If the above attempt to reconstruct the actual
behavior
of Mack's father was successful then one might say that there was reason enough why our subject should feel hostile toward him.
Adorno-T-Authoritarian-Personality-Harper-Bros-1950
But I like nice equipment, for example, a good rifle.
Bud and I had good help from father.
He used to spend his winters alone in the mountains, and made his own skis and snowshoes.
He showed us how to make them.
"
(What did you worry most about as a kid? ) "Well, mostly about being held back by lack of funds. I worried about such things. In the 7th grade, I was the best speller, but I remember a defeat by a girl at the county spelling bee. Often I was just a little under the top. Just like in the service. I went to OCS, and got sick just before getting my commission. Usually I tried too hard, like in football. I was not as good an end as I should have been. I dropped passes because I tried too hard and so I was mediocre. Now, when I'm relaxed I have no trouble at all.
"They found I was anemic at the age of 12. I had my first hemorrhage from the stomach when I was 18. lt always comes around when I start working too hard. "
(Where did you get your sex instruction? ) "I never had any from my parents, though I did get some suggestions from my aunt; no real instruction. What I know I have picked up from reading. I've listened to men talk, but accepted little of it; I weighed it in the light of what I have read. "
(What was your first sex experience? ) "It was in 1940-41, the aftermath of a New Year's party in Washington. There was liquor. I was always the backward boy. I hope to get married to the girl I'm going with now. She is an awfully nice companion. Most girls are interested only in a good time and want fellows with lots of money to spend. I didn't have the money for giving them a swell time. The girl I'm in love with now lived 9 miles from me. She attended a rival high school. I dated her once in high school. When I got back from the army, I worked in a lumber mill. This girl had graduated f r o m - - and started teaching. Her uncle is the vice-presi- dent of the bank. I talked to him about buying an automobile that she was interested in. I looked it over for her, since I knew something about cars, and told her it was in good condition. I got started going with her that way. I found out that she wasn't interested in money, but was interested in me in spite of my discharge from the army, my poor health and prospects. She's just very good-not beautiful, but a . tre- mendously nice personality. She is French with some Irish in her. She has a nice figure and is very wholesome. When we get married depends on circumstances. It's quite a responsibility. She wants to get married now; she is teaching in _ _ _ _ . I'm under the GI Bill. If I get assurance of four years in college, I might get married' this spring. We're well suited; I know she's interested in me, because I have so little to offer. We're both at the proper age. I intend to work part time. I don't like her teaching; I like to support my wife. I've always had that idea. But maybe under the
circumstances, that won't be fully possible. She is a good cook, and that is an asset, what with my stomach condition. When I tell her that you approve of our mar- riage, she will be pleased, but of course, I'm always a man to make my own de- cisions. "
1. ENVIRONMENT AL FORCES AND EVENTS
a. SociOECONOMIC FACTORS. Mack is not very informative with respect to the socioeconomic status of his family-partly because he was not questioned
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closely enough and partly, as it seems, because he is sometimes tempted to dis- tort the facts. We learned from his questionnaire, it may be recalled, that the father is a "retired lumberman" with an annual income of $1,ooo. In the interview we are told that the father has not worked for thirty years (this would mean that he stopped working when he was 47, approximately six years before Mack was born) and that his present income is from "stocks and bonds. " At the time he did work the wage, we are told, was $75 a month, hardly enough to have accumulated stocks and bonds the income from which is $I,ooo a year. The most plausible hypothesis, it seems, is that Mack is merely guessing at the time since the father retired, that it was actually not so long as thirty years, and that the major portion of the income is from a pension. ("He owned some lumber lands, but he mostly preferred working for other people. ") That the father owned his home probably helped to give the family an aspect of stability, but there seems little reason to doubt that Mack was indeed "held back by lack of funds" or that this was a cause for worry.
The status of the family would seem to have been lower middle-class, bordering on lower class. There was certainly little upward mobility in the sense of actual social or economic advancement. Whether or not the family was concerned with status is a question. The mother and the aunt appear to have tried to keep the children in Sunday School, but the father, whom Mack regards as his major guide, seems not to have participated in this en- deavor. W e are told that the father wanted his son to go into business, which is not remarkable; but that he did not want Mack to work as a boy because "he thought it was beneath me" sounds definitely status-minded. It also sounds somewhat dubious. We are led to wonder whether we are not dealing here with the status-mindedness of the son rather than with that of the father. It seems that part of the time Mack would like to gain prestige by giving the impression that his father was a man of parts-a retiFed lumberman who was "known throughout the country as a man whose word was as good as his bond"-and that part of the time he would attain the same end by showing that he had done well despite the economic handicaps with which he had to
contend. A man who retired on $I,ooo a year at the age of 47, or when his two children were in infancy-or not yet born-could hardly be described as a go- getter or as a man who was deeply concerned to secure advantages and status for his children. That Mack does not deliberately tell us this may probably be put down as an aspect of his general inability to criticize his father.
b. FATHER. Although the father seems not to have been status-driven in the ordinary sense, there is no evidence that he was relaxed or easy-going with respect either to traditional morality or the values of a business com- munity. While Mack undoubtedly exaggerates the virtuous aspects of his father, some of the remarks about his moral strictness have the ring of truth.
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 791
He "followed the church rules" although he did not go to church, he "drank but little, and never smoked," he was "very honest and strict in his dealings -so honest that he wouldn't condone charge accounts"; even when consid- erably discounted, these remarks still give a picture of a rigidly moral man or at the least, of a man who held up this type of standard for his son. That he did so without showing by example that such standards led to satisfying goals-he himself did not work or provide adequately for his family-may well have been the cause for resentment in Mack.
But Mack only hints at this state of affairs. Each time he describes an au- thoritarian trait or behavior pattern of his father he seems constrained to deny it or to cancel it out by mentioning something of an opposite charac- ter: although "he forced some decisions on me," he "allowed me to do as I pleased"; arguments were about "things he didn't want me to have," but "he never denied me anything I needed"; "he scolded but usually talked things over"; "I've had to shift for myself a lot," but "his attention to us kids was very admirable. " It is possible, of course, that these statements should be taken at their face value, for such inconsistency as Mack describes is cer- tainly not uncommon among parents. In this case the conclusion would be that our subject had to deal both with authoritarian discipline and with kindly splicitude on the part of his father. This circumstance would not have pre- vented the discipline from being resented but it would have made open rebel- lion against it very difficult, if not impossible. W ith the father in the position of both disciplinarian and love object it would have been necessary for Mack to submit to the discipline in order not to lose the love.
