The elective affinity between the works of Horkheimer and Fromm: a research on the studies on authority and family

• Grant number: 16/04814-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: May 24, 2016
• End date: May 23, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Severino Nobre
• Grantee: Paulo Henrique Yamawake
• Supervisor: Dirk Braunstein
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/11323-0 - The Reception of Psychoanalysis in the Formation of the Critical Theory: from the Interdisciplinary Materialism to the Critique of Instrumental Reason (1929-1947), BP.DR

Abstract

This project aims to understand how early Critical Theory has appropriated psychoanalysis concepts in the 1930's and how it was influenced the Studies on Authority and Family (1936). In order to do it, the research will try to understand how the Freudian drives theory has influenced the first generation of Critical Theory, specially Horkheimer and Fromm. We intend to study their works, trying to show how the theoretical trajectories of each author led both to an "elective affinity" in the early 1930's - resulting in the Studies on Authority and Family. We also intend to understand the origins of the break up of both in 1939 - after the collaboration, Horkheimer changed his theory to a critique of instrumental reason, and Fromm was linked with the psychoanalytical revisionism. Our hypothesis in this project is that the core of this "elective affinity" is a peculiar interpretation of Freudian drives theory. We believe that the drives theory could be an advantageous standpoint not only the main foundations of the Studies on Authority and Family, but also to understand the role psychoanalysis has in the early Critical Theory in the 1930's. In order to prove our hypothesis, we intend to discuss the published essays of Horkheimer and Fromm in the 1930's, their letters and another unpublished texts, seeking how both authors interpreted the Freudian concepts, especially the drives theory. (AU)