Adorno defended empirical methods by citing depth-psychological techniques against superficiality.
Evidence
Adorno clearly was making such mistakes. His effort to defend empirical social research as a duty towards the serious programme of critical social research concentrated exclusively on two points. He emphasized that empirical social research was more than a sophisticated questionnaire technique, that it had `long since developed its own methods, not least under the influence of depth psychology, which it can use to resist superficiality’: indirect questioning, tests, detailed in-depth interviews, group discussion proceduresthese were all methods which the Institute of Social Research had used with pride, and was still using. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1941
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the Institute’s earlier methodological pride in qualitative techniques, echoing the broader Frankfurt School history of borrowing Freudian depth interpretation. — connects to: Adorno prized psychoanalysis as a weapon against instinct metaphysics. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 329; Methodological experience softened Adorno’s early hostility to American empirical techniques — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 671; Adorno grounded his analysis of fascist propaganda in Freud’s group psychology. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 1578 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Methodological experience softened Adorno’s early hostility to American empirical techniques
#expands(0.82) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 671 - Adorno rejected empirical research criticism despite its validity
#contradicts(0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1012 - Adorno grounded his analysis of fascist propaganda in Freud’s group psychology.
#expands(0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 1578