There is reason enough to believe that after the death of the mother1 Mack's father did have the central role which is here assigned to him, but it is doubt- ful that Mack got as much from his father as he seems to want us to believe or that the father's dominance was always as easily excused. Mack seems entirely unambiguous when it comes to the matter of his father's distance from himself. Not only does he appear to have been genuinely troubled by the father's advanced age and to feel that this by itself made the latter inac- cessible, but the nearest he comes to uttering a complaint against the father is when he refers, repeatedly but as it seems reluctantly, to the old man's re- tiring nature. It is easy to believe that a man who "used to spend his winters alone in the mountains" was deeply introverted, and it is easy to imagine
that after the death of his wife he used to spend a great deal of time brooding at home, rousing himself now and then to issue a categorical command and telling himself occasionally that he ought to take more interest in "the kids. " This picture is unlike that found most commonly among the fathers of
1 It should be borne in mind, as the effects of the mother's death upon Mack's develop- ment are discussed in this chapter, that of the 7 subjects in our sample of interviewees who suffered the same misfortune, all were high on the E scale.
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prejudiced men; one might even go so far as to speculate that Mack's father was himself unprejudiced; but even so, his silence and reserve could have been of decisive importance in impelling Mack in the direction of prejudice. If this father possessed such human qualities as suggested above, they were certainly lost on Mack, who says he "can't understand" his father's with- drawal. It is likely that after the mother's death Mack turned to his father for love and comfort, but there is no evidence that he received it in adequate measure. There is no hint of warmth or demonstrativeness on the father's part; instead he is assigned those empty virtues-moral strictness and kindness -which prejudiced subjects characteristically ascribe to parents with whom they were not on good terms. Silence and distance, no less than meaningless aggression, on a father's part may be a sufficient stimulus for fear and hos- tility in the son.
In summary, it seems that the nearest we can come to an estimate of what the father was like in reality is to say that he was a defeated man who, in an authoritarian manner, held up conventional moral standards for his son with- out being able to show by example that adherence to these standards actually led to worthwhile ends; after the death of his wife he seems to have tried to take over some of the maternal functions in his relations with his children but because of his own personality problems he was unable to be understanq- ing or affectionate toward his son.
c. CousiN Buo. Although very little is known about Bud, the cousin two months younger than our subject, it must be noted that he seems to have sup- plied more or less constant male companionship for Mack. There is a hint that Bud was the stronger and more assertive of the two boys; Mack was sick much of the time and finally failed in Officer Candidate School because of his stomach condition, while Bud, at the time of our interview, was overseas as a member of the armed services.
d. MoTHER. In approaching the question of what Mack's mother was actually like, in her relations with her own son, we face the same difficulty that arose in the case of the father: our subject tends to glorify his parents, and, in assigning traits to them, to express so well his own personality needs that we cannot accept his appraisal at face value. When Mack tells us that his
mother was kind and self-sacrificing ("she devoted her last strength to us kids") and that she was morally strict ("she brought us up very strictly in this [church] guidance") our first thought is that this is what the great ma- jority of our prejudiced subjects-in contrast to the unprejudiced ones- report. The question is whether Mack's mother, and the mothers of most high-scoring men, was actually as he describes her-in which case we should understand the relations of this type of maternal influence to prejudice in the son-or whether the personality needs of the subject are such that he has to describe the mother as he does, even though she may have been quite dif- ferent in reality.
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 793
There seems little reason to' doubt that the mother was strict in much the way that Mack describes. She tried to bring up her children according to the moral principles of the Methodist Church and she, no more than the father, could give sex instruction to the subject. This general pattern of strict- ness seems to have been carried forward by the aunt and by the sister after the mother's death. It can well be imagined that the sister especially, who was cast so prematurely into the role of mother-"the little old lady"-overdid in her attempts to enforce conventional moral standards. But there is no basis for thinking of Mack as a victim of "maternal domination"; the strictness which we may envision here seems no more than what is ordinary among mothers of the lower middle-class.
That Mack may have felt imposed upon by these women, however, is another matter. He may well have felt that the amount of love he received was far from being enough to make up for the restrictions that were placed on him. True, Mack undoubtedly received some genuine love from his mother. When he remembers "her reading and singing to us" and notes that he does not have such recollections of his father, when he reports his distress on learn- ing of her death, and when he says-at the conclusion of his T. A. T. session- "there were times when I would have gone to a mother had I had one," it seems clear that he at the least knew what it was to be loved by his mother. But Mack lost this love, and the indications are that it went hard with him. The sense of deprivation and of injustice that this loss may have aroused in him could easily have made later restrictions seem unfair; if at the time of
the mother's death Mack harbored some resentment because of her real or imagined strictness, there would be sufficient reason why he, out of guilt feel- ings, should idealize her.
The mother's illness, which seems to have been a lingering one ("she was sick in bed a great deal of the time" and had three operations), was probably also a significant factor in our subject's development. It could have meant that although he received a certain amount of love, he did not feel secure about it; there must have been many times when he wanted more than she was able to give, and because she was sick in bed he could not be demanding or give vent to the anger which his frustration must have aroused in him. e. MAcK's ILLNESS. Mack's illness as a boy may be regarded both as an event which had important effects upon his later behavior and. attitudes and as something which itself may have been, in large part, psychologically de- termined. That the illness must have been severe and of long standing seems clear from the following: "I have had a lot of sickness; stomach trouble ever since I was 12. I had my first hemorrhage from the stomach when I was 18" and "I went to OCS and got sick just before getting my commission. " An
indication of how much this illness has meant to Mack is found in his state- ment on his questionnaire that "physical weakness, perhaps due to ill health
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continued over the last four years" is the mood or feeling most disturbing
2. DEEPER PERSONALITY NEEDS
The concern here is with those needs in Mack's personality which were aroused with particular intensity early in his life and which were later in- hibited so that their present activity becomes manifest only in indirect ways. These needs do not form a part of his "better self"; they are not accepted by
his ego, and he would conceal them from himself as well as from other people.
