Zwangsanalyse: An Essay on Adorno and the Compulsion of the Dialectic

Zwangsanalyse: An Essay on Adorno and the Compulsion of the Dialectic is a philosophical account of German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno's major Freudian psychoanalysis. The task is twofold: on the one hand, to present a critical philosophical introduction on Adorno's extensive engagement with psychoanalytic thought, and on the other hand, to restitute the philosophical core of this engagement in the heart of his late philosophical treatise, Negative Dialectics. The guiding method throughout this essay is elaborated via Negative Dialectics as the master framework for productively disclosing the philosophical consummation of Adorno's longtime passion for psychoanalysis. The rich constellation of psychoanalytic theses within this framework radicalizes the philosophical implications of the greater psychoanalytic field of inquiry in Adorno's critical oeuvre, which the genealogical dimension of this exposition traces. The strong claim animating Zwangsanalyse is to unfold the fundamental philosophical question that Adorno poses at the outset of Negative Dialectics, namely the possibility of philosophy, vis-à-vis the possibility of psychoanalysis. The goal is thus not only to offer a philosophical account of a major philosopher's interdisciplinary incorporation of psychoanalytic concepts, but more fundamental, to restitute the primacy of orthodox Freudian psychoanalysis for Adornoian philosophy as a whole.