Historical approximation of Critical Theory to the element of sublimation

Abstract

In this work we will address the historical approximation of the first generation of Critical Theory – mainly Adorno, alongside Horkheimer and Marcuse – to the conceptual element of sublimation. We will see how the historical context of the beginning of the 20th century provided the connection of Freudian psychoanalysis to Marxism and how some precursors already visualized the potential of the concept of sublimation as social criticism (1). Then, as the relationship between the first generation of Critical Theory and psychoanalysis was not only, in the first half of the 20th century, one of interaction in a common context of discussion, but it was also institutional, we will understand how sublimation is operationalized in sociocultural criticism of Frankfurt School theorists (2).