To appraise these needs, therefore, it is necessary to use special techniques for getting below the surface, to call into play what psychological insight we can, and to rely rather heavily upon inference. The T. A. T. and the Projec- tive Questions offer some evidence bearing fairly directly upon inhibited trends in the personality; analysis of the interview material with special atten- tion to "giveaways" of hidden motives can provide further understanding. When the results of this analysis are integrated with the projective material, ~ and when the conclusions reached are viewed in the light of what is known from psychoanalytic investigation of similar cases,3 a meaningful formula- tion of the most important deeper personality needs may be achieved.
a. DEPENDENCE. After a reading of Mack's interview, one might be in- clined to say that his dependence-his wish to be taken care of, to have someone to lean upon-is hardly below the surface. He tells us straight out that he missed his mother very much, that he relied upon his sister's care, that there have been times when he has turned to the Bible for comfort; and when he speaks of his approaching marriage it seems plain that he is attracted by the prospect of having someone take care of him. Yet there is sufficient indication that Mack does not really accept his present dependence. It is only under special conditions that the need for love and support comes into the open. The first condition is that this need be made to appear as belonging to the past, as an aspect of his former self that he has, as it were, got over: There were times when he would have turned to a mother. The second con- dition is that the need be justified by the fact of illness. It is as if he felt that being physically ill is beyond one's control and that in this circum- stance one cannot be blamed, or accused of being weak, if he accepts help from others. :rhus, it is during periods of illness that he likes to turn to the Bible and it is because of his stomach condition that he can tolerate the idea
2 The greater incidence of "concern with physical symptoms" in high- than in low-scor- ing subjects has been discussed in Chapter XII. It is especially interesting to note in the present connection that of the 7 subjects from our sample of Psychiatric Clinic Patients (Chapter XXII) who, like Mack, suffered from stomach ulcers, 4 were high and none was low on the E scale.
3 Cf. in this connection Ackerman and Jahoda (r), E. Jones (58), and Sanford (ro4). A study of a case very similar to Mack, based entirely on questionnaire and projective material, has been reported by Sanford and Conrad (r07).
794
to him. 2
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 795
of his wife's working and coa'king for him. And even when these conditions are met, Mack does not seem to feel comfortable about being dependent; it is necessary for him to assert that, as a matter of fact, he is, and was, quite independent. This defensive procedure seems to go on unconsciously. Mack is not in the least aware of the bid for sympathy implicit in his recounting of his illnesses and handicaps.
There is, to be sure, nothing particularly remarkable about a young man's having feelings of dependence which he tries to suppress because they do not accord with his ideal of masculinity. But in Mack it seems that we are dealing with dependent impulses which are unusually strong, and which come to the surface in spite of his unusual pains to hold them in check. One might say that one reason he cannot allow himself openly to express these impulses is that they are childish, and that the reason they are so is because they were repressed in childhood and, hence, could not be transformed into more ma- ture forms of expression. It is here that the mother's illness and death would seem to have played a crucial role. As noted above, there is reason to believe that during the early years of his life Mack received considerable love and attention from his mother and felt close to her. Her illness intensified his need, and her death must have been a severe trauma for him. With the main source of love and comfort thus lost it is natural that he would make every attempt to repress his longings for dependence. His sister and his aunt were hardly adequate substitutes. And, as has also been noted above, his attempts to get "mother's love" from the father were frustrated by the latter's "dis- tance. " Mack's references to his father's devotion and attention can be better understood as expressions of a wish rather than as statements of what the father was like in actuality.
The manifestations of dependence contained in Mack's responses on the T. A. T. seem to have more to do with the father than with the mother. As the examiner points out, the need is for direction and advice rather than for love and understanding and it appears to be aroused by the fear of rejection. This would seem to reflect certain aspects of Mack's relations with his father, in later childhood, more than it reflects the early tie to the mother. The hypothesis would be that after the mother's death the father became both disciplinarian and love object, and it became necessary for Mack to go strictly according to his father's wishes in order to avoid the danger of a further loss of love. It was not, however, that he expected, or even dared to seek, the kind of warmth and care that he had experienced at his mother's hand. This aspect of the dependence need had been firmly repressed. Both the father-dependence and the mother-dependence conflict, at the present time, with Mack's ideal of masculinity and can be admitted only when suf- ficiently rationalized, but it is the mother-dependence that lies deeper and has resulted in the building up of the more elaborate defenses. One way in which this deeper dependence seems to find indirect expression is through the use of
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THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
symbols. The enjoyment of music and singing in church could have this sig- nificance. The same interpretation might be given to several of Mack's re- sponses to the Projective Questions: his desire to see all of the world, his fascination with natural wonders and with rare jewels and metals. As sub- stitutes for "mother" these cathected objects have the advantage of being sufficiently removed from the human, so that the forces of repression, orig- inally directed against the need for mother, are not brought into play. Mack's dependence upon "things," e. g. , food, the Bible, might conceivably be ex- plained in the same way. The special importance of illness, as a condition under which dependence can be admitted and gratified, has already been discussed. It remains only to point out that Mack's stomach ulcer was very probably psychogenic and that in this case it could be regarded, in accordance with generally accepted theory,4 as an expression par excellence of uncon- scious dependence.
b. HosTILITY AGAINST THE FATHER.
If the above attempt to reconstruct the actual behavior of Mack's father was successful then one might say that there was reason enough why our subject should feel hostile toward him. Silence and distance on the father's part when the son wants to be loved, authoritarian discipline without any demonstration of its purpose-these are stimuli which regularly arouse aggression, and there is no reason to suppose that Mack was an exception. But if Mack has such impulses they must be severely inhibited, for at no time does he allow himself freely to blame or to criticize his father. Indeed, the underlying hostility here hypothesized is very well concealed and it is only by the maximum use of subtle cues that we become convinced of its existence.
In responding to the Projective Questions Mack tell us that "anger" is the emotion which he finds most difficult to control. This is in keeping with his references, in the interview, td his "hot temper" and "stubborn nature. " These expressions might be understood in the light of his need to impress us with his masculinity, to present himself as a man who is not to be trifled with. They might be dismissed as the whistling in the dark of a young man who in his overt behavior is-far from being aggressive-rather timid and deferential. But in another response to the Projective Questions-"murder and rape" are the worst crimes-we are given a hint that aggression might indeed be one of Mack's preoccupations, and when we come to the T. A. T. , evidence that this is true accumulates. Here the analysis seems to reveal "underlying hostile feelings toward the world," "crude aggressive fantasies," and a tendency to "impulsive antisocial acts. " A striking figure in the stories is that of a young man "who might do violence if pushed too far. " We are given no direct in- dication of what might be the form of the violence or against whom it might be directed. The responses are like the bare and unqualified "anger" of the Projective Questions. But in the present light it seems clear that in that in-
4Cf. for example, F. Alexander, et al. (5),
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 797
stance Mack was doing more 'than protesting his toughness; he was probably telling us the truth. Not that he frequently becomes angry and gets into trouble; it is rather that he is afraid he might become angry and release forces which, though n. ot familiar to him, are vaguely imagined to be primitive and chaotic and likely to provoke disastrous retaliation.
