Critical theory aimed to be both rational and to break the spell of reification.

Evidence

But the theory' remained the catchword of the Frankfurt School’. Despite their differences, after the Second World War Horkheimer, Adorno and Marcuse shared the conviction that, in the tradition of Marx’s critique of the fetish character of capitalist social reproduction, the theory had to be both rational and, at the same time, had to offer the right word, the word which would break the spell under which everythinghuman beings, objects, and the relation between themlay. … The promise was neither fulfilled nor betrayedit was kept alive. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 20

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Frankfurt School’s core self-conception of ‘theory’: rational Marxism combined with the redemptive ‘right word’ that breaks the spell of reified social relations.
• XREF: Connects to commodity fetishism as treated in Capital and to the broader Critical Theory reading strand.