It was called Little May and O'June and had come to her once when she had her
children
on a picnic.
Adorno-T-Authoritarian-Personality-Harper-Bros-1950
"
The subject's concept of God is plainly identical with such an externalized superego or, to use Freud's original term, with the "ego ideal," with all the traits of a strong, but "helpful" father:
"\Veil, when it comes down to the fundamentals, everybody has an idea of some sort: may not call Him God, but an ideal that they live up to and strive to be like. . . . Heathens or anybody else has some sort of religion, but it is something that they put their faith in that can do things for them-can help them. "
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
The genetic relation between the "Authoritarian" syndrome and the sado- masochistic resolution of the Oedipus complex is borne out by some state- ments of the subject about his own childhood:
"Well, my father was a very strict man. He wasn't religious, but strict in raising the youngsters. His word was law, and whenever he was disobeyed, there was punishment. When I was 12, my father beat me practically every day for getting into the tool chest in the back yard and not putting everything away . . . finally he explained that those things cost money, and I must learn to put it back. " . . .
(Subject explains that his carelessness led to a beating every day, as promised by the father, and finally after several weeks, he simply quit using the tools altogether, because "I just couldn't get 'em all back") . . . "But, you know, I never hold that against my father-! had it coming. He laid the law down, and if I broke it, there was punishment, but never in uncontrolled anger. My father was a good man-no doubt about that. Always interested in boys' activities.
"My father was a great fraternal man; was out practically every night. Took an active pan always on committees-a good mixer, everybody liked him . . . a good provider. We always had everything we needed, but no unnecessary luxuries . . . no whims provided for. . . . Father felt they were luxuries that probably-felt they were unnecessary. . . . Yes, rather austere. . . . (Which parent closest to? ) I think my father. Although he beat the life out of me, I could talk to him about anything. " . . . (Subject emphasizes that his father always gave everyone, includ- ing himself, a square deal. )
The subject has been "broken" by the father: he has been overadjusted. It is exactly this aspect which bears the main emphasis in his anti-Semitism. He who admires brute force blames the Jews for their recklessness in practical matters.
"The Jews seem to be taking advantage of the present-day situation, I think. Now, they want to-they're bringing these Jews in from Europe, and they seem to click together, somehow, and they seem to be able to corner capital. They're a peculiar people-no conscience about anything except money. " (Subject apparently meant, here, no conscience about money, although maybe about other things. ) "If you stand in the way of their making money, they'll brush you aside. "
Rigidity of the image of the Jew, visible already in the "Conventional" syn- drome, tends to become absolute and highly vindictive:
"To me a Jew is just like a foreigner in the same class as-say, oh, I was gonna say a Filipino. You would be pointed out . . . they observe all these different religious days that's completely foreign to me-and they stick to it-they don't completely Americanize. . . . (What if there were less prejudice against them? ) I don't know-1 can't help but feel that a Jew is meant to be just the way he is-no change possible-a sort of instinct that will never lose-stay Jewish right straight through. (What ought to be done? ) They have the ability to get control-now, how we're gonna stop 'em . . . pro"bably have to pass some regulation prohibiting them. "
Again the idea of authority is the focal point: the Jews appear dangerous to him as usurpers of "control. "
One last feature of the "Authoritarian" syndrome should be mentioned. It
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
is the psychological equivalent of the "no-pity-for-the-poor" ideology dis- cussed in Chapter XVII. The identification of the "authoritarian" character with strength is concomitant with rejection of everything that is "down. " Even where social conditions have to be recognized as the reason for the depressed situation of a group, a twist is applied in order to transform this ? situation into some kind of well-deserved punishment. This is accompanied by moralistic invectives indicative of strict repression of several desires:
He went on to emphasize that you should segregate Negroes and whites, that by all means give equal opportunities and everything instead of "evading the prob- lem" as he called it. He refers to high prevalence of venereal disease among Negroes, which he blames on their low morals and, under further questioning by the inter- viewer, he finally attributes it to "congested conditions of living" and tries very hard to explain what he means. This leads to a lack of modesty and respect for privacy-everybody's thrown together-"lose the distance that is supposed to be between people," etc. , etc.
The emphasis on "distance," the fear of "close physical contacts" may be interpreted as corroborative of our thesis that, for this syndrome, the ingroup- outgroup dichotomy absorbs large quantities of psychological energy. Iden- tification with the familial structure and ultimately with the whole ingroup becomes, to this . kind of individual, one of the main mechanisms by which they can impose authoritarian discipline upon themselves and avoid "breaking away"-a temptation nourished continuously by their underlying ambiv- alence.
4. THE REBEL AND THE PSYCHOP A TH
The resolution of the Oedipus complex characteristic of the "Authoritarian" syndrome is not the only one that makes for a "high" character structure. Instead of identification with parental authority, "insurrection" may take place. This, of course, may in certain cases liquidate the sadomasochistic tendencies. However, insurrection may also occur in such a way that the authoritarian character structure is not basically affected (56). 3 Thus, the hated paternal authority may be abolished only to be replaced by another one-a process facilitated by the "externalized" superego structure concomi- tant with the over-all picture of the high scorer. Or masochistic transference to authority may be kept down on the unconscious level while resistance takes place on the manifest level. This may lead to an irrational and blind hatred of all authority, with strong destructive connotations, accompanied by a secret readiness to "capitulate" and to join hands with the "hated" strong. It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish such an attitude from a truly non- authoritarian one and it may be well-nigh impossible to achieve such a dif- ferentiation on a purely psychological level: here as much as anywhere else it is the sociopolitical behavior that counts, determining whether a person is
3 Cf. also in this connection Erikson, E. H. , Hitler's Imagery and German Youth (25).
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
truly independent or merely replaces his dependency by negative trans- ference.
The latter case, when it is combined with an urge to take pseudorevolu- tionary actions against those whom the individual ultimately deems to be weak, is that of the "Rebel. " This syndrome played a large role in Nazi Germany: the late Captain Roehm, who called himself a "Hochverriiter" in his autobiography, is a perfect example. Here we expect to find the "Condot- tiere" which was included in the typology drafted by the Institute of Social Research in 1939, and described as follows:
This type has arisen with the increased insecurity of post-war existence. He is convinced that what matters is not life but chance. He is nihilistic, not out of a "drive for destruction" but because he is indifferent to individual existence. One of the reservoirs out of which this type arises is the modern unemployed. He differs from former unemployed in that his contact with the sphere of production is sporadic, if any. Individuals belonging to this category can no longer expect to be regularly absorbed by the labor process. From their youth they have been ready to act wherever they could grab something. They are inclined to hate the Jew partly because of his cautiousness and physical inefficacy, partly because, being them- selves unemployed, they are economically uprooted, unusually susceptible to any propaganda, and ready to follow any leader. The other reservoir, at the opposite pole of society, is the group belonging to the dangerous professions, colonial ad- venturers, racing motorists, airplane aces. They are the born leaders of the former group. Their ideal, actually an heroic one, is all the more sensitive to the "destruc- tive," critical intellect of the Jews because they themselves are not quite convinced of their ideal in the depths of their hearts, but have developed it as a rationalization of their dangerous way of living (57, p. 135).
Symptomatically, this syndrome is characterized, above all, by a penchant for "tolerated excesses" of all kinds, from heavy drinking and overt homo- sexuality under the cloak of enthusiasm for "youth" to proneness to acts of violence in the sense of "Putsch. " Subjects of this type do not have as much rigidity as do those who exhibit the orthodox "Authoritarian" syn- drome.
The extreme representative of this syndrome is the "Tough Guy," in psy- chiatric terminology the "Psychopath. " Here, the superego seems to have been completely crippled through the outcome of the Oedipus conflict, by means of a retrogression to the omnipotence fantasy of very early in- fancy. These individuals are the most "infantile" of all: they have thor- oughly failed to "develop," have not been moulded at all by civilization. They are "asocial. " Destructive urges come to the fore in an overt, non- rationalized way. Bodily strength and toughness-also in the sense of being able to "take it"-are decisive. The borderline between them and the criminal is fluid. Their indulgence in persecution is crudely sadistic, directed against any helpless victim; it is unspecific and hardly colored by "prejudice. " Here go the hoodlums and rowdies, plug-uglies, torturers, and all those who do the "dirty work" of a fascist movement. ?
