A Critical Theory of Anti-Semitism

Strosberg contends that Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s negative dialectical and psychoanalytic project, Dialectic of Enlightenment, continues to offer an ethical way of thinking about anti-Semitism and proteophobia. Their critical psychoanalytic theory, what the author refers to as negative psychology, provides a way to think through and potentially resist anti-Semitism. Strosberg charts the journey of thought through Dialectic of Enlightenment, highlighting crucial concepts such as mimesis, false projection, negativity, and ticket mentality, modeling a mode of thinking that counters the oppressive directives of proteophobic motivations, which seek to eliminate conflict, contradiction, ambivalence, and the unassimilable. The chapter concludes with a brief analysis of the enduring relevance (and potential misuses) of this critical psychoanalytic approach—born from the study of anti-Semitism—for politics, education, and psychotherapy.