Fetichismo, regressão e mal-estar: uma interlocução entre Adorno e Freud sobre o estado da cultura

Abstract

The early twentieth century Europe, marked mainly by the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the rise of totalitarian regimes, was ground for valuable reflections on the paths and misdirections of civilization. Using the thoughts of Freud and Adorno concerning the historical period of the 1930's, I attempt to rescue their relevant contributions regarding the discussion on the state of culture. In Civilization and its discontents, published in 1930, Freud highlights the repressive role of civilization over man‟s impulses of love and aggression, going beyond its protection purposes against the harsh conditions of nature and against man‟s own moods, and then representing a double barrier to human happiness. In On the fetish-character in music and the regression of listening (1938), Adorno denounces the social regression experienced in his time and, consequently, the subjective impoverishment resulting from the growing process of commodification of art, in which music, fetishized, becomes consumed by regressive listeners due to its exchange value, rather than to its use value. Using the concepts of fetishism, regression and discontent as mediating elements, I try to show an objective meeting between Freud's reflections and Adorno's essay.