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The American Journal of Psychoanalysis

, Volume 79, Issue 4, pp 601–624 | Cite as

The “Authoritarian Personality” Reconsidered: the Phantom of “Left Fascism”*

  • Samir GandeshaEmail author
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Abstract

This article explores the question of “Left fascism,” which emerged in relation to discussions around the Student Movement in the German Federal Republic in the crucial decade between 1967–1977. The term was originally coined by Jürgen Habermas in a lecture entitled “The Phantom Revolution and its Children” in which he suggests that the extreme voluntarism of the students could not but be characterized as “Left fascist.” Such a characterization becomes the basis for a vitally important exchange of letters between Herbert Marcuse and Theodor W. Adorno from January to August of 1969 on the relation between theory and praxis. After first sketching Adorno’s conception of the “authoritarian personality,” with the help of Sándor Ferenczi’s concept of the “identification with the aggressor,” the article proceeds to examine the exchange of the letters between Adorno and Marcuse, illustrating Adorno’s changed orientation: that “fascism” or “authoritarianism” maybe either left or right. Finally, some conclusions are drawn about the authoritarian tendencies of the contemporary Left.

Keywords

authoritarian personality identification with the aggressor West German Student Movement Adorno Marcuse Ferenczi 
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Notes

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© Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of HumanitiesSimon Fraser UniversityBurnabyCanada

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