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
Robert M. Lindner's extensive case study, Rebel Without a Cause (74), offers a description and dynamic interpretation of the "Tough Guy" which establish the affinity of this type to the "Rebel" as well as to the "Authori- tarian" character. According to Lindner:
The psychopath is not only a criminal; he is the embryonic Storm-Trooper; he is the disinherited, betrayed antagonist whose aggressions can be mobilized on the instant at which the properly-aimed and frustration-evoking formula is communi- cated by that leader under whose tinseled aegis license becomes law, secret and primitive desires become virtuous ambitions readily attained, and compulsive behavior formerly deemed punishable becomes the order of the day.
The psychopath is described as a "rebel, a religious disobeyer of prevailing . codes and standards" whose main characteristic is that he cannot wait, "can- not delay the pleasures of gratification"-an inability suggesting that, together with the failure to build up a superego, the formation of the ego has been crippled, in spite of the bridled "egotism" of such persons. As to the maso- chistic component, the following passage from Lindner may be quoted:
That the psychopath is burdened with guilt and literally seeks punishment has been observed by the author in countless cases. The clue to this strange situation lies, as one would suspect, in the Oedipus situation. Deprived of an avenue to satis- factory post-Oedipal adjustment and continuously beset by the consequent incest and parricidal fantasies, the mergent guilt can be assuaged only through expiation.
"I have sinned against my father and I must be punished" is the unverbalized theme
of psychopathic conduct: and for this reason they very often commit crimes free from acquisitional motives, marry prostitutes or, in the case of women, apportion their charms occupationally in an attempt at self-castigation. That such activities constitute a species of "neurotic gain" is also to be considered. The fact of punish- ment sought, received and accepted does not complete the tale: there is in addition
a narcissistic "yield" which derives directly from the punitive act and mediates the , original need. This is naturally on a subliminal level of apprehension, unreportable directly but always noticeable.
Examples of the rebel-psychopath are to be found in our San Quentin sample. We think mainly of the psychopath, Floyd, our M658, and the , "Tough Guy," Eugene, our M662A, dealt with extensively in Chapter XXI.
If the traits under consideration here do not appear so vividly there, it should be borne in mind that the guiding interest of the San Quentin study was , defined by our over-all variables rather than by psychological subgroups among the high and low scorers. Moreover, it has to be kept in mind that the prison situation works as a heavy check on the expression of the decisive traits of the psychopath who, after all, is not a psychotic and behaves, in a certain sense, quite "realistically. " In addition, his completely living "for the moment," his lack of ego identity enables him to adapt himself successfully
to a given situation: when talking to an interviewer, he is likely not to display directly the attitudes indicative of his "toughness. " Rather, the latter have
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
to be inferred indirectly, particularly from certain speaking habits, such as the frequency of references to bodily violence. It is with an eye to such indices that the statements of those two San Quentin interviewees should be read. Neither the widespread existence of the "Tough Guy" syndrome, par- ticularly in marginal spheres of society, nor its importance for some of the most sinister aspects of the fascist potential can be doubted.
5. THE CRANK
In so far as the introjection of paternal discipline in the "Authoritarian" syn-
drome means continuous repression of the id, this syndrome can be charac- terized by frustration in the widest sense of the term. However, there seems to be a pattern in which frustration plays a much more specific role. This pattern is found in those people who did not succeed in adjusting themselves to the world, in accepting the "reality principle"-who failed, as it were, to strike a balance between renunciations and gratifications, and whose whole inner life is determined by the denials imposed upon them from outside, not only during childhood but also during their adult life. These people are driven into isolation. They have to build up a spurious inner world, often approaching delusion, emphatically set against outer reality. They can exist only by self-aggrandizement, coupled with violent rejection of the external world. Their "soul" becomes their dearest possession. At the same time, they are highly projective and suspicious. An affinity to psychosis cannot be over- looked: they are "paranoid. " To them, prejudice is all-important: it is a means to escape acute mental diseases by collectivization, and by building up a pseudoreality against which their aggressiveness can be directed without any overt violation of the "reality principle. " Stereotypy is decisive: it works as a kind of social corroboration of their projective formulae, and is therefore institutionalized to a degree often approaching religious beliefs. The pattern is found in women and old men whose isolation is socially reinforced by their virtual exclusion from the economic process of production. Here belong organized war mothers, bam-an'-eggers, and regular followers of agitators even in periods when racist propaganda is at a low ebb. The often-abused term "lunatic fringe" has a certain validity with regard to them: their com- pulsiveness has reached the stage of fanaticism. In order to confirm to each other their pseudoreality, they are likely to form sects, often with some panacea of "nature," which corresponds to their projective notion of the Jew as eternally bad and spoiling the purity of the natural. Ideas of conspir- acy play a large role: they do not hesitate to attribute to the Jews a quest for world domination, and they are likely to swear by the Elders of Zion. A significant social trait is semi-erudition, a magical belief in science which makes them the ideal followers of racial theory. They can hardly be expected
above a certain educational level, but also rarely among workers. F124
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
is a woman over 50 years of age, tall, heavily built, with sharp features, prominent gray-blue eyes, a pointed nose, thin lips, straight mouth line. She had a bearing which was meant to be impressive.
This "impressiveness" actually implies a pathological sense of inner superi- ority, as if she belonged to a secret order, at the same time being surrounded by people whose names she does not want to mention, since otherwise she might divulge too vulgar or dangerous implications:
She doesn't care for her fellow-workers. Some have all the degrees but no common sense. She wouldn't like to mention names, but she'd like to tell me what goes on. Some just spend their time gossiping together. She doesn't believe she could do more than just speak to her fellow-workers. Very scornful of them, feels superior and aloof. . . . They don't know her at all-no indeed-implies she's a very special somebody and could reveal her gifts to them but doesn't.
Her interest in internal and as far as possible external status is strongly colored by an overemphasis on "connections," which suggests "ideas of reference":
She has been a "governess" in the home of President X's family . . . and in President Y's son's family-first the older son, then the younger. Talked to Mrs. Y on the phone when she was in the White House at the time of the birth of the third child. And her sister worked for S. who later was governor of a southwestern state.
As to her spurious "inner world," semi-erudition, and pseudointellectuality, the following account is highly characteristic:
She reads a great deal-"good" books-went through the schools in her Texas home town about equal to seventh grade now. She also draws and writes and was learning to play an instrument. One picture she drew here at school but never showed it to anyone. It was of two mountains and the sun in between shining on the valley in which the mist was rising. This just "came" to her, too, though she had never had any training. It was really beautiful. She writes stories, too. When she was left a widow, instead of chasing after men like some women, she wrote stories. One was a fantasy for Mary Pickford. It would have been just right for her to play in, but of course, she'd never shown it to anyone.
It was called Little May and O'June and had come to her once when she had her children on a picnic. A love fantasy about Little May (the girl) and O'June (the boy). Her daughter was very gifted, too. An artist . . . who drew Texas Blue Bonnets-"the state flower, you k n o w . " - - saw her daughter's work and said, "Y ou've got a real genius there. " He wanted to give the daughter lessons, but she refused, saying, "No, Mother, he would just spoil my style; I know how to draw what I want to draw. "
With regard to race questions, her hatred shows the paranoid tendency to- wards stopping nowhere-in principle she would be willing to stigmatize every group she can lay her hands on and only reluctantly confines herself to her favorite foes.
