ABSTRACT
This chapter once again develops from the last chapter, taking up the question of what it means to be a self. The chapter traces how this notion underwent a radical change from antiquity to the modern period (and thereby the present, especially owing to developments in philosophy but also the broader world). With this historical summary in place, the chapter recounts how critical theory marries these philosophical developments to developments in psychoanalytic theory (Freud and beyond), thereby aiming to understand rational responses to the world as much as irrational ones. Through such a marriage, the Frankfurt School develops powerful ways for understanding how capitalism alters the very way in which humans experience their world, relate to it, and act in it. The chapter concludes by revealing how, once again, Frankfurt School critical theory remains divided on the best way to respond to how the modern capitalist world deforms how humans see and exist in their world (again, we are here at the question of maturity or autonomy). The chapter suggests that perhaps we may return to this question after a deeper investigation of modern society. Central figures and topics discussed are Adorno, Rousseau, Lowenthal, Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason , Hegel, Marx, subjectivity, Stoicism, normativity, German Idealism, human reason, Freud, psychoanalysis, Fromm, authoritarianism, history, narcissism, Horkheimer, Marcuse, and psychological development.
