Presented by Daniel Burston, Ph.D.
Date: Wednesday, February 12th, 2025
Time: 5:00 pm PT / 6:00 pm MT / 7:00 pm CT / 8:00 p.m. ET
Webinar length is approx 90 min, ZOOM link will be sent a few days before the event
This presentation focuses on the first generation of Frankfurt School theorists, i.e. those whose lives and livelihoods, whose friends and families, were harmed or killed by the Nazis; Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and Leo Löwenthal. Though Fromm (1900-1980) was the only clinician among them, he inspired the Frankfurt School’s efforts to address the problem of authoritarianism psychoanalytically, and to fashion a methodologically rigorous and sophisticated psychoanalytic social psychology.
Though Fromm had little to say on this subject of antisemitism, when he left the Institute for Social Research in 1938, Horkheimer, Adorno and Löwenthal devoted considerable time and energy to studying the history and psychology of antisemitism, and were generally more supportive of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel than their erstwhile colleague. However, their exclusive focus on Right-wing antisemitism, while illuminating as far as it goes, does not address the issue of contemporary Left-wing antisemitism and its relationship with Islamist movements and regimes.
