Adorno reads reification as human self-domination through self-created compulsion

Evidence

Already from his reading of History and Class Consciousness, Adorno derives the idea of the Selbstbeherrschung of the modern individual, a term which can be translated into English as self-control or self-mastery, but also as selfdomination. … What is of central importance [in the case of the basic phenomenon of reification] is that … a man’s own activity, his own labour becomes something objective and independent of him, something that controls him by virtueof anautonomyalientoman. … In a margin next to this passage, Adorno notes that ‘man “dominates” himself. “Revolutionary” lack of restraint initially – albeit incorrectly – yields the commodity-character of one’s own productivity’. For Adorno, the submission of human beings to society’s so-called natural laws, that is, to a compulsion whichtheythemselveshavecreated,isthedecisiveelementinLukács’sanalysis of the all-encompassing process by which they are ‘turned into a commodity’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 88

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Adorno’s specific translation of Selbstbeherrschung as selfdomination — a core term in his Critical Theory.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s existing interest in Adorno and the critique of political economy; this is a direct textual evidence point for the revisionist reading. — connects to: Reification results from forgetting the pain nature inflicts under domination — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 804; For Adorno, conceptual identification itself constitutes domination over nature. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1264; Adorno held that productive forces raised living standards while perfecting dehumanization through reification — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 668 (+3 more)
• QUESTION: The annotation of ‘revolutionary lack of restraint’ being ‘incorrectly’ yielding commodity-character suggests a tension in Adorno’s early reception of Lukács worth tracing.

Broader Connections

• Self-domination destroys the very subject self-preservation aims to save #expands (0.88) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 62
• Adorno held that productive forces raised living standards while perfecting dehumanization through reification #expands (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 668
• For Adorno, conceptual identification itself constitutes domination over nature. #expands (0.82) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1264