Abstract
Donald Trump’s election victory in November 2016 provoked considerable consternation among analytically oriented clinicians, but surprisingly little reflection the role which authoritarian character traits played in galvanizing his base. This chapter reviews the history of “the authoritarian personality” from its inception in Berlin and Frankfurt circa 1927 to the present day, noting significant theoretical differences between Wilhelm Reich and Erich Fromm, between each of them and Theodor Adorno, and the ways their respective approaches to this subject shaped the development of the two research traditions—one psychometric, the other clinically oriented—that currently apply this idea to contemporary social realities. Topics include Freud’s “group psychology,” the theory of the sadomasochistic character, the similarities and differences between Right- and Left-wing authoritarianism, and the relationships between authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism, and authoritarianism and corruption.
Note: Portions of this chapter have been reproduced from Psychotherapy and Politics International, “‘It can’t happen here’: Trump, authoritarianism and American politics.” Psychother Politics Int. 2017; e1399. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppi.1399
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This is not to say that Reich’s influence in the United States was negligible. On the contrary! His Marxist writings were rediscovered and widely celebrated among Left wing scholars in the 1960s, and his later ideas about somatic therapies and “orgone energy,” and so on had a deep impact on popular (non-psychoanalytic) approaches to psychotherapy that once flourished here, including bioenergetics and Gestalt Therapy. For a scholarly and sympathetic appraisal of Reich’s American phase and its impact on the counterculture, see Jeffrey Kripal’s lively and illuminating book, Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
- 2.
The usefulness of the distinction between orthodoxy and fundamentalism as different modes of piety registers quite clearly in a delightful article by Janet Afary and Robert Friedland, titled “Critical Theory, Authoritarianism, and the politics of lipstick from the Weimar Republic to the Contemporary Middle East.” Critical Research on Religion, 6, 3 pp. 243–268, (2018).
- 3.
A recent article titled “Finding the Loch Ness Monster: Left-Wing Authoritarianism in the United States” (Conway et al. 2017) documents a study done at the University of Montana. For purposes of this study, the authors developed a questionnaire to measure Left wing authoritarianism (LWA) equipped with metrics for traits like prejudice and dogmatism, and another to assess “attitude strength.” The new questionnaire—a slightly modified version of Altmeyer’s questionnaire for RWA—was administered to 475 undergraduates. The results suggest that—in Montana, at least—LWA is as prevalent among students who identify as “Liberal” as RWA is among students who identify as conservative. This, in turn, prompted the authors to reflect that Altemeyer failed to find any Left-wing authoritarians in the North American milieu because he (inadvertently?) confounded conservative ideology with authoritarianism per se. Put differently then, if we could not find the Loch Ness monster, perhaps it was because it was hiding in plain sight all along.
- 4.
In a recent book entitled (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump, Jonathan Weisman, deputy Washington editor for The New York Times argues that Left-wing antisemitism is far less dangerous to American Jewry than Right-wing antisemitism is—for now. Sadly, the same cannot be said of Left-wing antisemitism in Europe, which poses a deep and growing threat (Kotkin 2019; Lappin 2019). Meanwhile, the fact that Right and Left-wing antisemitism share and perpetuate many of the same lurid stereotypes and misconceptions about Jews on both sides of the Atlantic should not be ignored, lest America soon follow the European example.
References
Adorno, T. (1951). Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda. In S. Freud (Ed.), Paul Roazen. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1973.
Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D., & Sanford, N. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper & Bros.
Afary, J., & Friedland, R. (2018). Critical Theory, Authoritarianism, and the Politics of Lipstick from the Weimar Republic to the Contemporary Middle East. Critical Research on Religion, 6(3), 243–268.
Altemeyer, R. (1996). The Authoritarian Specter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Benjamin, J. (1988). The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and the Problem of Domination. New York: Pantheon Books.
Brunner, J. (1994). Looking into the Hearts of the Workers, or: How Erich Fromm Turned Critical Theory into Empirical Research. Political Psychology, 15(4), 631–654.
