The reception of psychoanalysis in the early critical theory: from the interdisciplinary materialism to the critique of instrumental reason

Author(s)

Paulo Yamawake

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2020-03-31

Examining board members

Marcos Nobre; Ernani Pinheiro Chaves; Felipe Gonçalves Silva; Adriano Márcio Januário

• Advisor: Inara Luisa Marin; Marcos Nobre

Abstract

The topic of this thesis is Max Horkheimer's understanding of modern subjectivity and, specifically, the subjectivation of domination between the 1930s and 1940s. I argue that Horkheimer builds a theory of subjectivity based on a peculiar theoretical encounter peculiar: Freud and Weber. It is a materialistic interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis and Weberian sociology of religion together that makes it possible for Horkheimer and the early Critical Theory to understand both the history and the diagnosis of modern subjectivity. Furthermore, I argue that this combination for the investigation of subjectivity is long-lasting in Horkheimer's work, in a way that resists even the changes of the critical models proposed by him. That is, for Horkheimer, Freud and Weber together provide the basis for understanding modern subjectivity both in the interdisciplinary materialism of the 1930s and in the model of the critique of instrumental reason of the 1940s (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 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)
• Grantee: Paulo Henrique Yamawake
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate