Ideological theories require testing through combined subjective and objective research methods.

Evidence

Adorno’s example seemed to suggest that a possibly ideological theory must be tested using both subjective and objective forms of research. Asking supplementary questions in subjective research that was not content to accept superficial facts apparently confirming the ideological theory, and combining such information with facts derived from objective research, could produce a picture of social existence that went beyond the investigator’s own awareness, which corresponded to the dominant form of awareness. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 477

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Adorno’s methodological program: pairing subjective questioning with objective structural data to pierce the investigator’s own ideologically bounded awareness.
• XREF: Connects to the Institute’s earlier synthesis of Marx’s base-superstructure schema with Freudian psychoanalysis under Horkheimer and Fromm.