She thinks the "Japs, Jews, and Niggers should go back where they came from. " . . . "Of course, then the Italians should go back where they belong in Italy, but- well, the three main ones who don't belong here are the Japs, Jews, and Niggers. "
,
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
Her anti-Semitism shows strong traces of projectivity, of the fake mysticism of the "blood," and of sex envy. The following statement reveals her atti- tudinal pattern:
"The Jews feel superior to Gentiles. They wouldn't pollute their blood by mixing it with Gentiles. They would bleed us of our money and use our women for mistresses, but they wouldn't marry among us, and they want their wives spotless. The Y's entertained Jews quite often. I don't know if it was their money or what. That's why I didn't vote for Y the second time. I'd seen too many fat Jew women and hooked-nose men at their house. Of course, I've heard Pres. Roosevelt's mother had some Jewish blood, too. " Left the B's bec~use they were Jews. They had a home like a palace and wanted her to stay. They said, "We knew it was too good to be true" . . . when she was leaving.
Striking is the similarity between the subject's way of thinking and a certain kind of crackpot religious movement, based on readiness to hear "inner voices" which give both moral uplifting and sinister advice:
The Catholics have been wonderful to her, and she admires them but wouldn't join their church. There was something inside her that said "No. " (She gestures her rejection. ) She has an individualistic religion. Once she was out walking in the early morning-the birds were singing-she raised her hands and her face to the sky, and they were wet. . (She considered it a supernatural phenomenon. )
6. THE "MANIPULA TIVE" TYPE
This syndrome, potentially the most danger3'us one, is defined by stereo- typy as an extreme: rigid notions become ends rather than means, and the whole world is divided into empty, schematic, administrative fields. There is an almost complete lack of object cathexis and of emotional ties. If the "Crank" syndrome had something paranoid about it, the "Manipulative" one has something schizophrenic. However, the break between internal and ex- ternal world, in this case, does not result in anything like ordinary "intro- version," but rather the contrary: a kind of compulsive overrealism which treats everything and everyone as an object to be handled, manipulated, seized by the subject's own theoretical and practical patterns. The technical aspects of life, and things qua "tools" are fraught with libido. The emphasis is on "doing things," with far-reaching indifference towards the content of what is going to be done. The pattern is found in numerous business people and also, in increasing numbers, among members of the rising managerial and technological class who maintain, in the process of production, a func- tion between the old type of ownership and the workers' aristocracy. Many fascist-political anti-Semites in Germany showed this syndrome: Rimmler may be symbolic of them. Their sober intelligence, together with their almost complete absence of any affections makes them perhaps the most merciless of all. Their organizational way of looking at things predisposes them to
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
totalitarian solutions. Their goal is the construction of gas chambers rather than the pogrom. They do not even have to hate the Jews; they "cope" with them by administrative measures without any personal contacts with the victims. Anti-Semitism is reified, an export article: it must "function. " Their cynicism is almost complete: "The Jewish question will be solved strictly legally" is the way they talk about the cold pogrom. The Jews are provoca-, tive to them in so far as supposed Jewish individualism is a challenge to ? their stereotypy, and because they feel in the Jews a neurotic overemphasis on the very same kind of human relationships which they are lacking them- selves. The ingroup-outgroup relationship becomes the principle according to which the whole world is abstractly organized. Naturally, this syndrome can be found in this country only in a rudimentary state.
As to the psychological etiology of this type, our material sets us certain limitations. However, it should be borne in mind that compulsiveness is the psychological equivalent of what we call, in terms of social theory, reification. The compulsive features of the boy chosen as an example for the "Manipula- tive" type, together with his sadism, can hardly be overlooked-he comes close to the classical Freudian conception of the "anal" character and is in this regard reminiscent of the "Authoritarian" syndrome. But he is differentiated from the latter by the simultaneity of extreme narcissism and a certain empti- ness and shallowness. This, however, involves a contradiction only if looked at superficially, since whatever we call a person's emotional and intellectual richness is due to the intensify of his object cathexes. Notable in our case is an interest in sex almost amounting to preoccupation, going with backward- ness as far as actual experience is concerned. One pictures a very inhibited boy, worried about masturbation, collecting insects while the other boys played baseball. There must have been early and deep emotional traumata, probably on a pregenital level. M zo8
is going to be an insect toxicologist and work for a large organization like Stand- ard Oil or a university, presumably not in private business. He first started in chemis- try in college but about the third term began to wonder if that was what he really wanted. He was interested in entomology in high school, and while hashing in a sorority he met a fellow worker in entomology, and in talking about the possibility of combining entomology and chemistry, this man said he thought it would be a very good field to investigate a little further. He found out insect toxicology had everything that combined his interests, wasn't overcrowded, and that he could make a good living there, and that there wasn't likely to be a surplus as there would be in chemistry or engineering.
Taken in isolation, the professional choice of this subject may appear acci- dental, but when viewed in the context of the whole interview, it assumes a certain significance. It has been pointed out by L. Lowenthal (75) that fascist orators often compare their "enemies" to "vermin. " The interest of this boy
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
in entomology may be due to his regarding the insects, which are both "repulsive" and weak, as ideal objects for his manipulation. 4
The manipulative aspect of his professional choice is stressed by himself:
Asked what he expects to get from the job other than the economic side, he said that he hopes to have a hand in organizing the whole field, that is, in organizing the knowledge. There is no textbook, the information is scattered, and he hopes to make a contribution in organizing the material.
His emphasis on "doing things" goes so far that he even appreciates people whom he otherwise hates, though in a terminology with destructive over- tones. Here belongs his statement about Roosevelt, which was quoted in part in Chapter XVII:
Asked about the good points of Roosevelt, he said, "Well, the first term he was in office he whipped the U. S. into shape. Some people argue he only carried out Hoover's ideas, but actually he did a good job which was badly needed . . . he usurped power that was necessary to do something-he took a lot more power than a lot. " . . . Asked whether his policies were good or bad, subject replied, "Well, at any rate, he was doing something. "
His political concepts are defined by the friend-foe relationship, in exactly the same way as the Nazi theoretician Karl Schmitt defined the nature of politics. His lust for organization, concomitant with an obsession with the domination of nature, seems boundless:
"There will always be wars. (Is there any way of preventing wars? ) No, it's not common goals but common enemies that make friends. Perhaps if they could dis- cover other planets and some way of getting there, spread out that way, we could prevent wars for a time, but eventually there'd be wars again. "
The truly totalitarian and destructive implications of his dichotomous way of thinking become manifest in his statement about the Negroes:
(What can we do about the Negroes? ) "Nothing can be done. There are two factions. I'm not in favor of interbreeding because this would produce an inferior race. The Negroes haven't reached the point of development of Caucasians, arti- ficially living and absorbing from the races. " He would approve of segregation, but that's not possible. Not unless you are willing to use Hitler's methods. There are only two ways of handling this problem-Hitler's methods or race mixture. Race mixture is the only answer and is already taking place, according to what he has read, but he's against it. It wouldn't do the race any good.
4 This, of course, covers only a superficial aspect. It is well known from psychoanalysis that insects and vermin serve frequently as symbols for siblings. The fantasies involved here may be traces of the little boy's wish to beat his little brother until he "keeps quiet. " Manipulativeness may be one form in which death wishes for the siblings are allowed to come to the fore. "Organizers" are frequently persons who want to exercise domineering control over those who are actually their equals-substitutes for the siblings over whom they wish to rule, like the father, as the next best thing, if they cannot kill them. Our insect toxicologist mentions frequent childhood quarrels with his sister.
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
This logic allows only for one conclusion: that the Negroes should be killed. At the same time, his way of looking at the prospective objects of manipula- tion is completely unemotional and detached: although his anti-Semitism is marked he doesn't even claim that you can
"tell the Jews by their appearance, they're just like other people, all kinds. ''
His administrative and pathologically detached outlook is again evidenced by his statement on intermarriage:
He said that if he were an American businessman in Oermany or England he'd probably marry first an American woman if he could, then he might marry a German or an English woman.
