Horkheimer called for a sociology of terror tracing how institutions strip individuals of rights

Evidence

Then Maus referred to Horkheimer, who had written to him that one of the most urgent tasks of German sociology was a `“sociology of terror”, beginning with the transition to child education … and so on up to the transformation of the adult into a mere member of designated associations, without whose protection he is unemployed and without rights’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1681

Categorization

• DEFINE: Horkheimer’s phrase ‘sociology of terror’ names a proposed research program — a definitional anchor for a Critical Theory concept.
• XREF: This ‘sociology of terror’ — from child education to the adult as a mere member of ‘designated associations’ without rights — connects to your earlier notes on how institutional systems determine who counts as protected, and to Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s account of authoritarian personality formation.
• FICTION: The arc from childhood education to ‘transformation of the adult into a mere member of designated associations’ is a chilling bildungsroman frame — a novel tracing one life along that axis.