What are the reasons for believing that this deep-lying hostility is directed primarily against the father? We have already seen that the father is the central figure in Mack's imagery of his childhood and that the father was the source of major frustrations. The T. A. T. stories contain no instances in which heroes express aggression against father figures, but the T. A. T. analysis contains indications that it is precisely this type of aggression that our sub- ject is most concerned to control. Whereas hostility against women is clearly manifested by T. A. T. heroes and can be regarded as a tendency that is accepted by Mack's ego, the primitive impulsive aggression of which we speak is exhibited only by characters whom the story-teller has been at pains to reject and it may be regarded, therefore, as ego-alien. This ego-alien ag- gression is directed against powerful figures, against "oppressors. " "The young man looks as if he might commit murder if oppressed. " But the heroes do not fight oppression; instead, to quote the T. A. T. analysis, they "identify themselves with the restraining force. " Thus, the T. A. T. material favors the hypothesis that underlying aggression against the father has immediately to be countered-disclaimed, redirected, or smothered-because the father is conceived as too strong and dangerous. And in this circumstance the aggres- sion itself is felt to be dangerous.
In this light, a rereading of Mack's interview seems to show clearly the ambivalence of his feelings about his father. It is entirely necessary for Mack that every implied criticism of the father be taken back or counterbalanced by "good" traits; otherwise the hostility might come too much into the open, and with it, images of disastrous consequences. A rather poignant illustration of what Mack is up against is afforded by one of his responses to the Projective Questions. He gives as one of his two greatest assets, "ability to enjoy people's company. " At first glance this might not seem to be much to be proud of, but in Mack's case it represents a real achievement. After telling us, in the interview, of his father's social withdrawal he says, "I looked at my father and saw that I had to do differently," and "I have gone in for social things in spite of a great dread of them. " Going in for social things is an expression of rebellion against the father, and hence the "great dread. " In no other instance, as far as our material goes, has Mack made so bold; and even here it must have been a comfort to him to know that "he (the father) was pleased and he encouraged me. "
c. SuBMISSION, PAssiVITY, AND HoMOSEXUALITY. With the single not very striking deviation just described, the general picture of Mack's surface at- titudes toward his father is one of submission and admiration. And this
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despite the subject's claim to stubbornness and independence. One might say that his only recourse in the face of what he conceived to be the father's irresistible power was to submit-and then to gain a sense of adequacy by par- ticipating psychologically in the father's power. This, in the last analysis, is the homosexual solution of the Oedipus problem. 5 It is not surprising, there- fore, to find in Mack's T. A. T. productions clear indications of his fear of homosexual attack. (This is made manifest, primarily, in his treatment of the "hypnotist" picture. )
Even without this piece of direct evidence we would be led to hypothesize repressed homosexuality in order to explain some of the outstanding features of Mack's personality development. The material is replete with manifesta- tions of authoritarian submission. As clear a manifestation as any, perhaps, is the conception of God "as strictly a man, one who would treat us as a father would his son. " There would seem to be no doubt that Mack has longed for his father's love-as we should expect in a boy who lost his mother when he was 6 years old. He has tried to replace the imagery of a bad, dangerous father with imagery of a good father who would spend "all of his time with us. " But Mack is not able to admit this need. Even while acting in a submis- sive and deferential manner he seems to cling to the belief that he is very manly and self-sufficient. The reason for this self-deception, we can well believe, is that, for this subject, to submit to a man and so to gain his love has definite sexual implications. It may be connected with very primitive imagery of passivity and emasculation. One might say that Mack's homosexuality, repressed in childhood in a setting of sadomasochistic relations with the father, has remained on an infantile level; insufficiently sublimated, it can- not find gratification in friendly, equalitarian relations with men but, instead, it determines that most such relations have to be on a dominance-submission dimension.
d. FEAR OF WEAKNESS. It is Mack's repressed homosexuality, very prob- ably, that is mainly responsible for his compelling fear of weakness. If weak- ness means emasculation, if it means being at the mercy of an irresistibly strong man, then it is not difficult to see why this subject should exert every effort to make himself appear impregnable.
Fear of weakness, and the need to conceal any signs of it, comes almost to the surface in Mack. As we shall see in a moment it seems to lie immediately behind a number of his most pronounced manifest traits and attitudes. But just because Mack is so concerned to cover up his fear, direct evidence of its existence is not easy to obtain. Perhaps the closest he comes to an open admis- sion is when he writes, in response to the Projective Question, "What mood or feelings are most disturbing? ": "Physical weakness, perhaps due to ill health continued over the last four years. " If the weakness is clearly physical and can be excused on the ground of ill health, then it can be fully admitted. But
5 Cf. S. Freud (41), E. Jones (58), and, for a recent discussion, C. Thompson (117).
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 799
it is not physical weakness aione, but a general sense of inadequacy which seems to be expressed indirectly in Mack's response to the Projective Ques- tion pertaining to greatest assets: "A definite desire to raise myself phys- ically, financially, and socially. " Not that a desire to raise oneself is neces- sarily based upon an underlying sense of inadequacy; the argument that it is so based in Mack's case rests upon what appears to be the extraordinary em- phasis that he places upon this desire and upon supporting indications from the T. A. T. It may be recalled that the analysis of Mack's stories gave con- siderable emphasis to the "underlying fears and feelings of inadequacy behind the desire to 'be a strong individual' or to 'be like most men. '"
The T. A. T. throws rather direct light upon the sexual aspects of the fear of weakness. The manifest attitudes of contempt and distrust toward women seem clearly to derive from the idea that they will drag a man down or de- prive him of his "strong character. " It is because women are weak that they are not to be trusted; they are out to exploit the man and to reduce his manli- ness by involving him in the "sordid" business of sex.
The role of Mack's physical illness, particularly in childhood, in determin- ing the fear of weakness should not be underestimated. W e can well imagine that the experiences of illness rearoused the infantile anxiety of helplessness. More than this, the sense of being a "sickly boy" might have put Mack at a disadvantage in his relations with his Cousin Bud, so that homosexual feelings were aroused-with the consequences that have been discussed above. Again, the weaker Mack was in actuality the ~tronger would the father appear to him; and it was the idea that the father was too strong and dangerous, we may suppose, that prevented any basic identification with him. This failure in identification would, by itself, be sufficient ground for the fear that he was not quite a man. The mother's illness and death was probably a factor here also. As suggested above, there is some reason to believe that in the early years of his life Mack tended rather strongly to identify with his mother. (His illness may, indeed, have been in some part an identification with her. ) He still has his "softer side," as it were. But following her death this identi- fication could hardly have remained as a source of inner security; on the contrary, Mack had had an experience well calculated to promote terrify- ing ideas of what it might mean to be feminine, and we should expect him to regard any feminine traits within himself primarily as areas of vul- nerability.
