Adorno's analysis of fascism: "The Authoritarian Personality"
With these words directs Ludwig von Friedeburg his preface to Adorno's The Authoritarian Personality on". The present study that in the 1940s the influence of fascism in exile in the United States began and examined anti-democratic tendencies in the U.S. documented Adorno's contribution to this study. Fascism as a phenomenon, the assumption is essentially a middle-class mass movement. The study was of that potential in the U.S. population to locate, connect the crisis in the same or similar movements would.
[3]
Anti-Semitism, Adorno, had deeper reasons than just the appearance of the Jews and the social situation of the anti-Semites. The determinants of anti-Semitism is initially looking at those people, which they say, but more important was the question of why some people these comments accepted so readily and would not others. Oriented cited at the input hypothesis put it, "(1) that anti-Semitism is probably not specific or isolated phenomenon but part of a broader ideological system, and (2) the susceptibility of the individual for such ideologies in the first instance of psychological needs depends. " comments [4]
precisely these hidden tendencies, in which lie the anti-democratic tendencies, they had to try to get access. What people say or what they do not say is in turn dependent on the intellectual climate in which they live. A change in the intellectual Adapt to a climate more quickly than the others. This means that people differ in their susceptibility to anti-democratic propaganda. A change in the intellectual climate that would have the possibility to comment on the willingness of anti-democratic tendencies open to increase. It should not be concluded that an open expression of anti-democratic ideas that individuals would be willing to act.
The open verbal expression are just as open as the action depends more on the socio-economic and political situation instantaneous. The individuals in turn differ in the actual Willingness to be open to provoke action. So it was exploring for the investigation also of importance, this potential, since the results would provide comment on the overall ideology of an individual. [6]
The investigation had to try to penetrate the various psychological structures, which together constitute the overall ideology of an individual. These structures provide insight into the behaviors of individuals. That is, they give an answer to the question of why they act in certain situations just so and not otherwise.
The education of the parents in turn depends on their social class. By this is not to understand only the religious and ethnic affiliation, but also the economic conditions under which a family has to live. Therefore, if a change in the character structure of the social conditions significantly influenced or changed.
The character structure can therefore never be considered in isolation isolated from society, rather it is part of the social whole. The development of a character structure is required for the response to the environment. Only then can the individual to react to its environment. His attitude towards the changing ideological trends is explained by the analysis of character structure. The character structure is not intended as a static system, once developed, are not changed, but it must be seen as flexible, which enables the individual to return well into old habits.
The nature of the character structure is therefore a crucial factor for the susceptibility of anti-democratic propaganda. This leads Adorno to the question under what conditions increase the propaganda and should be in the media become a dominant factor, so that what was previously only potential would now manifest active. An answer to this question lies not in the specific nature of the character structure of individuals or in the psychological Factors of the masses, rather it lies in the processes of society. The social processes must in turn be such that they act permanently on the character structure of individuals. [7]
The study looked not to the sites of production of propaganda, but she turned her focus to the consumers of propaganda. The analysis was not limited to the psychological factors of individuals alone, but had to analyze their objective situation and the position in the society. People would rather accept those policy programs to their commercial interests are relevant. Fascism can not, however, the economic situation of all meet his followers, for, as Adorno, only a few can enrich themselves by fascism.
The working method
To the ideological trends and the character structure, required a study of a methodological framework. The total character structure presented so far is a major concern when, according to the study, consists of individual structures. The study had Develop and apply techniques to the one surface opinions attitudes, and values, to observe and, second, to expose ideological trends. These individual and group studies were conducted. Interviews with individuals and clinical tests were examined. Clinical tests have been performed so in order to reveal hidden fears, desires, and defenses, while method was used in groups with questionnaires. Depending on whether the individual or the group stood at the center of an investigation, the investigation has shifted even shaving point.
