Horkheimer maintained Marcuse’s loyalty by never breaking contact with him

Evidence

Marcuse’s devotion to Horkheimer, who in his opinion still represented the only chance of doing theoretical work, had continued. This made it easy for Horkheimer to treat Marcuse in such a way as to keep his former assistant’s hopes up and make him a well-disposed extension of the Institute. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1976

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the power-dynamics-in-institutions theme familiar from critical theory on patronage and dependency.