This consideration of Mack's fear of weakness seems to throw further light on his struggle with dependence. It is very likely that he regards his dependent needs as signs of weakness-the same kind of weakness that has just been discussed-and that this is another reason why he cannot freely admit the existence of these needs. It is as if accepting help or love or comfort from a woman meant being somehow identified with her, and hence open to the dangers with which women have to contend. Accepting help oriove
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or comfort from a man suggest being treated like a woman by that man, and hence threatened with the loss of masculinity. But because in his innermost self Mack would like to be treated in just this way, the sense of weakness is constantly stimulated, and no amount of counteractive striving can entirely dispel it.
3. DYNAMICS OF SURFACE BEHA VIOR AND A TTITUDES
Given these underlying trends-'-dependence, hostility against the father, submis~;ion, passivity and homosexuality, and fear of weakness-it is possible to offer reasonable explanations for most of Mack's characteristic traits and attitudes. These surface trends can be understood in large part as derivations or transformations of the deep-lying needs we have discussed. Surface and depth are connected by means of well-known psychological mechanisms.
An abstract formulation of Mack's personality, in its genetic aspects, is sketched in its general outlines in Figure 1 (XX). Genetically early forces and events appear at the bottom of the chart, and the course of development is followed by reading upward, arrows indicating the directions of de- termination and the points at which it is applied. No attempt is made to indicate the nature of the causation in the various instances. A rough cor- respondence between order in the genetic sequence and degree of depth within the contemporary personality structure is assumed, the earliest reac- tion tendencies being regarded as those which now lie deepest within the personality.
It may be noted at once that fear of weakness occupies the most central position on the chart. Deriving, as we have seen, chiefly from the deep-lying tendencies toward dependence on the one hand and toward subinission, pas- sivity and homosexuality on the other, this fear necessitates several protective devices which lead to a variety of behavior patterns and general attitudes at the surface level. The fear has to be denied, allayed, and if possible, overcome.
? W e observe in Mack, therefore, attempts to conceal weakness by verbal denial and by presenting a fac;ade of toughness, to get rid of weakness by projecting it onto other people, chiefly outgroups, and then condemning them on this score, to overcompensate for weakness by strivings for power and status and to allay the sense of weakness by aligning himself with power- ful individuals and groups.
Little more need be said, it seems, concerning Mack's straightout verbal denial of weakness. It is simply that all through his interview he is at pains to tell us that he is not weak but strong and that if at any time he has appeared to be weak, then this was entirely justified by external circumstances. Of particular importance for Mack's susceptibility to fascist propaganda is the fact that the need to excuse weakness sometimes leads him into distortions of reality; he exaggerates the power and misreads the intentions of outgroups accQrding to the formula, "If I appear to be weak, it is because they are so
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FIGURE 1 (XX)
THE GENETIC ASPECTS OF MACK'S PERSONALITY
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? 8o2 THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY
strong and out to take unfair advantage of me. " The mechanism is the same as that which underlies the "persecution complex" so regularly associated with repressed homosexuality, though the conflict in Mack seems much less intense than that found in clinic patients. What we see on the surface here is the self- pity implicit in his thesis that he has done well considering all that he has had to contend with, and his projective thinking about such outgroups as the Jews, the New Deal, and the Washington bureaus. There can be little doubt that the problem with which Mack is struggling here was first presented to him in connection with his childhood relations with his father: "How can I be expected to oppose, to be strong and independent, to become a man, when father is so strong. " That he has been able to transpose the whole complex into the area of group relations saves him from having to oppose any individ- ual or group that is really strong, and at the same time-since his ideas are now shared for various reasons by many other people-to achieve an appearance of "normality" that he would not have were he to concentrate on a single private "enemy. "
Mack has made some attempt to conceal weakness by contriving a tough exterior. The leather jacket and the "nice equipment, for example a good rifle" are probably intended as unmistakable signs of masculinity. Mack is unable, however, to behave aggressively,6 and hence the device of over- compensatory toughness does not serve him as well as it does many prejudiced men. But if he is unable to be physically tough, he can at least be tough- minded. His general attitude of anti-intraception can be understood as pri- marily an attempt to ward off any suggestion of "softness" that might be implicit in a more human way of looking at things.
The most primitive mechanism for dispelling a sense of weakness is the projection, "I am not weak, they are. " Mack makes some use of this mech- anism, though not in the crudest possible way. It is not so much that he sees weakness where none exists; rather, he thinks of people and groups in rigid categories of weak versus strong, and if any weakness is actually there it is what first strikes his eye, as it were, and he reacts to it in a particular way. His main concern is not to be in any way identified with weakness. Religious people, Jewish refugees, and women may actually be, in one sense or another, weak, but for Mack this is the main fact about these groups of people and he must at all costs set them apart from himself.
(What did you worry most about as a kid? ) "Well, mostly about being held back by lack of funds. I worried about such things. In the 7th grade, I was the best speller, but I remember a defeat by a girl at the county spelling bee. Often I was just a little under the top. Just like in the service. I went to OCS, and got sick just before getting my commission. Usually I tried too hard, like in football. I was not as good an end as I should have been. I dropped passes because I tried too hard and so I was mediocre. Now, when I'm relaxed I have no trouble at all.
"They found I was anemic at the age of 12. I had my first hemorrhage from the stomach when I was 18. lt always comes around when I start working too hard. "
(Where did you get your sex instruction? ) "I never had any from my parents, though I did get some suggestions from my aunt; no real instruction. What I know I have picked up from reading. I've listened to men talk, but accepted little of it; I weighed it in the light of what I have read. "
(What was your first sex experience? ) "It was in 1940-41, the aftermath of a New Year's party in Washington. There was liquor. I was always the backward boy. I hope to get married to the girl I'm going with now. She is an awfully nice companion. Most girls are interested only in a good time and want fellows with lots of money to spend. I didn't have the money for giving them a swell time. The girl I'm in love with now lived 9 miles from me. She attended a rival high school. I dated her once in high school. When I got back from the army, I worked in a lumber mill. This girl had graduated f r o m - - and started teaching. Her uncle is the vice-presi- dent of the bank. I talked to him about buying an automobile that she was interested in. I looked it over for her, since I knew something about cars, and told her it was in good condition. I got started going with her that way. I found out that she wasn't interested in money, but was interested in me in spite of my discharge from the army, my poor health and prospects. She's just very good-not beautiful, but a . tre- mendously nice personality. She is French with some Irish in her. She has a nice figure and is very wholesome. When we get married depends on circumstances. It's quite a responsibility. She wants to get married now; she is teaching in _ _ _ _ . I'm under the GI Bill. If I get assurance of four years in college, I might get married' this spring. We're well suited; I know she's interested in me, because I have so little to offer. We're both at the proper age. I intend to work part time. I don't like her teaching; I like to support my wife. I've always had that idea. But maybe under the
circumstances, that won't be fully possible. She is a good cook, and that is an asset, what with my stomach condition. When I tell her that you approve of our mar- riage, she will be pleased, but of course, I'm always a man to make my own de- cisions. "
1. ENVIRONMENT AL FORCES AND EVENTS
a. SociOECONOMIC FACTORS. Mack is not very informative with respect to the socioeconomic status of his family-partly because he was not questioned
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THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
closely enough and partly, as it seems, because he is sometimes tempted to dis- tort the facts. We learned from his questionnaire, it may be recalled, that the father is a "retired lumberman" with an annual income of $1,ooo. In the interview we are told that the father has not worked for thirty years (this would mean that he stopped working when he was 47, approximately six years before Mack was born) and that his present income is from "stocks and bonds. " At the time he did work the wage, we are told, was $75 a month, hardly enough to have accumulated stocks and bonds the income from which is $I,ooo a year. The most plausible hypothesis, it seems, is that Mack is merely guessing at the time since the father retired, that it was actually not so long as thirty years, and that the major portion of the income is from a pension. ("He owned some lumber lands, but he mostly preferred working for other people. ") That the father owned his home probably helped to give the family an aspect of stability, but there seems little reason to doubt that Mack was indeed "held back by lack of funds" or that this was a cause for worry.
