Any idea can be neutralized by biographical and psychological reduction

Evidence

What David Friedrich Strauss, who could write about Jesus as if he were Emil Ludwig even though he was wounded by Nietzsche’s attacks, what he undertook on his own account today is performed irresistibly from above without any risk whatsoever. There is no longer a single idea which cannot be neutralized by recourse to the fate or psychology of its author so that the latest doctor can bask in the claim that his hysterical wife resembles Queen Elizabeth I of England and his jealous colleagues resemble those of Paul Ehrlich. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 117

Categorization

• SHARE: The idea that appealing to an author’s fate or psychology can neutralize any idea, illustrated with the absurd example of a doctor whose hysterical wife ‘resembles Queen Elizabeth I’, is a striking instance worth relaying to someone working on critical theory or the sociology of biography.