Internal power politics shaped Adorno’s early relations with the Institute

Evidence

In his reply, Adorno once again embraced both Horkheimer and the common cause without any reservations. It was Tillich, he claimed, who had undoubtedly been the person responsible for misunderstandings which had taken place after March 1933. The reasons for his impression that there was a policy of secretiveness towards him at the Institute before March 1933 were clearly not Horkheimer’s fault but his friend Pollock’s. Pollock had a psychological tendency towards secretiveness, and Lowenthal had used this tendency of Pollock’s against him, Adorno, in the manner of power politics. … He said that writing a review of Pareto might perhaps be a way of making Korsch useful'. He gave a warning against Borkenau. He offered a contribution of his own on some matters of principle’ to do with the complex questions of psychoanalysis (‘I might have reservations here about a false, external division of labour’), and would begin with Reich, because Reich, unlike Fromm, maintained that individual psychology could not be smoothly transferred to social theory. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 639

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Adorno’s taste for exclusive coteries drew him to the Institut’s inner circle — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 144; Adorno’s core concepts originate from Benjamin but his political economy developed against him — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 294; Adorno’s resentment-driven aggressiveness was deliberately cultivated as an intellectual asset — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 657 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno’s taste for exclusive coteries drew him to the Institut’s inner circle #corroborates (0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 144
• Adorno’s core concepts originate from Benjamin but his political economy developed against him #corroborates (0.82) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 294
• Adorno co-authored key Horkheimer essays on state capitalism #corroborates (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 563
• Adorno’s resentment-driven aggressiveness was deliberately cultivated as an intellectual asset #corroborates (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 657