ABSTRACT

In the 1930s, as the spreading of fascism cast a shadow over Europe, the particular socio-political conditions in Germany occupied the centre of the Frankfurt School’s analytical focus. Fascism as a perverse emotional attitude originates from the suppression of the individual, which seems to be unhesitatingly equated with repression. Critical Theory, as a methodological strategy, involved critical reappraisal of traditional philosophical theories and values, as well as adoption of radical dialectics that amalgamated philosophy with social sciences, in the service of nurturing a critical cogito as a guide to action. Another essential bastion for the ratiocination of the precepts of Critical Theory was the interlacing of Freud’s psychoanalytic speculation with Marxian dialectics. The Freudo-Marxist view of perversion as a condition arising from repression erroneously equates the latter with suppression. The Frankfurt School’s Marxist interpretation of the Freudian doctrine presaged the current confluence of psychoanalysis with social theory and cultural criticism.