The status of the family would seem to have been lower middle-class, bordering on lower class. There was certainly little upward mobility in the sense of actual social or economic advancement. Whether or not the family was concerned with status is a question. The mother and the aunt appear to have tried to keep the children in Sunday School, but the father, whom Mack regards as his major guide, seems not to have participated in this en- deavor. W e are told that the father wanted his son to go into business, which is not remarkable; but that he did not want Mack to work as a boy because "he thought it was beneath me" sounds definitely status-minded. It also sounds somewhat dubious. We are led to wonder whether we are not dealing here with the status-mindedness of the son rather than with that of the father. It seems that part of the time Mack would like to gain prestige by giving the impression that his father was a man of parts-a retiFed lumberman who was "known throughout the country as a man whose word was as good as his bond"-and that part of the time he would attain the same end by showing that he had done well despite the economic handicaps with which he had to
contend. A man who retired on $I,ooo a year at the age of 47, or when his two children were in infancy-or not yet born-could hardly be described as a go- getter or as a man who was deeply concerned to secure advantages and status for his children. That Mack does not deliberately tell us this may probably be put down as an aspect of his general inability to criticize his father.
b. FATHER. Although the father seems not to have been status-driven in the ordinary sense, there is no evidence that he was relaxed or easy-going with respect either to traditional morality or the values of a business com- munity. While Mack undoubtedly exaggerates the virtuous aspects of his father, some of the remarks about his moral strictness have the ring of truth.
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 791
He "followed the church rules" although he did not go to church, he "drank but little, and never smoked," he was "very honest and strict in his dealings -so honest that he wouldn't condone charge accounts"; even when consid- erably discounted, these remarks still give a picture of a rigidly moral man or at the least, of a man who held up this type of standard for his son. That he did so without showing by example that such standards led to satisfying goals-he himself did not work or provide adequately for his family-may well have been the cause for resentment in Mack.
But Mack only hints at this state of affairs. Each time he describes an au- thoritarian trait or behavior pattern of his father he seems constrained to deny it or to cancel it out by mentioning something of an opposite charac- ter: although "he forced some decisions on me," he "allowed me to do as I pleased"; arguments were about "things he didn't want me to have," but "he never denied me anything I needed"; "he scolded but usually talked things over"; "I've had to shift for myself a lot," but "his attention to us kids was very admirable. " It is possible, of course, that these statements should be taken at their face value, for such inconsistency as Mack describes is cer- tainly not uncommon among parents. In this case the conclusion would be that our subject had to deal both with authoritarian discipline and with kindly splicitude on the part of his father. This circumstance would not have pre- vented the discipline from being resented but it would have made open rebel- lion against it very difficult, if not impossible. W ith the father in the position of both disciplinarian and love object it would have been necessary for Mack to submit to the discipline in order not to lose the love.
There is reason enough to believe that after the death of the mother1 Mack's father did have the central role which is here assigned to him, but it is doubt- ful that Mack got as much from his father as he seems to want us to believe or that the father's dominance was always as easily excused. Mack seems entirely unambiguous when it comes to the matter of his father's distance from himself. Not only does he appear to have been genuinely troubled by the father's advanced age and to feel that this by itself made the latter inac- cessible, but the nearest he comes to uttering a complaint against the father is when he refers, repeatedly but as it seems reluctantly, to the old man's re- tiring nature. It is easy to believe that a man who "used to spend his winters alone in the mountains" was deeply introverted, and it is easy to imagine
that after the death of his wife he used to spend a great deal of time brooding at home, rousing himself now and then to issue a categorical command and telling himself occasionally that he ought to take more interest in "the kids. " This picture is unlike that found most commonly among the fathers of
1 It should be borne in mind, as the effects of the mother's death upon Mack's develop- ment are discussed in this chapter, that of the 7 subjects in our sample of interviewees who suffered the same misfortune, all were high on the E scale.
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THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
prejudiced men; one might even go so far as to speculate that Mack's father was himself unprejudiced; but even so, his silence and reserve could have been of decisive importance in impelling Mack in the direction of prejudice. If this father possessed such human qualities as suggested above, they were certainly lost on Mack, who says he "can't understand" his father's with- drawal. It is likely that after the mother's death Mack turned to his father for love and comfort, but there is no evidence that he received it in adequate measure. There is no hint of warmth or demonstrativeness on the father's part; instead he is assigned those empty virtues-moral strictness and kindness -which prejudiced subjects characteristically ascribe to parents with whom they were not on good terms. Silence and distance, no less than meaningless aggression, on a father's part may be a sufficient stimulus for fear and hos- tility in the son.
In summary, it seems that the nearest we can come to an estimate of what the father was like in reality is to say that he was a defeated man who, in an authoritarian manner, held up conventional moral standards for his son with- out being able to show by example that adherence to these standards actually led to worthwhile ends; after the death of his wife he seems to have tried to take over some of the maternal functions in his relations with his children but because of his own personality problems he was unable to be understanq- ing or affectionate toward his son.
c. CousiN Buo. Although very little is known about Bud, the cousin two months younger than our subject, it must be noted that he seems to have sup- plied more or less constant male companionship for Mack. There is a hint that Bud was the stronger and more assertive of the two boys; Mack was sick much of the time and finally failed in Officer Candidate School because of his stomach condition, while Bud, at the time of our interview, was overseas as a member of the armed services.
d. MoTHER. In approaching the question of what Mack's mother was actually like, in her relations with her own son, we face the same difficulty that arose in the case of the father: our subject tends to glorify his parents, and, in assigning traits to them, to express so well his own personality needs that we cannot accept his appraisal at face value. When Mack tells us that his
mother was kind and self-sacrificing ("she devoted her last strength to us kids") and that she was morally strict ("she brought us up very strictly in this [church] guidance") our first thought is that this is what the great ma- jority of our prejudiced subjects-in contrast to the unprejudiced ones- report. The question is whether Mack's mother, and the mothers of most high-scoring men, was actually as he describes her-in which case we should understand the relations of this type of maternal influence to prejudice in the son-or whether the personality needs of the subject are such that he has to describe the mother as he does, even though she may have been quite dif- ferent in reality.