"If the individual was the focus was there, his thought patterns, attitudes and values to describe in detail to them to recognize the underlying dynamic factors and to design appropriate questions on this basis for use in groups. When the group was at the center, it was important to find out go together what opinions, attitudes and values in general and which factors in the development history and the present situation of the subjects were usually associated with the
The group studies should serve as the basis for the selection of individuals for intensive studies in this group. potentially anti-democratic individuals but had to be to then examine more thoroughly than those identified for the first time. This have been developed specific questionnaires should be filled out anonymously by groups of people. The subjects were asked about past and present life circumstances. Furthermore, the questionnaires were provided with some anti-democratic statements, which should answer the person with the approval or rejection. For these people they chose the ones that agreed with most of the statements and they rejected the most, as were those to locate neutral. Subsequently, these selected individuals for interviews and other clinical Tests carried out so that the questionnaire is revised as a result of these findings and the procedure had to be repeated. The interviews were used on one side of the control of the questionnaire, ie it should be noted that the result of interviews with the results of the questionnaire is identical and on the other hand, these clinical tests, "insight into the behind the anti-democratic ideologies psychological factors "give [10].
The questionnaire method
The questionnaire consisted of three parts: first
third acted projective questions
projective questions are not unique issues to respond to the just would be. Rather, the subjects were asked to answer such questions interpretive, so would result in a maximum of possible variations of the responses. The answers are therefore on an emotional level. The responses were interpreted as an expression of values and conflicts. One meaning in the responses was found when a relationship between these responses and the other details of the person could be produced.
The clinical trials
After the selection had been made for the intensive studies, the clinical techniques were performed. The clinical trials consisted of the interview and the so-called "Thematic Apperception Tests."
During these tests were presented to the person more dramatic images. The tested person was asked to talk to any of these images an action. The interpretation of the images contributed by the people the possibility to the hidden desires, fears and conflicts, and be disclosed in response to these images, the defense mechanisms of people, so that - in relation to the interview - Specific character variables could be found. [13] After the method has been shown is, in the following, the question of the construction and function of the F-scale.
The F-scale
for the construction of the F-scale were the results of the earlier tests and the resulting provisional scales, like the Anti-Semitism and ethnocentrism scale of great importance. The ethnocentrism scale, they found that "various biased responses, a general disposition to glorify, to are submissive and uncritical attitude towards authority of ingroup and criminal addiction to nationals of other groups on behalf of any moral authority based had, so that authoritarianism, the size of a variable assumed (...) "[14]
It was of crucial importance figure out how a hidden trend would express in the character structure in the opinions and attitudes of the people. Thus arose variable traits that could be covered by the F-scale. The variables are based on the interpretation of the constructed interrogative sentences that answer the person . The anti-Semite had For example, despised the Jews because they do not follow the conventional morality laws. From this, the rigid binding was interpreted to conventional values, which would represent a character disposition. Anti-Semitism would therefore agree in this character disposition. The inclination to punish the arrest of conventional values for excessive control of the transgressors of moral law and the resulting need be, characteristic and form a variable in the individual, which could be covered by the F-scale. In this way, created 9 variables, which made the F-scale.
The F-scale, it was possible the potentially anti-democratic to measure character. [15] It remains to be clarified at this point, consists of variables which the F-scale and what distinguishes them. This will be imfolgenden section, each with a sample statement briefly.
The variables of the F-scale
b) Authoritarian submission:
c) Authoritarian aggression.
e) Superstition and stereotypy:
This variable believes the individual to mystical or fantastic phenomena that govern its fate. Again, the individual thinks in rigid categories that lead to stereotyping, which leads back to the study on a limited intelligence. As for the other external variables leaves the individual responsibility Powers. It is not in a position to decide its own destiny. "Everyone should have full faith in a supernatural power whose decisions he does not question." [20]
The individual with this variable attempts by the display of his strength, the severity of it to cover the required demand. The individual who manifests these traits, suffers from a power complex. It thinks in terms of dichotomies with which it categorizes human relations as strong and weak, superior and inferior, etc., which he sometimes also identified. This scheme transfers the individual to the relationship ingroup - outgroup. This gives it a feeling of superiority that is expressed in "higher quality" and "inferior" race. Despite the absolute will to power, it is afraid to take it or to exercise, but admires the power of others, is willing to bow to the power of others and fears that weakness in one. It is hoped by the power of subjects to be able to participate in her. "People can be divided into two classes: the weak and the strong." [21]
g) destructiveness and cynicism:
h) projectivity:
Again, the individual tends to draw his repressed aggression in foreign groups. It projects to indict. The individual believes that others cherish evil against him, but it entertains even aggressive impulses that are channeled through projection. "Most people do not realize to what Extent our lives through secret conspiracies of the politician is determined "[23]
i) sexuality..
