Horkheimer’s new psychology explained why class tensions stay latent

Evidence

The form of psychology he proposed would investigate how psychic mechanisms are created by means of which it is possible for tensions between social classes to remain latent, when they would otherwise develop into open conflict because of economic conditions'. … However, he did not turn to the investigation of the real reasons why differentiated state and social systems have superseded less developed ones’. Instead, his interest was focused on progress and rationality in the theoretical field. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 487

Horkheimer, in his Remarks on Science and the Crisis', demanded that the boundaries set for science by its class limitations’ should be demonstrated and ultimately broken through, in order to give free course to the rational elements immanent in science'. It was necessary, for this purpose, to grasp the crisis of science through a clarification of the life-process of society as a whole and through the correct theory of the present social situation’. But the fettering of science, which was socially conditioned, could only be overcome by altering its real conditions in historical praxis'. The fact that scholars were waiting in vain for this alteration, during a period in which humanity was richer in the means of production and in highly qualified workers than it had ever been before, pointed to the need for a new psychology, as Horkheimer stated in his second contribution to the journal's first issue, History and Psychology’. The form of psychology he proposed would investigate `how psychic mechanisms are created by means of which it is possible for tensions between social classes to remain latent, when they would otherwise develop into open conflict because of economic conditions’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 487

The fact that scholars were waiting in vain for this alteration, during a period in which humanity was richer in the means of production and in highly qualified workers than it had ever been before, pointed to the need for a new psychology, as Horkheimer stated in his second contribution to the journal’s first issue, History and Psychology'. The form of psychology he proposed would investigate how psychic mechanisms are created by means of which it is possible for tensions between social classes to remain latent, when they would otherwise develop into open conflict because of economic conditions’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 139

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the research program of the interdisciplinary social psychology Horkheimer proposed for the journal.
• XREF: Directly foreshadows the Institute’s later Studies in Authority and the Family and the Authoritarian Personality project. — connects to: Economic class boundaries do not align with psychological character structures — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 565; Psychology-socialism debates shaped Horkheimer’s turn to Freudian theory — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 317; Authoritarian traits may cohere as class norms rather than psychic dynamics (+1 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 487; Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 139

Broader Connections

• Economic class boundaries do not align with psychological character structures #expands (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 565
• Psychology-socialism debates shaped Horkheimer’s turn to Freudian theory #expands (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 317
• Authoritarian traits may cohere as class norms rather than psychic dynamics #expands (0.75)
• Authoritarian society collapse widens psychic-structure differences between classes #complicates (0.70) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 551