Reich & the Frankfurt School

[James Rovira]

Thinking about your ideas here in the light of your article, yes, I can 
see how easily annoyed you'd get about glib representations of Fromm's 
influence on the early development of the FS under Horkheimer.  It 
sounds like there are glib or surface representations of this issue even 
when professionalism should be expected.

Tightly argued piece...I appreciated it.  Thanks very much.  I don't 
have enough background to argue with the facts presented (just letting 
you know I can't help you with a critique in that area), but I liked the 
way you handled the facts presented.  I'm glad the corrections were 
helpful.  It's very easy to do while reading along.

Jim  

Neil McLaughlin wrote:

>Thanks Jim, for the corrections which will be helpful as I pull the piece
>together as part of a book.
>
>I did not mean to seem  snarky about suggestions people made on email
>list
>serve. Of course, people can only suggest things in a short email, and
>do not have the space to develop a full argument.
>It is simply that simplistic accounts of Fromm are common in the critical
>theory literature, and it gets annoying. I did nt mean my post in a
>critical way.
>I am sure many of the people on the list would respond with extended posts
>if someone wrote "Adorno was an elitist who knew nothing about society" or
>something of that nature.
>A critique of Adorno, say, is only useful if developed, with examples.
>Same with Fromm.
> I found Wiggerhaus very useful, but undeveloped in terms of his account
>of the role of psychoanalysis in critical theory.
>But then it was a historical work, more than anything.
>
>
>Neil G. McLaughlin     			KTH-620
>Associate Professor			McMaster University
>Department of Sociology			Hamilton, Ontario
>E-mail: nmclaugh@mcmaster.ca		L8S 4M4
>Phone (905) 525-9140 Ext. 23611		Canada
>
>On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, James Rovira wrote:
>
>  
>
>>A couple of brief corrections:
>>
>>First,
>>
>>    
>>
>>>      Yet unlike the Frankfurt School, Freudians institutes have
>>>      relatively formal structures and are generally not run for life
>>>      by one individual
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I think you mean "Freudian" institututes rather than "Freudians."
>>
>>    
>>
>>>      Theodor Adorno clearly played a major role in the internal
>>>      conflict within the Institute. Wiggershaus points out, for
>>>      example, that Adorno was fond on referring to Fromm as a
>>>      professional Jew (Wiggershaus, 1994: 266).
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I think you meant to write, "fond of."
>>
>>In this sentence:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>      Horkheimer and Adornos neglect in fully crediting Fromm for his
>>>      part in developing the F-scale could be seen somewhat generously
>>>      as what the literary critic Harold Bloom once call the anxiety
>>>      of influence.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I think you meant to say, "once called" rather than "once call."
>>
>>In this sentence, I think there's an extra word:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>      since many scholars who came to intellectual maturity during the
>>>      1960s and 1970s were influenced by the one side-sided criticisms
>>>      made of Fromm by Frankfurt School
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Should it be "one-sided" rather than "one-side sided."
>>
>>It's interesting you provide these quotations from Adorno:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>    is sentimental and wrong to begin with, being a mixture of social
>>>    democracy and anarchism, and above all shows a severe lack of the
>>>    concept of dialectics.
>>>      
>>>
>>    
>>
>>>          For Adorno, the revisionists give an oversimplified account
>>>          of the interaction of the mutually alienated institutions id
>>>          and ego, posit a direct connection between the
>>>          institutional sphere and social experience and are guilty
>>>          of superficial historicism (Adorno, 1968: 79; 89).
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>given your previous comments. It seems that the suggestions offered
>>earlier had at least some validity in Adorno's case.
>>
>>Overall you present a very convincing and fairly nuanced desciption of
>>Fromm's break with Horkheimer and the FS. I appreciate having read it.
>>It's everything I would expect from a 20 page or so professionally
>>written article but not, of course, what I expect from a three line post
>>to a listserve.
>>
>>Thanks again,
>>
>>Jim
>>
>>
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>>    
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