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 793
There seems little reason to' doubt that the mother was strict in much the way that Mack describes. She tried to bring up her children according to the moral principles of the Methodist Church and she, no more than the father, could give sex instruction to the subject. This general pattern of strict- ness seems to have been carried forward by the aunt and by the sister after the mother's death. It can well be imagined that the sister especially, who was cast so prematurely into the role of mother-"the little old lady"-overdid in her attempts to enforce conventional moral standards. But there is no basis for thinking of Mack as a victim of "maternal domination"; the strictness which we may envision here seems no more than what is ordinary among mothers of the lower middle-class.
That Mack may have felt imposed upon by these women, however, is another matter. He may well have felt that the amount of love he received was far from being enough to make up for the restrictions that were placed on him. True, Mack undoubtedly received some genuine love from his mother. When he remembers "her reading and singing to us" and notes that he does not have such recollections of his father, when he reports his distress on learn- ing of her death, and when he says-at the conclusion of his T. A. T. session- "there were times when I would have gone to a mother had I had one," it seems clear that he at the least knew what it was to be loved by his mother. But Mack lost this love, and the indications are that it went hard with him. The sense of deprivation and of injustice that this loss may have aroused in him could easily have made later restrictions seem unfair; if at the time of
the mother's death Mack harbored some resentment because of her real or imagined strictness, there would be sufficient reason why he, out of guilt feel- ings, should idealize her.
The mother's illness, which seems to have been a lingering one ("she was sick in bed a great deal of the time" and had three operations), was probably also a significant factor in our subject's development. It could have meant that although he received a certain amount of love, he did not feel secure about it; there must have been many times when he wanted more than she was able to give, and because she was sick in bed he could not be demanding or give vent to the anger which his frustration must have aroused in him. e. MAcK's ILLNESS. Mack's illness as a boy may be regarded both as an event which had important effects upon his later behavior and. attitudes and as something which itself may have been, in large part, psychologically de- termined. That the illness must have been severe and of long standing seems clear from the following: "I have had a lot of sickness; stomach trouble ever since I was 12. I had my first hemorrhage from the stomach when I was 18" and "I went to OCS and got sick just before getting my commission. " An
indication of how much this illness has meant to Mack is found in his state- ment on his questionnaire that "physical weakness, perhaps due to ill health
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
continued over the last four years" is the mood or feeling most disturbing
2. DEEPER PERSONALITY NEEDS
The concern here is with those needs in Mack's personality which were aroused with particular intensity early in his life and which were later in- hibited so that their present activity becomes manifest only in indirect ways. These needs do not form a part of his "better self"; they are not accepted by
his ego, and he would conceal them from himself as well as from other people.
To appraise these needs, therefore, it is necessary to use special techniques for getting below the surface, to call into play what psychological insight we can, and to rely rather heavily upon inference. The T. A. T. and the Projec- tive Questions offer some evidence bearing fairly directly upon inhibited trends in the personality; analysis of the interview material with special atten- tion to "giveaways" of hidden motives can provide further understanding. When the results of this analysis are integrated with the projective material, ~ and when the conclusions reached are viewed in the light of what is known from psychoanalytic investigation of similar cases,3 a meaningful formula- tion of the most important deeper personality needs may be achieved.
a. DEPENDENCE. After a reading of Mack's interview, one might be in- clined to say that his dependence-his wish to be taken care of, to have someone to lean upon-is hardly below the surface. He tells us straight out that he missed his mother very much, that he relied upon his sister's care, that there have been times when he has turned to the Bible for comfort; and when he speaks of his approaching marriage it seems plain that he is attracted by the prospect of having someone take care of him. Yet there is sufficient indication that Mack does not really accept his present dependence. It is only under special conditions that the need for love and support comes into the open. The first condition is that this need be made to appear as belonging to the past, as an aspect of his former self that he has, as it were, got over: There were times when he would have turned to a mother. The second con- dition is that the need be justified by the fact of illness. It is as if he felt that being physically ill is beyond one's control and that in this circum- stance one cannot be blamed, or accused of being weak, if he accepts help from others. :rhus, it is during periods of illness that he likes to turn to the Bible and it is because of his stomach condition that he can tolerate the idea
2 The greater incidence of "concern with physical symptoms" in high- than in low-scor- ing subjects has been discussed in Chapter XII. It is especially interesting to note in the present connection that of the 7 subjects from our sample of Psychiatric Clinic Patients (Chapter XXII) who, like Mack, suffered from stomach ulcers, 4 were high and none was low on the E scale.
3 Cf. in this connection Ackerman and Jahoda (r), E. Jones (58), and Sanford (ro4). A study of a case very similar to Mack, based entirely on questionnaire and projective material, has been reported by Sanford and Conrad (r07).
794
to him. 2
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 795
of his wife's working and coa'king for him. And even when these conditions are met, Mack does not seem to feel comfortable about being dependent; it is necessary for him to assert that, as a matter of fact, he is, and was, quite independent. This defensive procedure seems to go on unconsciously. Mack is not in the least aware of the bid for sympathy implicit in his recounting of his illnesses and handicaps.
There is, to be sure, nothing particularly remarkable about a young man's having feelings of dependence which he tries to suppress because they do not accord with his ideal of masculinity. But in Mack it seems that we are dealing with dependent impulses which are unusually strong, and which come to the surface in spite of his unusual pains to hold them in check. One might say that one reason he cannot allow himself openly to express these impulses is that they are childish, and that the reason they are so is because they were repressed in childhood and, hence, could not be transformed into more ma- ture forms of expression. It is here that the mother's illness and death would seem to have played a crucial role. As noted above, there is reason to believe that during the early years of his life Mack received considerable love and attention from his mother and felt close to her. Her illness intensified his need, and her death must have been a severe trauma for him. With the main source of love and comfort thus lost it is natural that he would make every attempt to repress his longings for dependence. His sister and his aunt were hardly adequate substitutes. And, as has also been noted above, his attempts to get "mother's love" from the father were frustrated by the latter's "dis- tance. " Mack's references to his father's devotion and attention can be better understood as expressions of a wish rather than as statements of what the father was like in actuality.