Burston, D. (1991). The Legacy of Erich Fromm. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Burston, D., & Frie, R. (2006). Psychotherapy as a Human Science. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
Chancer, L. (1992). Sado-masochism in Everyday Life: The Dynamics of Power and Powerlessness. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Christie, R., & Jahoda, M. (Eds.). (1954). Studies in the Scope and Method of “The Authoritarian Personality”. Glencoe: The Free Press.
Conway, L. G., Houk, S. C., Gornick, L. J., & Repke, M. R. (2017). Finding the Loch Ness Monster: Left Wing Authoritarianism in the United States. Political Psychology. Advance publication online. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12470.
Dick, P. K. (2011). The Man in the High Castle. Boston: Mariner Books.
Freud, S. (1905). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. In E. Jones (Ed. & Trans.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 7, pp. 123–245). London: Hogarth Press, 1966.
Freud, S. (1921). Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. In S.E (Vol. 18). London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1924). The Economic Problem in Masochism. In S.E (Vol. 19, pp. 155–170). London: Hogarth Press.
Fromm, E. (1941). Escape from Freedom. New York: Farrar & Rinehart.
Fromm, E. (1950). Psychoanalysis and Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Fromm, E. (1984). The Working Class in Weimar Germany: A Psychological and Sociological Study (W. Bonss, Ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Harrari, Y. N. (2018). 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. New York: Spiegel and Grau.
Hedges, C. (2009). Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. New York: Nation Books.
Hellman, J., Jones, G., & Kaufman, D. (2000). “Seize the State, Seize the Day”: State Capture, Corruption and Influence in Transition. World Bank Institute, Office of the Chief Economist. September.
Jay, M. (1973). The Dialectical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press.
Kotkin, J. (2019, June 26). Judenrein Europe. Tablet.
Krafft-Ebing, R. (1903). Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study (trans: Rebman, F.J.). New York: Rebman Company. (Original Work Published 1886).
Lappin, S. (2019). The Re-Emergence of the Jewish Question. Fathom: For a Deeper Understanding of Israel and the Region, May. http://fathomjournal.org/the-re-emergence-of-the-jewish-question/
Lewis, S. (1935). It Can’t Happen Here. New York: Doubleday.
Linfield, S. (2019). The Lion’s Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
London, J. (1909). Martin Eden. London: Macmillan.
MacWilliams, M. (2016, January 17). The One Weird Trait the Predicts Whether You are a Trump Supporter. Politico Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533
McAdams, D. P. (2016, June 15). The Mind of Donald Trump. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-mind-of-donald-trump/480771/
Memmi, A. (1957). Portrait of a Jew. New York: Viking Press, 1971.
Milligan, D. (2019). What Does Hamas Want? Zionism: Of the Cuff Essays 2008–2018, pp. 95–100. www.donmilligan.net
Montero, D. (2018). Kickback: Exposing the Global Corporate Network of Corruption. New York: Viking.
Morelock, J. (2018). Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism. London: University of Westminster Press.
Reich, W. (1929). The Use of Dialectical Materialism in Historical Research, Reprinted in Reich, W. 1972. In L. Baxandall (Ed.), Sex-Pol Essays 1929–1934. New York: Vintage Books (Random House).
Reich, W. (1933). The Mass Psychology of Fascism (trans: Carfagno, V.), Reprinted 1976. New York: Pocket Books.
Reich, W. (1975). Reich Speaks of Freud. London: Pelican Books.
Reich, W. (1976). People in Trouble. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Roth, P. (2004). The Plot Against America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Sartre, J. P. (1949). Anti-Semite and Jew. New York: Schocken Books.
Sartre, J.-P. (1956). Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology (trans: Barnes, H.). New York: Routledge. (Original Work Published, 1943).
Singer, T. (2016). Donald Trump and the American Selfie. In S. Buser & I. Cruz (Eds.), A Clear and Present Danger: Narcissism in the Era of Donald Trump. Ashville: Chiron Publications.
Weisman, J. (2018). (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Whitebook, J. (1995). Perversion and Utopia: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Critical Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Žižek, S. (2011). Living in the End Times. London: Verso.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Burston, D. (2020). Trump, Authoritarianism, and the End of American Democracy. In: Psychoanalysis, Politics and the Postmodern University. Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34921-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34921-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-34920-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-34921-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)