However, "swarthy" people like Greeks or Jews have no chance in this experimental setup. It is true, he has nothing against his Spanish brother-in- law, but expresses his approval by the phrase that "you couldn't tell him from a white person. "
He takes a positive attitude towards the church for manipulative purposes:
"Well, people want church; there is a purpose, it sets standards for some people, but for other people, it is not necessary. A general sense of social duty would do the same thing. "
His own metaphysical views are naturalistic, with a strong nihilistic coloring:
Asked about his own beliefs he said he's a mechanistic-there is no supernatural entity, not concerned with us as humans; it goes back to a law of physics. Humans and life are just an accident-but an inevitable accident. And then he tried to explain that-that there was some matter accrued when the earth was started and it was almost by accident that life started and it just kept on.
As to his emotional structure:
His mother is "just Mom"; he seems to have some respect for his father and father's opinions, but there was no real attachment any place. He said as a child he had a lot of friends, but on further questioning, he couldn't mention any closer friends. He did a lot of reading as a child. Didn't have many fights-couldn't re- member them-didn't have any more than any other boys. He has no real close friends now. His closest friends were when he was in the wth or 1 nh grade, and he still keeps track of some of them, he said. (How important are friends? ) "Well, they're especially important in younger years, and in your older years you don't enjoy life as much without them. I don't expect my friends to help me get along. " They're not needed so much at present age, but he supposed that at the interviewer's age it would be very important to have friends.
Finally it should be mentioned that the only moral quality that plays a con- siderable role in the thinking of this subject is loyalty, perhaps as a compen- sation for his own lack of affection. By loyalty he probably means complete and unconditional identification of a person with the group to which he hap-
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
pens to belong. He is expected to surrender completely to his "unit" and to give up all individual particularities for the sake of the "whole. " Mzo8 objects to Jewish refugees not having been "loyal to Germany. "
C. SYNDROMES FOUND AMONG LOW SCORERS
T h t following schematic observations may help towards orientation among the "low" syndromes. The Rigid low scorers are characterized by strong superego tendencies and compulsive features. Paternal authority and its social substitutes, however, are frequently replaced by the image of some col- lectivity, possibly moulded after the archaic image of what Freud calls the brother horde. Their main taboo is directed against violations of actual or supposed brotherly love. The Protesting low scorer has much in common with the "Authoritarian" high scorer, the main difference being that the fur- ther-going sublimation of the father idea, concomitant with an undercurrent of hostility against the father, leads to the conscientious rejection of heteron- omous authority instead of its acceptance. The decisive feature is opposition to whatever appears to be tyranny. The syndrome of the Impulsive low scorer denotes people in whom strong id impulses were never integrated with ego and superego. They are threatened by overpowering libidinous energy and in a way as close to psychosis as the "Crank" and the "Manipulative" high scorer. As to the Easy-Going low scorer, the id seems to be little repressed, but rather to be sublimated into compassion, and the superego well developed, whereas the extraverted functions of the otherwise quite articulate ego fre- quently do not keep pace. These subjects sometimes come close to neurotic indecision. One of their main features is the fear of "hurting" anyone or anything by action. The construct of the Genuine Liberal may be conceived in terms of that balance between superego, ego, and id which Freud deemed ideal.
In our sample the "Protesting" and the "Easy-Going" low scorers ap- parently occur most frequently. Emphasizing, however, once again that the low scorers are as a whole less "typed" than the high scorers, we shall refrain from any undue generalization.
1. THE "RIGID" LOW SCORER
We may start with the "low" syndrome that has most in common with
the over-all "high" pattern, and proceed in the direction of sounder and more durable "lowness. " The syndrome which commands first attention is the one which shows the most markedly stereotypical features-that is to say, con- figurations in which the absence of prejudice, instead of being based on concrete experience and integrated within the personality, is derived from some general, external, ideological pattern. Here we find those subjects whose lack of prejudice, however consistent in terms of surface ideology, has to be
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
regarded as accidental in terms of personality, but we also find people whose rigidity is hardly less related to personality than is the case with certain syn- dromes of high scorers. The latter kind of low scorers are definitely disposed towards totalitarianism in their thinking; what is accidental up to a certain degree is the particular brand of ideological world formula that they chance to come into contact with. We encountered a few subjects who had been identified ideologically with some progressive movement, such as the struggle for minority rights, for a long time, but with whom such ideas contained features of compulsiveness, even of paranoid obsession, and who, with respect to many of our variables, especially rigidity and "total" thinking, could hardly be distinguished from some of our high extremes. All the repre- sentatives of this syndrome can in one way or another be regarded as coun- terparts of the "Surface Resentment" type of high scorer. The accidentalness in their total outlook makes them liable to change fronts in critical situations, as was the case with certain kinds of radicals under the Nazi regime. They may often be recognized by a certain disinterestedness with respect to crucial minority questions per se, being, rather, against prejudice as a plank in the fascist platform; but. sometimes they also see only minority problems. They are likely to use cliches and phraseology hardly less frequently than do their political opponents. Some of them tend to belittle the importance of racial discrimination by labeling it simply as a byproduct of the big issues of class struggle-an attitude which may be indicative of repressed prejudice on their own part. Representatives of this syndrome can often be found, for example, among young, "progressive" people, particularly students, whose personal development has failed to keep pace with their ideological indoctrination. One of the best means for identifying the syndrome is to note the subject's readiness to deduce his stand towards minority problems from some general formula, rather than to make spontaneous statements. He also may often come forward with value judgments which cannot possibly be based on any real knowledge of the matter in question.
F z39 is a religious educator.
For the past ten years she has considered herself very progressive. Lately she has little time to read, but her husband reads and studies constantly and keeps her up to date by discussion. "My favorite world statesman is Litvinov. I think the most dramatic speech of modern times is the one he made at the Geneva conference when he pleaded for collective security. It has made us very happy to see the fog of ignorance and distrust surrounding the Soviet Union clear away during this war. Things are not settled yet though. There are many fascists in our own country who would fight Russia if they could. "
The hollowness of her enthusiasm about Litvinov has already been noted in our discussion of stereotyped thinking in politics (Chapter XVII). The same seems to be true of her assertion that she is an internationalist, followed up by
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
773
her rhetorical question, "Would I be a true Christian if I weren't? " This is typical of the "deductive" way of thinking which seems to characterize the rigid low scorer. The present subject seems to proceed in the same way as she approaches minority questions.
Subject believes that all people are one, and again she feels that is the only point of view possible for a true Christian.
The somewhat sweeping expression "that all people are one" should be noted: a person free of stereotypy would rather tend to acknowledge differ- ences and to take a positive stand towards differentiation. What is meant is probably "equal in the sight of God" and she deduces her tolerance from this general assumption.
As mentioned in the chapter on politics, the superficiality of her progres- sivism is indicated by her highly aggressive attitude towards alcoholism, called by herself "one of her pet subjects," which plays almost the same role as do certain paranoid ideas in the "Cranks" among the high scorers. It may be recalled in this connection, that Alfred McClung Lee has demonstrated the close connection between prohibitionism and prejudiced ways of think- ing. As a matter of fact, there is evidence enough that this "Rigid" low scorer has more than a sprinkling of the "high" mentality. There is the emphasis on "status," with reference to her daughter: -
"I feel badly about her school too-(names the school). The influx of people with lower educational and cultural standards than ours has had effect on the schools of course. "
There are destructive fantasies, thinly veiled by "sensible" moral reflections:
"The same with smoking. I am not really worried about it though. No one of either side of our family ever smoked or drank, with one exception. My husband's sister smoked. She is dead now. "
There is a rationalization of punitiveness:
"If I could bring about Prohibition tomorrow I would do it. I believe in pre- venting everything that doesn't make man better-that makes him worse. Some people say if you forbid something it makes people do it on the sly. Well, I say, how about murder, and robbery, and dope? We have prohibited them and some people still commit crimes, but we do not think of taking off the ban on them. "
And there is, finally, official optimism, a characteristic reaction-formation against underlying destructiveness:
"If one didn't always have hope and believe everything was moving upwards, one's Christianity wouldn't mean anything, would it? "
Under changing conditions she might be willing to join a subversive move- ment as long as it pretended to be "Christian" and to "move upwards.
