Frankfurt School and Psychoanalysis

The aim of this book is to identify how the categories of individual and society are related and theorised in Freud’s work, as well as to reflect on these elements from the perspective of the Critical Theory of Society proposed by the first generation of the Frankfurt School. To this end, three representative works of Freudian thought on the relationship between the individual and society were selected and analysed in accordance with the contributions of Adorno and Marcuse. The study indicates that culture mediates the relationship between individual and society for Freud, however, the author defends cultural processes to the detriment of the freedom and autonomy of individuals. At the same time, Freud’s works suggest that the contradictions of culture end up becoming subjectivity in individuals. Adorno and Marcuse realise that the Freudian model points to the liberal individual and seek to reinterpret psychoanalysis, each in their own way, in the light of the transformations of capitalism and the new social and cultural configurations.