chastise Behind this, however, the general need to punish, which the study attributes to the identification of authority of the individual group, but on the other hand, close to the displacement of one's sexual inclinations can be. "homosexuals are nothing but degenerate creatures and should be severely punished." [24]
These variables It was now possible to measure prejudice. The question still remains whether the F-scale is a reliable instrument to assess the susceptibility to fascism, which is grounded in the character structure. [25]
The new interview material
"Are you against personal contacts with individual Jews, consider presenting the Jews as more nuisance than threat or more Could you marry a Jew (a Jew) to? [Sic]? Is it agreeable to you to discuss the Jewish problem? What would you do if you were a Jew? "Can a Jew ever to be a real American?" [28]
through the detailed questions it was possible to be more understanding of prejudice and its related psychological conflict experience. Safely adopted many of the allegations against individuals the Jews, unless they themselves put forward these allegations needed and accepted them as established fact.
Anti-Semitism therefore determined by their own psychological drives and needs and the individual, thereby allowing to navigate in the world he would otherwise remain closed. The attempt to find, antidote to the threat of the fascist mentality [32], the study leads to the construction of psychological types or syndromes. This will in the next section of my work are discussed.
The typology
first People should be divided is still characterized by ideal types or by groups that can be added to mixture. These types can be justified only in so far, if they have any type of designation under a series of moves and dispositions could.
second The report describes the typing of man as a social function. That is, one type is more rigid, the more it has been shaped by the society.
were also the types or syndromes be organized so that they reflect the results of empirical studies. The constructed in the F-scale variables taken together form a unity, a syndrome, so that the potentially fascist character is "in itself a 'structural unit
The potentially fascist character as a product of the intellectual climate of his environment, interacts to his mental reactions to this climate is to understand. The views, ideas, ideas and perspectives of the potentially fascist character, does not arise of itself, rather it go to his membership of a cultural group back. [36]
It remains to discuss, what the syndromes of prejudiced and unprejudiced. This will be shown in the following. <>
The syndrome of the prejudiced
a) Oberflächenressentiment:
Here we assume are people that stereotypes such as ready formulas from the outside. In this way they rationalize their own difficulties and overcome these psychological or practical. By thinking in stereotypes, are the subjects able to justify their prejudices. Make others for their own Failure of responsibility and are happy when they get through discrimination against minorities an economic advantage.
- b) The "conventional" syndrome:
< bildet." [35] Daher sind auch die einzelnen Syndrome nicht als isolierte der Variablen zu verstehen, vielmehr bilden sie ein Bezugssystem des potentiell faschistischen Charakters. Mit anderen Worten, die Einheit der Variablen bildet das Bezugssystem der einzelnen Syndrome. Die Unterschiede der Syndrome sind dadurch zu erklären, dass die einzelnen Variablen unterschiedlich im potentiell faschistischen Charakter auftreten, die jedoch miteinander dynamisch als Übergänge verbunden sind.
c) an "authoritarian" syndrome: This syndrome is characterized
people who can accomplish the social adjustment only if they find pleasure in obedience and oppression. "(...) The sadomasochistic drive structure is thus both condition and result of social adjustment. "[37] suffer the people of this syndrome at an Oedipus complex. The satisfaction is accomplished in the implementation of the traits. That is, the love of the mother is taboo, while the hatred to the father is transformed into love. This transformation of hatred into love takes place, but never completely. The earlier aggression is only partially offset, a residue of sadism remains, however. The Characters in Search of a valve and related them to the people with whom they can identify the least, that is in foreign groups. foreign groups take the place of the hated father. Simultaneously with the identification of an authoritarian power, a rejection is for everything associated with her standing. The position where the social conditions are to blame for emergencies, the situation is reversed and converted into a well-deserved punishment of those in need through the person of this syndrome. To give yourself to submit to an authoritarian discipline, the identification is indispensable to his family and all his own group for him.