The subject's concept of God is plainly identical with such an externalized superego or, to use Freud's original term, with the "ego ideal," with all the traits of a strong, but "helpful" father:
"\Veil, when it comes down to the fundamentals, everybody has an idea of some sort: may not call Him God, but an ideal that they live up to and strive to be like. . . . Heathens or anybody else has some sort of religion, but it is something that they put their faith in that can do things for them-can help them. "
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The genetic relation between the "Authoritarian" syndrome and the sado- masochistic resolution of the Oedipus complex is borne out by some state- ments of the subject about his own childhood:
"Well, my father was a very strict man. He wasn't religious, but strict in raising the youngsters. His word was law, and whenever he was disobeyed, there was punishment. When I was 12, my father beat me practically every day for getting into the tool chest in the back yard and not putting everything away . . . finally he explained that those things cost money, and I must learn to put it back. " . . .
(Subject explains that his carelessness led to a beating every day, as promised by the father, and finally after several weeks, he simply quit using the tools altogether, because "I just couldn't get 'em all back") . . . "But, you know, I never hold that against my father-! had it coming. He laid the law down, and if I broke it, there was punishment, but never in uncontrolled anger. My father was a good man-no doubt about that. Always interested in boys' activities.
"My father was a great fraternal man; was out practically every night. Took an active pan always on committees-a good mixer, everybody liked him . . . a good provider. We always had everything we needed, but no unnecessary luxuries . . . no whims provided for. . . . Father felt they were luxuries that probably-felt they were unnecessary. . . . Yes, rather austere. . . . (Which parent closest to? ) I think my father. Although he beat the life out of me, I could talk to him about anything. " . . . (Subject emphasizes that his father always gave everyone, includ- ing himself, a square deal. )
The subject has been "broken" by the father: he has been overadjusted. It is exactly this aspect which bears the main emphasis in his anti-Semitism. He who admires brute force blames the Jews for their recklessness in practical matters.
"The Jews seem to be taking advantage of the present-day situation, I think. Now, they want to-they're bringing these Jews in from Europe, and they seem to click together, somehow, and they seem to be able to corner capital. They're a peculiar people-no conscience about anything except money. " (Subject apparently meant, here, no conscience about money, although maybe about other things. ) "If you stand in the way of their making money, they'll brush you aside. "
Rigidity of the image of the Jew, visible already in the "Conventional" syn- drome, tends to become absolute and highly vindictive:
"To me a Jew is just like a foreigner in the same class as-say, oh, I was gonna say a Filipino. You would be pointed out . . . they observe all these different religious days that's completely foreign to me-and they stick to it-they don't completely Americanize. . . . (What if there were less prejudice against them? ) I don't know-1 can't help but feel that a Jew is meant to be just the way he is-no change possible-a sort of instinct that will never lose-stay Jewish right straight through. (What ought to be done? ) They have the ability to get control-now, how we're gonna stop 'em . . . pro"bably have to pass some regulation prohibiting them. "
Again the idea of authority is the focal point: the Jews appear dangerous to him as usurpers of "control. "
One last feature of the "Authoritarian" syndrome should be mentioned. It
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
is the psychological equivalent of the "no-pity-for-the-poor" ideology dis- cussed in Chapter XVII. The identification of the "authoritarian" character with strength is concomitant with rejection of everything that is "down. " Even where social conditions have to be recognized as the reason for the depressed situation of a group, a twist is applied in order to transform this ? situation into some kind of well-deserved punishment. This is accompanied by moralistic invectives indicative of strict repression of several desires:
He went on to emphasize that you should segregate Negroes and whites, that by all means give equal opportunities and everything instead of "evading the prob- lem" as he called it. He refers to high prevalence of venereal disease among Negroes, which he blames on their low morals and, under further questioning by the inter- viewer, he finally attributes it to "congested conditions of living" and tries very hard to explain what he means. This leads to a lack of modesty and respect for privacy-everybody's thrown together-"lose the distance that is supposed to be between people," etc. , etc.
The emphasis on "distance," the fear of "close physical contacts" may be interpreted as corroborative of our thesis that, for this syndrome, the ingroup- outgroup dichotomy absorbs large quantities of psychological energy. Iden- tification with the familial structure and ultimately with the whole ingroup becomes, to this . kind of individual, one of the main mechanisms by which they can impose authoritarian discipline upon themselves and avoid "breaking away"-a temptation nourished continuously by their underlying ambiv- alence.
4. THE REBEL AND THE PSYCHOP A TH
The resolution of the Oedipus complex characteristic of the "Authoritarian" syndrome is not the only one that makes for a "high" character structure. Instead of identification with parental authority, "insurrection" may take place. This, of course, may in certain cases liquidate the sadomasochistic tendencies. However, insurrection may also occur in such a way that the authoritarian character structure is not basically affected (56). 3 Thus, the hated paternal authority may be abolished only to be replaced by another one-a process facilitated by the "externalized" superego structure concomi- tant with the over-all picture of the high scorer. Or masochistic transference to authority may be kept down on the unconscious level while resistance takes place on the manifest level. This may lead to an irrational and blind hatred of all authority, with strong destructive connotations, accompanied by a secret readiness to "capitulate" and to join hands with the "hated" strong. It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish such an attitude from a truly non- authoritarian one and it may be well-nigh impossible to achieve such a dif- ferentiation on a purely psychological level: here as much as anywhere else it is the sociopolitical behavior that counts, determining whether a person is
3 Cf. also in this connection Erikson, E. H. , Hitler's Imagery and German Youth (25).
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
truly independent or merely replaces his dependency by negative trans- ference.
The latter case, when it is combined with an urge to take pseudorevolu- tionary actions against those whom the individual ultimately deems to be weak, is that of the "Rebel. " This syndrome played a large role in Nazi Germany: the late Captain Roehm, who called himself a "Hochverriiter" in his autobiography, is a perfect example. Here we expect to find the "Condot- tiere" which was included in the typology drafted by the Institute of Social Research in 1939, and described as follows:
This type has arisen with the increased insecurity of post-war existence. He is convinced that what matters is not life but chance. He is nihilistic, not out of a "drive for destruction" but because he is indifferent to individual existence. One of the reservoirs out of which this type arises is the modern unemployed. He differs from former unemployed in that his contact with the sphere of production is sporadic, if any. Individuals belonging to this category can no longer expect to be regularly absorbed by the labor process. From their youth they have been ready to act wherever they could grab something. They are inclined to hate the Jew partly because of his cautiousness and physical inefficacy, partly because, being them- selves unemployed, they are economically uprooted, unusually susceptible to any propaganda, and ready to follow any leader. The other reservoir, at the opposite pole of society, is the group belonging to the dangerous professions, colonial ad- venturers, racing motorists, airplane aces. They are the born leaders of the former group. Their ideal, actually an heroic one, is all the more sensitive to the "destruc- tive," critical intellect of the Jews because they themselves are not quite convinced of their ideal in the depths of their hearts, but have developed it as a rationalization of their dangerous way of living (57, p. 135).
Symptomatically, this syndrome is characterized, above all, by a penchant for "tolerated excesses" of all kinds, from heavy drinking and overt homo- sexuality under the cloak of enthusiasm for "youth" to proneness to acts of violence in the sense of "Putsch. " Subjects of this type do not have as much rigidity as do those who exhibit the orthodox "Authoritarian" syn- drome.
The extreme representative of this syndrome is the "Tough Guy," in psy- chiatric terminology the "Psychopath. " Here, the superego seems to have been completely crippled through the outcome of the Oedipus conflict, by means of a retrogression to the omnipotence fantasy of very early in- fancy. These individuals are the most "infantile" of all: they have thor- oughly failed to "develop," have not been moulded at all by civilization. They are "asocial. " Destructive urges come to the fore in an overt, non- rationalized way. Bodily strength and toughness-also in the sense of being able to "take it"-are decisive. The borderline between them and the criminal is fluid. Their indulgence in persecution is crudely sadistic, directed against any helpless victim; it is unspecific and hardly colored by "prejudice. " Here go the hoodlums and rowdies, plug-uglies, torturers, and all those who do the "dirty work" of a fascist movement. ?
