Adorno’s “Wicked Queen of Snow White”: Paranoia, Fascism, and the Fate of Modernity in Dialectic of Enlightenment

Abstract

This paper proposes a new reading of Dialectic of Enlightenment in terms of a detailed structural analogy with Freud’s conception of paranoia. Though many commentators have noted the prominence of the concepts of paranoia and pathic projection in Adorno, a rigorous analysis of the pivotal structural role that the logic of paranoia and paranoid projection play in Adorno’s theory is still lacking. However, such an analysis is essential for understanding the logical model that undergirds Adorno’s conception of the relation between modern rationality, the social world, and nature. Moreover, the absence of a detailed study of how the logic of paranoia structures not only Dialectic of Enlightenment, but Adorno’s social theory generally, has had significant repercussions for the interpretation and evaluation of Adorno’s philosophy, both in its content and its method. This paper makes the case for the centrality of the structural analogy with paranoia, taking as a focus its role in Dialectic of Enlightenment, and concludes with reflections on how this reading of Adorno’s social philosophy opens up a new perspective on the structure, consistency, and continued relevance of Adorno’s critical theory.

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