d) The Flame and the Psychopath:
The social and political behavior of individuals determined, this is true for the other syndromes, whether an individual is unabgängig or whether it is the dependence by a negative transfer has replaced. an the rebels expressed negative transference in that it's going against those pseudo-revolutionary, appear to him as weak.
The psychopath is the extreme of the rebels dar. Unlike the rebels, the psychopath's Oedipus complex is replaced by the decline in its omnipotence, which are created in his childhood. Their mental development is completely failed and the company also was able to shape not it. Destructive tendencies come from these people openly revealed. Your desire to torture directed against helpless victims. The individual of this syndrome is a religious fanatic and breaks through the prevailing norms and laws.
e) The Spinner:
has this syndrome, the frustration of an important function. This syndrome is found in people who have not been able to adapt to their environment. They are characterized by sacrifice and refusal, they are in their infancy and present have been imposed by the outside world, marked. Thus they were driven into the insulation. They live in a pseudo reality, a world of illusion, which they construct by the prejudice that they oppose the reality and adjust their aggressiveness against them. By pride, they are able to exist and thus reject the outside world. In addition, these persons are projective and suspicious. By thinking in stereotypical they experience social reinforcement. "This syndrome is on women and old men to be found, as the isolation of the exclusion is exacerbated by the economic production process." [39] By bringing together close to sects, support that person against another's pseudo-reality.
f) The manipulative type:
the manipulative type, the study as the most dangerous syndrome dar. These people think in extreme stereotypes. "(...) Rigid terms for purposes rather than means, and the whole world is divided into empty, schematic, administrative fields. "[40] During the" spinner "in a designed by him-believe world, lives occurs at the manipulative type the opposite. These people live in a compulsive over realism. You look at everything as objects that they manage to own theoretical and practical templates to capture and manipulate try. Their organizing principle is based on internal and external group. The study Himmler is an example of this syndrome dar. The people of this syndrome all through the eyes of an organizer and prefer the totalitarian solution. [41] In order to compare to the syndromes of unbiased ensure these should be discussed in the following sketch.
The syndrome of the unbiased
contrast to the prejudiced will be driven out with prejudice outside the father's authority and their deputies by a kind of collective social image.<> <>
a) The rigid
b) The protesters
Even with this syndrome is the solution to a specific Oedipus complex, which leaves lasting mark on the people. On the one hand, they again put the father's authority, on the other hand, they have internalized his father's authority. Business, not only against the father as a role model, but against all authority. Your conscience is autonomous and independent of external laws, so that these people are guided by their conscience. For moral reasons, they protest against any form of social oppression and against the more extreme version of racial discrimination. Because they often feel guilty that they harbor the wish that the injustice that the minority has been done to make amends. Although these people have a strong belief, they are still hampered to act. The extreme internalization of guilt, they believe that all are guilty.
c) The Impulsive
This syndrome is found in fully adapted individuals. They sympathize with what appears to them as oppression. The distinction between internal and external group with them becomes irrelevant. All that is "different", put on these people. Should prevail in these persons destructive moments, so they make these moments not against others, but they turn against themselves.
d) The Informal
characteristic of the people, this syndrome have is that they feel they let things take their course and reject violence against their environment. They are free of stereotypical thinking. The "Informal" feels an aversion to meet, decisions, the positevely influence their language. On the often broken sentences could be ascertained. When issues they would rather leave their opponents the verdict. Their politics are not radical. They believe in a truly human society to live without repression.
