This paper discusses the theoretical foundations linked to certain psychic dispositions that underlie the contemporary mass phenomena, from the relationship established between the short story "The Dwarves" and the anti-smoking advertisements, enabled by images showing the process of withering and decomposition of the smoker, from which we call "horror propaganda". The theoretical approach is based on the work of Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Sigmund Freud. It is assumed that to the analysis of the messages subtext and the tale, the thesis on the history underground history of clarification aimed to the domination of the body and nature, besides the "return of the repressed," sheds light on matters under investigation.
Critical theory; psychoanalysis; domination of the body