Reification

Eric-John Russell

Chapter 18 in Research Handbook on Critical Theory, 2026, pp 203-217 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: If, to follow Hegel, the truth of an age can be grasped in its concept, none other so starkly marks a society held together by the objective conditions of capitalist accumulation and its corresponding modes of subjective orientation than that of reification. This chapter will trace the concept of reification through a particular canonisation within the development of twentieth-century critical theory, placing central focus on its relation to commodity exchange, the rationalisation of mimesis, spectacle, and, finally, its pathological implications. As will be seen, the common ground for these themes as constitutive for a theory of reification will be the category of identification. The concept of reification will be explored through the thinking of Georg Lukács, Theodor W. Adorno, Guy Debord, and Joseph Gabel, respectively, each of whom helps advance reification as a more robust and historically specific diagnostic category for modern conditions of domination.

Keywords: Reification; Identification; Georg Lukács; Theodor W. Adorno; Guy Debord; Joseph Gabel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781800373754
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