e) The genuine liberals
The people of this syndrome have a strong sense of autonomy and independence. They do not mix in the personal beliefs of others, and do not want someone from outside interference in their beliefs. Courage is characteristic of such persons. If wrong, they can not remain silent, even if it places them in danger. You do not think in genres, but they can see the other as individuals and are even strong individualists. [42]
criticism of "The Authoritarian Personality"
the psychological fascism explain is problematic in that the psychology itself is a purely theoretical discipline that mE is based solely on assumptions. As an early analysis, which began even before the end of World War II and completed only after the second world war, ie before Hannah Arendt famously attributed totalitarianism analysis, "The Origins of Totalitarianism", which in 1951 first published in New York and in the German 1955 the German translation was available to readers, it must study a pattern of interpretation of the test are recognized. due to the inner fascism character structure of individuals - -
The pattern of interpretation is problematic assumed as fact is that with a consideration of the supposed character structure would be offered the opportunity to find effective means against fascism. How are these funds look like first, the study does not answer. If the study but assumes that was an authoritarian character structure of individuals, the cause of the sensitivity of anti-democratic propaganda, so the only effective means against fascism education would itself but determines who is on the whatever-looking "good education"? So there must be an institution be established to monitor the education. Institutionalization implies but also a rule about people. Adorno himself says in his 1965 essay published in "society" that governments - and are otherwise institutions! -Would become independent and be directed against the Managed. [43]
The claim that the fascist movement was so successful, because the trailer had an authoritarian personality structure, is plausible on the one hand, on the other hand, it can not be that the German people suffered from a mass psychosis . The questionnaires and the interviews are to be assessed critically in so far as the examinees were explicitly influenced by their responses. Moreover, it has also taken into account that the Interviews in place for the examinee and unfamiliar environments have been observed by the researchers. This results in a Nervositätspotential that had to affect the structuring of the answers necessarily. To say
that the F-scale is a reliable instrument for measuring an anti-democratic potential, in my opinion is reversed into the opposite is true. For what it ultimately shows is that some people are biased and not others, but that applies to all people. But from this it can be concluded that the biased people are more susceptible to anti-democratic propaganda than unbiased, is an undetectable thesis. For in concrete practical situations, these people behave differently. Although the study criticized the typology, because it is flexible and changes trains in classifying static, but the syndromes which are derived from the F-scale in the same dilemma caught. That is, the syndromes classified as individuals as well as the developed typology.
bibliography
Adorno, Theodor W., The Authoritarian Personality, Frankfurt / M. 1995th The same:. Sociological writings I, in: idem, Collected Works in 20 vols, ed. Tiedemann, Rolf, composed by Adorno, Gretel and others, vol.8 the complete edition, Darmstadt 1998th [1] Adorno, Theodor W., The Authoritarian Personality, Frankfurt / M. 1995 S.IX. [2] Ibid., SX
[3] Ibid., P. 2
[5] Ibid., P. 5 [6] Ibid., P. 6
[7] Ibid., P. 7 f. [8] Ibid., P. 8 ff
[15] Ibid., P. 44 ff
[17] Ibid., P. 72
[18] Ibid., P. 72 [19] Ibid., P. 73
[20] Ibid., P. 73
[21] Ibid., P. 74
[22] Ibid., P. 74
[24] Ibid., P. 75
[25] Ibid., P. 40 passim
[26] Ibid., P. 101 f.
[28] Ibid., P. 106
[29] Ibid., P. 107
[30] Ibid., P. 107f. [31] Ibid., P. 108 [32] Ibid., P. 308
[33] Ibid., P. 310
[34] Ibid., P. 309 f.
[35] Ibid., P. 312
[36] Ibid., P. 303 passim.
[37] Ibid., P. 323
[38] Ibid., P. 328
[39] Ibid., P. 332
[40] Ibid., P. 334
[41] Ibid., P. 314 passim.
[42] Ibid., P. 339 passim.
[43] See Adorno, Theodor W.: Society, in: Collected Works in 20 vols sociological writings I, Vol 8, ed. v. Rolf Tiedemann in collaboration with Gretel Adorno, among others, Darmstadt 1998, p. 17
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