CONTRIBUTI / 4 / Luca Micaloni
Character, habit and schematism. The role of psychology in Max Horkheimer’s political and social thought
In this paper I analyze the development of Max Horkheimer’s viewpoint on the connection between psychology and critical social theory through the 1930s writings. Firstly, I argue that the role of psychology cannot be reduced to a mere application of psychological categories to social and political phenomena, and that psychology has, instead, a structural function in the definition of Critical theory as a theory of the «psychic mediations» of social reproduction. Secondly, I maintain that while psychoanalysis (and the notion of «character» in particular) remains Horkheimer’s main psychological reference, the explanation of the harmony between systemic functional requirements and individual behaviour involves non-psychoanalytic psychological concepts, such as «habit» and «schematism», that allude to deeper and unfathomable operations of the mind. Thirdly, I emphasize that Horkheimer’s insight into authoritarianism is way more focused on the non-personal, objective authority of the given social order (and on the spontaneous trust of social agents in that order), rather than on the personal authority of political leaders.
