Adorno was emotionally fixated on Horkheimer and jealous of other circle members.

Evidence

Adorno also fitted perfectly into the psychological structure of the Horkheimer circle. He was fixated on Horkheimer and jealous of all the others. Again and again, he went into raptures about our real, common theoretical task, namely dialectical logic', as he put it in a letter to Horkheimer of 22 February 1935, and he dreamed of writing the book somewhere in the south of France, alone with Horkheimer. He assured Horkheimer: if I had been in your position, and you in mine, I should not have hesitated to throw anyone out at all if it meant being certain of you … Naturally, I am referring here in particular to the position of Marcuse.’ But for him Marcuse was only the weakest link; he equally disliked Lowenthal, Fromm and Pollock. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 644

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to understanding the interpersonal dynamics behind the Institute’s theoretical output, a thread running through the whole book. — connects to: Adorno’s attraction to exclusive coteries steered him toward Horkheimer’s circle. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 144