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Robert M. Lindner's extensive case study, Rebel Without a Cause (74), offers a description and dynamic interpretation of the "Tough Guy" which establish the affinity of this type to the "Rebel" as well as to the "Authori- tarian" character. According to Lindner:
The psychopath is not only a criminal; he is the embryonic Storm-Trooper; he is the disinherited, betrayed antagonist whose aggressions can be mobilized on the instant at which the properly-aimed and frustration-evoking formula is communi- cated by that leader under whose tinseled aegis license becomes law, secret and primitive desires become virtuous ambitions readily attained, and compulsive behavior formerly deemed punishable becomes the order of the day.
The psychopath is described as a "rebel, a religious disobeyer of prevailing . codes and standards" whose main characteristic is that he cannot wait, "can- not delay the pleasures of gratification"-an inability suggesting that, together with the failure to build up a superego, the formation of the ego has been crippled, in spite of the bridled "egotism" of such persons. As to the maso- chistic component, the following passage from Lindner may be quoted:
That the psychopath is burdened with guilt and literally seeks punishment has been observed by the author in countless cases. The clue to this strange situation lies, as one would suspect, in the Oedipus situation. Deprived of an avenue to satis- factory post-Oedipal adjustment and continuously beset by the consequent incest and parricidal fantasies, the mergent guilt can be assuaged only through expiation.
"I have sinned against my father and I must be punished" is the unverbalized theme
of psychopathic conduct: and for this reason they very often commit crimes free from acquisitional motives, marry prostitutes or, in the case of women, apportion their charms occupationally in an attempt at self-castigation. That such activities constitute a species of "neurotic gain" is also to be considered. The fact of punish- ment sought, received and accepted does not complete the tale: there is in addition
a narcissistic "yield" which derives directly from the punitive act and mediates the , original need. This is naturally on a subliminal level of apprehension, unreportable directly but always noticeable.
Examples of the rebel-psychopath are to be found in our San Quentin sample. We think mainly of the psychopath, Floyd, our M658, and the , "Tough Guy," Eugene, our M662A, dealt with extensively in Chapter XXI.
If the traits under consideration here do not appear so vividly there, it should be borne in mind that the guiding interest of the San Quentin study was , defined by our over-all variables rather than by psychological subgroups among the high and low scorers. Moreover, it has to be kept in mind that the prison situation works as a heavy check on the expression of the decisive traits of the psychopath who, after all, is not a psychotic and behaves, in a certain sense, quite "realistically. " In addition, his completely living "for the moment," his lack of ego identity enables him to adapt himself successfully
to a given situation: when talking to an interviewer, he is likely not to display directly the attitudes indicative of his "toughness. " Rather, the latter have
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
to be inferred indirectly, particularly from certain speaking habits, such as the frequency of references to bodily violence. It is with an eye to such indices that the statements of those two San Quentin interviewees should be read. Neither the widespread existence of the "Tough Guy" syndrome, par- ticularly in marginal spheres of society, nor its importance for some of the most sinister aspects of the fascist potential can be doubted.
5. THE CRANK
In so far as the introjection of paternal discipline in the "Authoritarian" syn-
drome means continuous repression of the id, this syndrome can be charac- terized by frustration in the widest sense of the term. However, there seems to be a pattern in which frustration plays a much more specific role. This pattern is found in those people who did not succeed in adjusting themselves to the world, in accepting the "reality principle"-who failed, as it were, to strike a balance between renunciations and gratifications, and whose whole inner life is determined by the denials imposed upon them from outside, not only during childhood but also during their adult life. These people are driven into isolation. They have to build up a spurious inner world, often approaching delusion, emphatically set against outer reality. They can exist only by self-aggrandizement, coupled with violent rejection of the external world. Their "soul" becomes their dearest possession. At the same time, they are highly projective and suspicious. An affinity to psychosis cannot be over- looked: they are "paranoid. " To them, prejudice is all-important: it is a means to escape acute mental diseases by collectivization, and by building up a pseudoreality against which their aggressiveness can be directed without any overt violation of the "reality principle. " Stereotypy is decisive: it works as a kind of social corroboration of their projective formulae, and is therefore institutionalized to a degree often approaching religious beliefs. The pattern is found in women and old men whose isolation is socially reinforced by their virtual exclusion from the economic process of production. Here belong organized war mothers, bam-an'-eggers, and regular followers of agitators even in periods when racist propaganda is at a low ebb. The often-abused term "lunatic fringe" has a certain validity with regard to them: their com- pulsiveness has reached the stage of fanaticism. In order to confirm to each other their pseudoreality, they are likely to form sects, often with some panacea of "nature," which corresponds to their projective notion of the Jew as eternally bad and spoiling the purity of the natural. Ideas of conspir- acy play a large role: they do not hesitate to attribute to the Jews a quest for world domination, and they are likely to swear by the Elders of Zion. A significant social trait is semi-erudition, a magical belief in science which makes them the ideal followers of racial theory. They can hardly be expected
above a certain educational level, but also rarely among workers. F124
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
is a woman over 50 years of age, tall, heavily built, with sharp features, prominent gray-blue eyes, a pointed nose, thin lips, straight mouth line. She had a bearing which was meant to be impressive.
This "impressiveness" actually implies a pathological sense of inner superi- ority, as if she belonged to a secret order, at the same time being surrounded by people whose names she does not want to mention, since otherwise she might divulge too vulgar or dangerous implications:
She doesn't care for her fellow-workers. Some have all the degrees but no common sense. She wouldn't like to mention names, but she'd like to tell me what goes on. Some just spend their time gossiping together. She doesn't believe she could do more than just speak to her fellow-workers. Very scornful of them, feels superior and aloof. . . . They don't know her at all-no indeed-implies she's a very special somebody and could reveal her gifts to them but doesn't.
Her interest in internal and as far as possible external status is strongly colored by an overemphasis on "connections," which suggests "ideas of reference":
She has been a "governess" in the home of President X's family . . . and in President Y's son's family-first the older son, then the younger. Talked to Mrs. Y on the phone when she was in the White House at the time of the birth of the third child. And her sister worked for S. who later was governor of a southwestern state.
As to her spurious "inner world," semi-erudition, and pseudointellectuality, the following account is highly characteristic:
She reads a great deal-"good" books-went through the schools in her Texas home town about equal to seventh grade now. She also draws and writes and was learning to play an instrument. One picture she drew here at school but never showed it to anyone. It was of two mountains and the sun in between shining on the valley in which the mist was rising. This just "came" to her, too, though she had never had any training. It was really beautiful. She writes stories, too. When she was left a widow, instead of chasing after men like some women, she wrote stories. One was a fantasy for Mary Pickford. It would have been just right for her to play in, but of course, she'd never shown it to anyone.
It was called Little May and O'June and had come to her once when she had her children on a picnic. A love fantasy about Little May (the girl) and O'June (the boy). Her daughter was very gifted, too. An artist . . . who drew Texas Blue Bonnets-"the state flower, you k n o w . " - - saw her daughter's work and said, "Y ou've got a real genius there. " He wanted to give the daughter lessons, but she refused, saying, "No, Mother, he would just spoil my style; I know how to draw what I want to draw. "
With regard to race questions, her hatred shows the paranoid tendency to- wards stopping nowhere-in principle she would be willing to stigmatize every group she can lay her hands on and only reluctantly confines herself to her favorite foes.
