Frankfurt School - the musical!: Shock Treatment and the Eros of online civilisation

Abstract

This paper explores philosophical themes present in the film Shock Treatment (1981), a musical comedy written by Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien. The film, which serves as a partial sequel to the better-known Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), was a critical and commercial failure at the time and has been largely overlooked subsequently. This paper offers a philosophical reconsideration of Shock Treatment. It argues that there are a number of themes developed within the film's narrative that correspond closely to the central concerns of the Frankfurt School, particularly those developed by Herbert Marcuse. It further argues that the film provides a way to explicate and critically reflect upon those themes in relation to contemporary online civilisation, with particular regard to the commodification and subversion of Eros within the capitalist system. As a result the film holds considerable potential as a teaching resource for courses on Frankfurt School critical theory.