The individual’s psyche recapitulates the structure of a racket

Evidence

By tracing the absolutely particular interests of each individual, the nature of the collective in a false society can be most accurately studied, and it is by no means far-fetched to consider the organization of divergent drives under the primacy of an ego answering the reality principle as, from the first, an internalized robber band with leader, followers, ceremonies, oaths of allegiance, betrayals, conflicts of interests, intrigues and all its other appurtenances. … The more someone has espoused the cause of his own aggression, the more perfectly he represents the repressive principle of society. In this sense more than in any other, perhaps, the proposition is true that the most individual is the most general. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 40

Categorization

• QUESTION: Adorno’s internalized robber band is an unsettling inversion — the Freudian ego as gang leader. Worth chasing how this maps onto his later account of the administered subject.
• XREF: Connects to Freud’s superego-formation in Civilization and its Discontents, and forward to Adorno’s own thesis in The Authoritarian Personality about the totalitarian ego. — connects to: Neurotic structure erupts from environment and the individual’s personal reactions combined.; Horkheimer’s racket theory saw survival as compulsory team membership

Broader Connections

• Neurotic structure erupts from environment and the individual’s personal reactions combined. #expands (0.78)