Adorno used fetishism to mediate Marx and Freud into synthesis

Evidence

According to the film scholar Christoph Hesse, the essay ‘throws together, indeed remarkably, the Marxian concept of fetish and the Freudian one’, something which can be seen in its very title. Yet while Hesse’s claim may be true of the first version of ‘Fetish-Character’, it is only partially so of its republication. … In the original version of ‘Fetish-Character’ from 1938, there is a clear interplay - what Hesse offhandedly refers to as a ‘throw[ing] together’ - between the Marxian and Freudian concepts of fetishism. It is precisely fetishism, Adorno writes in a 1937 letter to Erich Fromm, which is supposed to serve as the mediating element for converting the relationship between Marxian theory and psychoanalysis from one of analogy to one of genuine synthesis: I am increasingly convinced that the actual coincidence of Marxist theory and psychoanalysis does not lie in analogies such as that between superstructure and base versus ego and id, etc. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 405

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that fetishism functions in Adorno’s project as a structural mediating concept—not mere analogy—between Marxian theory and psychoanalysis.
• XREF: Connects to the broader revisionist literature on Adorno’s engagement with psychoanalysis (e.g., his writings with Horkheimer) and to the Frankfurt School’s attempt to integrate Marx and Freud. — connects to: Adorno grounded his analysis of fascist propaganda in Freud’s group psychology. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 1578; Adorno demanded inverting Benjamin’s imagery so reality, not fantasy, undergoes fetishistic inversion — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 249; Adorno repurposed Marx’s commodity fetish concept toward art reception rather than production relations. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 433 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno’s notion of fetishism derived from popular speech, not from Marx or Freud #contradicts (0.95) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 413
• The early Adorno’s project of fetishizing pre-capitalist society contradicts Marxian theory #qualifies (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 411