She thinks the "Japs, Jews, and Niggers should go back where they came from. " . . . "Of course, then the Italians should go back where they belong in Italy, but- well, the three main ones who don't belong here are the Japs, Jews, and Niggers. "
,
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
Her anti-Semitism shows strong traces of projectivity, of the fake mysticism of the "blood," and of sex envy. The following statement reveals her atti- tudinal pattern:
"The Jews feel superior to Gentiles. They wouldn't pollute their blood by mixing it with Gentiles. They would bleed us of our money and use our women for mistresses, but they wouldn't marry among us, and they want their wives spotless. The Y's entertained Jews quite often. I don't know if it was their money or what. That's why I didn't vote for Y the second time. I'd seen too many fat Jew women and hooked-nose men at their house. Of course, I've heard Pres. Roosevelt's mother had some Jewish blood, too. " Left the B's bec~use they were Jews. They had a home like a palace and wanted her to stay. They said, "We knew it was too good to be true" . . . when she was leaving.
Striking is the similarity between the subject's way of thinking and a certain kind of crackpot religious movement, based on readiness to hear "inner voices" which give both moral uplifting and sinister advice:
The Catholics have been wonderful to her, and she admires them but wouldn't join their church. There was something inside her that said "No. " (She gestures her rejection. ) She has an individualistic religion. Once she was out walking in the early morning-the birds were singing-she raised her hands and her face to the sky, and they were wet. . (She considered it a supernatural phenomenon. )
6. THE "MANIPULA TIVE" TYPE
This syndrome, potentially the most danger3'us one, is defined by stereo- typy as an extreme: rigid notions become ends rather than means, and the whole world is divided into empty, schematic, administrative fields. There is an almost complete lack of object cathexis and of emotional ties. If the "Crank" syndrome had something paranoid about it, the "Manipulative" one has something schizophrenic. However, the break between internal and ex- ternal world, in this case, does not result in anything like ordinary "intro- version," but rather the contrary: a kind of compulsive overrealism which treats everything and everyone as an object to be handled, manipulated, seized by the subject's own theoretical and practical patterns. The technical aspects of life, and things qua "tools" are fraught with libido. The emphasis is on "doing things," with far-reaching indifference towards the content of what is going to be done. The pattern is found in numerous business people and also, in increasing numbers, among members of the rising managerial and technological class who maintain, in the process of production, a func- tion between the old type of ownership and the workers' aristocracy. Many fascist-political anti-Semites in Germany showed this syndrome: Rimmler may be symbolic of them. Their sober intelligence, together with their almost complete absence of any affections makes them perhaps the most merciless of all. Their organizational way of looking at things predisposes them to
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totalitarian solutions. Their goal is the construction of gas chambers rather than the pogrom. They do not even have to hate the Jews; they "cope" with them by administrative measures without any personal contacts with the victims. Anti-Semitism is reified, an export article: it must "function. " Their cynicism is almost complete: "The Jewish question will be solved strictly legally" is the way they talk about the cold pogrom. The Jews are provoca-, tive to them in so far as supposed Jewish individualism is a challenge to ? their stereotypy, and because they feel in the Jews a neurotic overemphasis on the very same kind of human relationships which they are lacking them- selves. The ingroup-outgroup relationship becomes the principle according to which the whole world is abstractly organized. Naturally, this syndrome can be found in this country only in a rudimentary state.
As to the psychological etiology of this type, our material sets us certain limitations. However, it should be borne in mind that compulsiveness is the psychological equivalent of what we call, in terms of social theory, reification. The compulsive features of the boy chosen as an example for the "Manipula- tive" type, together with his sadism, can hardly be overlooked-he comes close to the classical Freudian conception of the "anal" character and is in this regard reminiscent of the "Authoritarian" syndrome. But he is differentiated from the latter by the simultaneity of extreme narcissism and a certain empti- ness and shallowness. This, however, involves a contradiction only if looked at superficially, since whatever we call a person's emotional and intellectual richness is due to the intensify of his object cathexes. Notable in our case is an interest in sex almost amounting to preoccupation, going with backward- ness as far as actual experience is concerned. One pictures a very inhibited boy, worried about masturbation, collecting insects while the other boys played baseball. There must have been early and deep emotional traumata, probably on a pregenital level. M zo8
is going to be an insect toxicologist and work for a large organization like Stand- ard Oil or a university, presumably not in private business. He first started in chemis- try in college but about the third term began to wonder if that was what he really wanted. He was interested in entomology in high school, and while hashing in a sorority he met a fellow worker in entomology, and in talking about the possibility of combining entomology and chemistry, this man said he thought it would be a very good field to investigate a little further. He found out insect toxicology had everything that combined his interests, wasn't overcrowded, and that he could make a good living there, and that there wasn't likely to be a surplus as there would be in chemistry or engineering.
Taken in isolation, the professional choice of this subject may appear acci- dental, but when viewed in the context of the whole interview, it assumes a certain significance. It has been pointed out by L. Lowenthal (75) that fascist orators often compare their "enemies" to "vermin. " The interest of this boy
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
in entomology may be due to his regarding the insects, which are both "repulsive" and weak, as ideal objects for his manipulation. 4
The manipulative aspect of his professional choice is stressed by himself:
Asked what he expects to get from the job other than the economic side, he said that he hopes to have a hand in organizing the whole field, that is, in organizing the knowledge. There is no textbook, the information is scattered, and he hopes to make a contribution in organizing the material.
His emphasis on "doing things" goes so far that he even appreciates people whom he otherwise hates, though in a terminology with destructive over- tones. Here belongs his statement about Roosevelt, which was quoted in part in Chapter XVII:
Asked about the good points of Roosevelt, he said, "Well, the first term he was in office he whipped the U. S. into shape. Some people argue he only carried out Hoover's ideas, but actually he did a good job which was badly needed . . . he usurped power that was necessary to do something-he took a lot more power than a lot. " . . . Asked whether his policies were good or bad, subject replied, "Well, at any rate, he was doing something. "
His political concepts are defined by the friend-foe relationship, in exactly the same way as the Nazi theoretician Karl Schmitt defined the nature of politics. His lust for organization, concomitant with an obsession with the domination of nature, seems boundless:
"There will always be wars. (Is there any way of preventing wars? ) No, it's not common goals but common enemies that make friends. Perhaps if they could dis- cover other planets and some way of getting there, spread out that way, we could prevent wars for a time, but eventually there'd be wars again. "
The truly totalitarian and destructive implications of his dichotomous way of thinking become manifest in his statement about the Negroes:
(What can we do about the Negroes? ) "Nothing can be done. There are two factions. I'm not in favor of interbreeding because this would produce an inferior race. The Negroes haven't reached the point of development of Caucasians, arti- ficially living and absorbing from the races. " He would approve of segregation, but that's not possible. Not unless you are willing to use Hitler's methods. There are only two ways of handling this problem-Hitler's methods or race mixture. Race mixture is the only answer and is already taking place, according to what he has read, but he's against it. It wouldn't do the race any good.
4 This, of course, covers only a superficial aspect. It is well known from psychoanalysis that insects and vermin serve frequently as symbols for siblings. The fantasies involved here may be traces of the little boy's wish to beat his little brother until he "keeps quiet. " Manipulativeness may be one form in which death wishes for the siblings are allowed to come to the fore. "Organizers" are frequently persons who want to exercise domineering control over those who are actually their equals-substitutes for the siblings over whom they wish to rule, like the father, as the next best thing, if they cannot kill them. Our insect toxicologist mentions frequent childhood quarrels with his sister.
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
This logic allows only for one conclusion: that the Negroes should be killed. At the same time, his way of looking at the prospective objects of manipula- tion is completely unemotional and detached: although his anti-Semitism is marked he doesn't even claim that you can
"tell the Jews by their appearance, they're just like other people, all kinds. ''
His administrative and pathologically detached outlook is again evidenced by his statement on intermarriage:
He said that if he were an American businessman in Oermany or England he'd probably marry first an American woman if he could, then he might marry a German or an English woman.
