Adornos dreams: expression and exaggeration

• Grant number: 25/12495-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: March 01, 2026
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Vladimir Pinheiro Safatle
• Grantee: Julia Mancilha Carvalho Pedigone
• Supervisor: Eva Geulen
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Humboldt University, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/16690-0 - Dreams in Adorno: a study on the Traumprotokolle, BP.MS

Abstract

The aim of this research is to undertake an analysis of dreams in the work of Theodor Adorno. This entails a study of his posthumously published book, Traumprotokolle, with dream reports from the philosopher over the course of three decades. This reading will be carried out in light of a broader inquiry into the status of dreams within Adorno's work, with the intention of inferring the theoretical motivations that could have led the philosopher to publish this distorted version of a self-account. From the clarification of the importance of Freud and the experience of the unconscious as an important methodological framework for a number of Adorno's conceptual formulations, along with passagens in which he explicitly addresses dreams throughout his writings (specially Minima Moralia), we intend to proceed to an analysis of his oneiric reports. We seek to examine how the notions of expression and exaggeration constitute a significant means of inferring the theoretical value of Adorno's dreams, particularly with regard to the modes of deciphering these experiences as points of departure for social critique