Love, Actually? Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, and the Possibility of Love in Capitalist Modernity

Abstract

Love is not regularly associated with the Frankfurt School. Theodor Adorno and Erich Fromm are not regularly associated with each other. Yet, when we bring these Critical Theorists’ works together, a rich discussion of love emerges. Love is viewed by both as a dialectical force, bringing two subjects into union while also allowing them to cultivate their individual selves. Fromm and Adorno operate within the same Marxist philosophical tradition, meaning that they share concerns about the increasing commodification of love and the disappearance of genuine, spontaneous relationships between people. The similarities are not endless, however, and important differences between them remain: Fromm, with his optimism and his concern for existential issues, maintains a belief in revolutionary political change and high spiritual ideals that the materialist pessimist Adorno resists as comfortable illusions. Through this philosophical encounter, two faces of Critical Theory emerge, one oriented toward an analysis of the present and the other turned toward hopes for the future.