian psychology to explain why revolutions did not occur. They argued mass culture and media in the US maintained authoritarian social control through distraction and promoting narcissism rather than addressing real social problems. However, some critiques argue the Frankfurt School underestimated personal reason and democratic traditions in the US.

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    Critical Theory: Frankfurt School

    Uploaded by

    Rachel G Moore
    136 views13 pages
    The Frankfurt School was a group of philosophers led by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno who criticized modern capitalist societies. They believed such societies were prone to authoritarianism and totalitarianism. While Marx predicted workers would revolt, the Frankfurt School turned to Freudian psychology to explain why revolutions did not occur. They argued mass culture and media in the US maintained authoritarian social control through distraction and promoting narcissism rather than addressing real social problems. However, some critiques argue the Frankfurt School underestimated personal reason and democratic traditions in the US.

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    Frankfurt School/Marx/Freud

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    Frankfurt School

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    The Frankfurt School was a group of philosophers led by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno who criticized modern capitalist societies. They believed such societies were prone to authoritarianism and totalitarianism. While Marx predicted workers would revolt, the Frankfurt School turned to Freudian psychology to explain why revolutions did not occur. They argued mass culture and media in the US maintained authoritarian social control through distraction and promoting narcissism rather than addressing real social problems. However, some critiques argue the Frankfurt School underestimated personal reason and democratic traditions in the US.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    136 views13 pages

    Critical Theory: Frankfurt School

    Uploaded by

    Rachel G Moore
    The Frankfurt School was a group of philosophers led by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno who criticized modern capitalist societies. They believed such societies were prone to authoritarianism and totalitarianism. While Marx predicted workers would revolt, the Frankfurt School turned to Freudian psychology to explain why revolutions did not occur. They argued mass culture and media in the US maintained authoritarian social control through distraction and promoting narcissism rather than addressing real social problems. However, some critiques argue the Frankfurt School underestimated personal reason and democratic traditions in the US.

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    Critical theory: Frankfurt

    school
    American mass culture and the
    Frankfurt school

    Frankfurt school
    Small group of philosophers, called critical
    theorists, who worked under the direction of Max
    Horkheimer(1895-1973) and Theodor
    Adorno(1903-1969).
    Frankfurt school says that all modern societies,
    especially the advanced capitalist North
    American society, are victims to forms of
    authoritarianism, especially fascism (state with
    terrorist domination) and totalitarianism (total
    state control).

    Marx and the Frankfurt school


    The Frankfurt school turned to Freudian
    psychology (Oedipus complex) to explain
    why the workers revolution did not happen
    in advanced capitalist societies as
    predicted by Marx.

    Marx
    Base determines the Superstructure
    Superstructure (politics, culture,
    philosophy etc)
    ------------------------------------------------- Base (economy, labor, capital)
    Class conflict
    Workers will revolt ; revolution will take
    place in most advanced capitalist societies

    Freudian concepts
    Childhood sexuality: as a way to try and explain how
    people develop into social beings.
    Oral stage, Anal stage, Phallic stage.
    The Oedipus Complex

    Model of the mind


    Id: The unconscious part of the psyche
    that is concerned with instinctive impulses.
    Ego: The part of the psyche which reacts
    to external reality and which a person
    thinks of as the self.
    Super-Ego: the part of the psyche that
    resembles the inner parent; this part
    responds to social rules.

    Why authoritarianism is the horizon of


    modernity?
    Because of the replacement of positive
    reason with instrumental reason
    Because of the dissolution of the ego
    ( The I) (human subjectivity)

    Capitalist societies
    The Frankfurt school considers that capitalist
    societies exploit nature and, necessarily, exploit
    the human being (as a condition to exploit
    nature).
    In short, instrumentalism does not have to take
    the form of brutal state repression. It can
    happen anywhere but its consequences are
    always the same: intensification of irrationality
    and exploitation, elimination of liberties,
    maintenance of inequalities etc

    Frankfurt school and American


    society
    According to Frankfurt school, Am. Society is
    authoritarian but this authoritarianism comes
    through channels and mechanisms that are
    appropriate to it : Culture Industry
    Essentially, media and mass culture constitute
    the privileged channels of North American
    societies

    American society: Authoritarian


    American society resembles Nazi and Fascist
    authoritarianism: a) by its excessive military
    spending that remind us of production for
    destruction; b) the use of classic propaganda
    techniques and the cult of personality; c)
    flashing the power of the State in the behavior of
    politicians; d) irrational violence and degradation
    of public debate; e) unexpected success of
    religious sects of extreme right; f) the fascination
    of media by authoritarian figures

    Mass media and mass culture


    Mass media inscribes its promise of
    happiness in the present and not in the
    future
    Utopia is already here and condemns
    us to consume what is and not what
    could be.
    Mass media is the product of an
    industry that produces in series and is
    not a refuge of the subjectivity.

    Mass media isolate us from each other and subject us to


    a standardized and centralized culture in a nonreciprocal context
    Tactics: suppression of context of production and
    reception, fascinate by superficial effects, make the
    social problems psychological ones.
    These strategies distract us from the real conditions
    The most omnipresent (universal) strategy of affirmation
    is narcissism
    Affirmative authoritarianism never stops from reminding
    us of the importance of appearance in order to make us
    aspire to the social type it proposes

    Critique of the Frankfurt school


    Lost sight of the specificity of Fascism
    Underestimated the power of personal reason
    Confuse different attitudes in front of media
    Transposition of German Nazism to the North American
    context tend to obscure the democratic traditions of
    America
    Belief that every contact with mass culture will lead to an
    immersion in the mass culture
    Ignores the fact that one can consume media in different
    ways
    .
    .

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