From Damaged Life: The Critical Theory of Theodor W. Adorno

'Life does not live.'

This certainty – that the conditions governing existence in contemporary societies generate irretrievably damaged lives – lies at the heart of Theodor W. Adorno's critical theory. Emerging from the historical experience of fascism, Auschwitz, and the consolidation of advanced capitalism, Adorno's thought articulates critique from within a damaged reality.

Under the coercion of overwhelming social powers, individual character is constituted as a “system of scars”. This no...