Critical Theory arose from Marxism’s failure to explain workers’ passivity

Evidence

Here the Institut was uniquely equipped to make an important contribution. Well before the forced emigration, it had turned its attention to problems of authority. Critical Theory was developed partly in response to the failure of traditional Marxism to explain the reluctance of the proletariat to fulfill its historical role. One of the primary reasons for Horkheimer’s early interest in psychoanalysis had been the help it might give in accounting for the psychological “cement” of society. Accordingly, when he assumed the reins of the Institut in 1930, one of the first tasks he announced was an empirical study of the mentality of workers in the Weimar Republic. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 389

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘psychological cement’ of society connects to Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and to the general problem of why subordinate classes consent to their own domination — a through-line from Marx to the Frankfurt School to contemporary ideology critique. — connects to: Social theory stopped being critical and negative by the late nineteenth century; The proletariat’s integration forced critical theory into transcendent critique — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 190; Changed historical conditions forced critical theory from immanent to transcendent critique — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 190 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Marxist currents widely subordinated theory to practice’s needs #complicates (0.75)
• Western Marxism failed as a total theory of liberation #expands (0.72)