However, "swarthy" people like Greeks or Jews have no chance in this experimental setup. It is true, he has nothing against his Spanish brother-in- law, but expresses his approval by the phrase that "you couldn't tell him from a white person. "
He takes a positive attitude towards the church for manipulative purposes:
"Well, people want church; there is a purpose, it sets standards for some people, but for other people, it is not necessary. A general sense of social duty would do the same thing. "
His own metaphysical views are naturalistic, with a strong nihilistic coloring:
Asked about his own beliefs he said he's a mechanistic-there is no supernatural entity, not concerned with us as humans; it goes back to a law of physics. Humans and life are just an accident-but an inevitable accident. And then he tried to explain that-that there was some matter accrued when the earth was started and it was almost by accident that life started and it just kept on.
As to his emotional structure:
His mother is "just Mom"; he seems to have some respect for his father and father's opinions, but there was no real attachment any place. He said as a child he had a lot of friends, but on further questioning, he couldn't mention any closer friends. He did a lot of reading as a child. Didn't have many fights-couldn't re- member them-didn't have any more than any other boys. He has no real close friends now. His closest friends were when he was in the wth or 1 nh grade, and he still keeps track of some of them, he said. (How important are friends? ) "Well, they're especially important in younger years, and in your older years you don't enjoy life as much without them. I don't expect my friends to help me get along. " They're not needed so much at present age, but he supposed that at the interviewer's age it would be very important to have friends.
Finally it should be mentioned that the only moral quality that plays a con- siderable role in the thinking of this subject is loyalty, perhaps as a compen- sation for his own lack of affection. By loyalty he probably means complete and unconditional identification of a person with the group to which he hap-
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
pens to belong. He is expected to surrender completely to his "unit" and to give up all individual particularities for the sake of the "whole. " Mzo8 objects to Jewish refugees not having been "loyal to Germany. "
C. SYNDROMES FOUND AMONG LOW SCORERS
T h t following schematic observations may help towards orientation among the "low" syndromes. The Rigid low scorers are characterized by strong superego tendencies and compulsive features. Paternal authority and its social substitutes, however, are frequently replaced by the image of some col- lectivity, possibly moulded after the archaic image of what Freud calls the brother horde. Their main taboo is directed against violations of actual or supposed brotherly love. The Protesting low scorer has much in common with the "Authoritarian" high scorer, the main difference being that the fur- ther-going sublimation of the father idea, concomitant with an undercurrent of hostility against the father, leads to the conscientious rejection of heteron- omous authority instead of its acceptance. The decisive feature is opposition to whatever appears to be tyranny. The syndrome of the Impulsive low scorer denotes people in whom strong id impulses were never integrated with ego and superego. They are threatened by overpowering libidinous energy and in a way as close to psychosis as the "Crank" and the "Manipulative" high scorer. As to the Easy-Going low scorer, the id seems to be little repressed, but rather to be sublimated into compassion, and the superego well developed, whereas the extraverted functions of the otherwise quite articulate ego fre- quently do not keep pace. These subjects sometimes come close to neurotic indecision. One of their main features is the fear of "hurting" anyone or anything by action. The construct of the Genuine Liberal may be conceived in terms of that balance between superego, ego, and id which Freud deemed ideal.
In our sample the "Protesting" and the "Easy-Going" low scorers ap- parently occur most frequently. Emphasizing, however, once again that the low scorers are as a whole less "typed" than the high scorers, we shall refrain from any undue generalization.
1. THE "RIGID" LOW SCORER
We may start with the "low" syndrome that has most in common with
the over-all "high" pattern, and proceed in the direction of sounder and more durable "lowness. " The syndrome which commands first attention is the one which shows the most markedly stereotypical features-that is to say, con- figurations in which the absence of prejudice, instead of being based on concrete experience and integrated within the personality, is derived from some general, external, ideological pattern. Here we find those subjects whose lack of prejudice, however consistent in terms of surface ideology, has to be
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
regarded as accidental in terms of personality, but we also find people whose rigidity is hardly less related to personality than is the case with certain syn- dromes of high scorers. The latter kind of low scorers are definitely disposed towards totalitarianism in their thinking; what is accidental up to a certain degree is the particular brand of ideological world formula that they chance to come into contact with. We encountered a few subjects who had been identified ideologically with some progressive movement, such as the struggle for minority rights, for a long time, but with whom such ideas contained features of compulsiveness, even of paranoid obsession, and who, with respect to many of our variables, especially rigidity and "total" thinking, could hardly be distinguished from some of our high extremes. All the repre- sentatives of this syndrome can in one way or another be regarded as coun- terparts of the "Surface Resentment" type of high scorer. The accidentalness in their total outlook makes them liable to change fronts in critical situations, as was the case with certain kinds of radicals under the Nazi regime. They may often be recognized by a certain disinterestedness with respect to crucial minority questions per se, being, rather, against prejudice as a plank in the fascist platform; but. sometimes they also see only minority problems. They are likely to use cliches and phraseology hardly less frequently than do their political opponents. Some of them tend to belittle the importance of racial discrimination by labeling it simply as a byproduct of the big issues of class struggle-an attitude which may be indicative of repressed prejudice on their own part. Representatives of this syndrome can often be found, for example, among young, "progressive" people, particularly students, whose personal development has failed to keep pace with their ideological indoctrination. One of the best means for identifying the syndrome is to note the subject's readiness to deduce his stand towards minority problems from some general formula, rather than to make spontaneous statements. He also may often come forward with value judgments which cannot possibly be based on any real knowledge of the matter in question.
F z39 is a religious educator.
For the past ten years she has considered herself very progressive. Lately she has little time to read, but her husband reads and studies constantly and keeps her up to date by discussion. "My favorite world statesman is Litvinov. I think the most dramatic speech of modern times is the one he made at the Geneva conference when he pleaded for collective security. It has made us very happy to see the fog of ignorance and distrust surrounding the Soviet Union clear away during this war. Things are not settled yet though. There are many fascists in our own country who would fight Russia if they could. "
The hollowness of her enthusiasm about Litvinov has already been noted in our discussion of stereotyped thinking in politics (Chapter XVII). The same seems to be true of her assertion that she is an internationalist, followed up by
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
773
her rhetorical question, "Would I be a true Christian if I weren't? " This is typical of the "deductive" way of thinking which seems to characterize the rigid low scorer. The present subject seems to proceed in the same way as she approaches minority questions.
Subject believes that all people are one, and again she feels that is the only point of view possible for a true Christian.
The somewhat sweeping expression "that all people are one" should be noted: a person free of stereotypy would rather tend to acknowledge differ- ences and to take a positive stand towards differentiation. What is meant is probably "equal in the sight of God" and she deduces her tolerance from this general assumption.
As mentioned in the chapter on politics, the superficiality of her progres- sivism is indicated by her highly aggressive attitude towards alcoholism, called by herself "one of her pet subjects," which plays almost the same role as do certain paranoid ideas in the "Cranks" among the high scorers. It may be recalled in this connection, that Alfred McClung Lee has demonstrated the close connection between prohibitionism and prejudiced ways of think- ing. As a matter of fact, there is evidence enough that this "Rigid" low scorer has more than a sprinkling of the "high" mentality. There is the emphasis on "status," with reference to her daughter: -
"I feel badly about her school too-(names the school). The influx of people with lower educational and cultural standards than ours has had effect on the schools of course. "
There are destructive fantasies, thinly veiled by "sensible" moral reflections:
"The same with smoking. I am not really worried about it though. No one of either side of our family ever smoked or drank, with one exception. My husband's sister smoked. She is dead now. "
There is a rationalization of punitiveness:
"If I could bring about Prohibition tomorrow I would do it. I believe in pre- venting everything that doesn't make man better-that makes him worse. Some people say if you forbid something it makes people do it on the sly. Well, I say, how about murder, and robbery, and dope? We have prohibited them and some people still commit crimes, but we do not think of taking off the ban on them. "
And there is, finally, official optimism, a characteristic reaction-formation against underlying destructiveness:
"If one didn't always have hope and believe everything was moving upwards, one's Christianity wouldn't mean anything, would it? "
Under changing conditions she might be willing to join a subversive move- ment as long as it pretended to be "Christian" and to "move upwards.
