Abstract
This chapter combines the insights of Sigmund Freud and Theodor W. Adorno to explain some of the psychoanalytic mechanisms that contributed to a scenario where people voted for a leader who undermines their very existence. Trump successfully exploited feelings of failure of the millions of Americans who have not been able to live up to the liberal capitalist ideology of success. By replacing their ego ideal with that of their leader, Trump voters could get rid of the frustration and discontent that are generated by such an ideology. The people “fell in love” with Trump, because he provided them with the illusion that they “can become great again”. Moreover, by lifting moral restrictions to being openly classist, racist and sexist, Trump generated a permanent festival where the American people can feel themselves as being better than classed, raced and gendered Others, and thus satisfied with themselves again.
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Notes
- 1.
Theodor W. Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” in The Culture Industry, ed. Jay Bernstein (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), 150–151.
- 2.
Logos 16, no. 1–2 (2017): http://logosjournal.com/.
- 3.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 134.
- 4.
The Mitscherlichs were critical and psychoanalytic theorists who revived psychoanalytic thought for social theory in Germany after World War II.
- 5.
I use Trumpism as shorthand for the rise of Trump.
- 6.
I will refer to “psychological mass” in short just as “mass”.
- 7.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,”135.
- 8.
Sigmund Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, trans. James Strachey (London and New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989a), 29.
- 9.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 29–30.
- 10.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 136–137.
- 11.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 41.
- 12.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 79.
- 13.
However, the ego is not as coherent and stable as we would like it to be, because the unconscious portion exposes the ego “to constant shocks”, and in dreams and neuroses this portion asks “for admission at the gates, guarded though they are by resistances” (Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 80).
- 14.
Whereas Freud uses in his earlier work the notion of the ego-ideal, in his later work , where the idea of the super-ego predominates, the ego-ideal somewhat disappears or is part of the super-ego. However, it is of no coincidence that the core text which elaborates the psychology of the masses—Group Psychology and the Ego—draws on this term, and that psychoanalytic thinkers of the early Frankfurt school kind (such as Adorno and the Mitscherlichs ) chiefly refer to this term when elaborating the rise of fascism .
- 15.
See Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich , The Inability to Mourn: Principles of Collective Behavior, trans. B. R. Placzek (New York: Grove Press, 1975), 22–23. To be fair to Adorno , he points out that it is impossible to discuss the very subtle theoretical differentiation in Freud’s psychoanalysis , particularly between identification and introjection , and that he contents himself with a few observations on the relevancy of the doctrine of identification to fascist propaganda (Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 139).
- 16.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 46.
- 17.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 48.
- 18.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 57. For a vivid example of introjection see: http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/02/18/donald-trump-supporter-gene-huber-intv-nr.cnn.
- 19.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 52. Examples include not using the office for personal enrichment while in office , respecting separation of powers, and all which goes under the header of “acting presidentially.” I would like to thank Marc Sable for this insight.
- 20.
13–14% of the population lives in poverty in the US (43.1 million people); see https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-states. One of the central reasons for Trump’s appeal is the absence of a rigorous critique on capitalism on the left in the United States, which has largely arranged itself with free market capitalism. Trump’s “critique” on capitalism, however skewed, helped him earn the vote of the working -classes.
- 21.
I would like to thank Amy Allen for pointing at this puzzle.
- 22.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 79.
- 23.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 141.
- 24.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 141.
- 25.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 142.
- 26.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 56.
- 27.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 140–141.
- 28.
See Andrew Restuccia, Nancy Cook, “Trump’s conservative dream team” Politico.com, 11/30/16
- 29.
Mitscherlich , The Inability to Mourn: Principles of Collective Behavior, 60.
- 30.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 56.
- 31.
- 32.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 57.
- 33.
That such policies were readily accepted is the result of the long history of suppressed racist and sexist currents in the U.S. politics—a suppression that has been lifted by Trump. See my section on the “Trump Festival” for further elaboration.
- 34.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 58.
- 35.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 58–59.
- 36.
Mitscherlich , The Inability to Mourn: Principles of Collective Behavior, 27–28.
- 37.
Trump often implicitly signals racism , but tries to explicitly deny it at the same time. For a full explanation of how this works see: Robin Dale Jacobson, New Nativism Proposition 187 and Immigration Debate. U. of Minnesota Press, 2008.
- 38.
Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo: Some Points of Agreement between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics, trans. James Strachey (London and New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989b), 76.
- 39.
[1989b] Freud , Totem and Taboo: Some Points of Agreement between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics, 62.
- 40.
Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno , Dialectic of Enlightenment , trans. John Cumming (New York: Continuum Press, 2002), 172.
- 41.
Horkheimer and Adorno , Dialectic of Enlightenment , 174/1.
- 42.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 67.
- 43.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 47.
- 44.
Mitscherlich , The Inability to Mourn: Principles of Collective Behavior, 58.
- 45.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 81.
- 46.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 81.
- 47.
- 48.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 52.
- 49.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 81.
- 50.
That also women and racial and sexual minorities voted for Trump despite the lifting of such prohibitions can perhaps be explained that they have internalized such hatred in themselves.
- 51.
Mitscherlich , The Inability to Mourn: Principles of Collective Behavior, 58.
- 52.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 81.
- 53.
Freud , Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 9.
- 54.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 149–150.
- 55.
Adorno , “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” 153.
- 56.
Trump’s wanting to do away with Obamacare, as an example, helped some Trump followers to wake up.
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Leeb, C. (2018). A Festival for Frustrated Egos: The Rise of Trump from an Early Frankfurt School Critical Theory Perspective. In: Sable, M., Torres, A. (eds) Trump and Political Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74427-8_16
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