The manifestations of dependence contained in Mack's responses on the T. A. T. seem to have more to do with the father than with the mother. As the examiner points out, the need is for direction and advice rather than for love and understanding and it appears to be aroused by the fear of rejection. This would seem to reflect certain aspects of Mack's relations with his father, in later childhood, more than it reflects the early tie to the mother. The hypothesis would be that after the mother's death the father became both disciplinarian and love object, and it became necessary for Mack to go strictly according to his father's wishes in order to avoid the danger of a further loss of love. It was not, however, that he expected, or even dared to seek, the kind of warmth and care that he had experienced at his mother's hand. This aspect of the dependence need had been firmly repressed. Both the father-dependence and the mother-dependence conflict, at the present time, with Mack's ideal of masculinity and can be admitted only when suf- ficiently rationalized, but it is the mother-dependence that lies deeper and has resulted in the building up of the more elaborate defenses. One way in which this deeper dependence seems to find indirect expression is through the use of
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THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
symbols. The enjoyment of music and singing in church could have this sig- nificance. The same interpretation might be given to several of Mack's re- sponses to the Projective Questions: his desire to see all of the world, his fascination with natural wonders and with rare jewels and metals. As sub- stitutes for "mother" these cathected objects have the advantage of being sufficiently removed from the human, so that the forces of repression, orig- inally directed against the need for mother, are not brought into play. Mack's dependence upon "things," e. g. , food, the Bible, might conceivably be ex- plained in the same way. The special importance of illness, as a condition under which dependence can be admitted and gratified, has already been discussed. It remains only to point out that Mack's stomach ulcer was very probably psychogenic and that in this case it could be regarded, in accordance with generally accepted theory,4 as an expression par excellence of uncon- scious dependence.
b. HosTILITY AGAINST THE FATHER.
If the above attempt to reconstruct the actual behavior of Mack's father was successful then one might say that there was reason enough why our subject should feel hostile toward him. Silence and distance on the father's part when the son wants to be loved, authoritarian discipline without any demonstration of its purpose-these are stimuli which regularly arouse aggression, and there is no reason to suppose that Mack was an exception. But if Mack has such impulses they must be severely inhibited, for at no time does he allow himself freely to blame or to criticize his father. Indeed, the underlying hostility here hypothesized is very well concealed and it is only by the maximum use of subtle cues that we become convinced of its existence.
In responding to the Projective Questions Mack tell us that "anger" is the emotion which he finds most difficult to control. This is in keeping with his references, in the interview, td his "hot temper" and "stubborn nature. " These expressions might be understood in the light of his need to impress us with his masculinity, to present himself as a man who is not to be trifled with. They might be dismissed as the whistling in the dark of a young man who in his overt behavior is-far from being aggressive-rather timid and deferential. But in another response to the Projective Questions-"murder and rape" are the worst crimes-we are given a hint that aggression might indeed be one of Mack's preoccupations, and when we come to the T. A. T. , evidence that this is true accumulates. Here the analysis seems to reveal "underlying hostile feelings toward the world," "crude aggressive fantasies," and a tendency to "impulsive antisocial acts. " A striking figure in the stories is that of a young man "who might do violence if pushed too far. " We are given no direct in- dication of what might be the form of the violence or against whom it might be directed. The responses are like the bare and unqualified "anger" of the Projective Questions. But in the present light it seems clear that in that in-
4Cf. for example, F. Alexander, et al. (5),
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 797
stance Mack was doing more 'than protesting his toughness; he was probably telling us the truth. Not that he frequently becomes angry and gets into trouble; it is rather that he is afraid he might become angry and release forces which, though n. ot familiar to him, are vaguely imagined to be primitive and chaotic and likely to provoke disastrous retaliation.
What are the reasons for believing that this deep-lying hostility is directed primarily against the father? We have already seen that the father is the central figure in Mack's imagery of his childhood and that the father was the source of major frustrations. The T. A. T. stories contain no instances in which heroes express aggression against father figures, but the T. A. T. analysis contains indications that it is precisely this type of aggression that our sub- ject is most concerned to control. Whereas hostility against women is clearly manifested by T. A. T. heroes and can be regarded as a tendency that is accepted by Mack's ego, the primitive impulsive aggression of which we speak is exhibited only by characters whom the story-teller has been at pains to reject and it may be regarded, therefore, as ego-alien. This ego-alien ag- gression is directed against powerful figures, against "oppressors. " "The young man looks as if he might commit murder if oppressed. " But the heroes do not fight oppression; instead, to quote the T. A. T. analysis, they "identify themselves with the restraining force. " Thus, the T. A. T. material favors the hypothesis that underlying aggression against the father has immediately to be countered-disclaimed, redirected, or smothered-because the father is conceived as too strong and dangerous. And in this circumstance the aggres- sion itself is felt to be dangerous.
In this light, a rereading of Mack's interview seems to show clearly the ambivalence of his feelings about his father. It is entirely necessary for Mack that every implied criticism of the father be taken back or counterbalanced by "good" traits; otherwise the hostility might come too much into the open, and with it, images of disastrous consequences. A rather poignant illustration of what Mack is up against is afforded by one of his responses to the Projective Questions. He gives as one of his two greatest assets, "ability to enjoy people's company. " At first glance this might not seem to be much to be proud of, but in Mack's case it represents a real achievement. After telling us, in the interview, of his father's social withdrawal he says, "I looked at my father and saw that I had to do differently," and "I have gone in for social things in spite of a great dread of them. " Going in for social things is an expression of rebellion against the father, and hence the "great dread. " In no other instance, as far as our material goes, has Mack made so bold; and even here it must have been a comfort to him to know that "he (the father) was pleased and he encouraged me. "
c. SuBMISSION, PAssiVITY, AND HoMOSEXUALITY. With the single not very striking deviation just described, the general picture of Mack's surface at- titudes toward his father is one of submission and admiration. And this
? THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY
despite the subject's claim to stubbornness and independence. One might say that his only recourse in the face of what he conceived to be the father's irresistible power was to submit-and then to gain a sense of adequacy by par- ticipating psychologically in the father's power. This, in the last analysis, is the homosexual solution of the Oedipus problem. 5 It is not surprising, there- fore, to find in Mack's T. A. T. productions clear indications of his fear of homosexual attack. (This is made manifest, primarily, in his treatment of the "hypnotist" picture. )
Even without this piece of direct evidence we would be led to hypothesize repressed homosexuality in order to explain some of the outstanding features of Mack's personality development. The material is replete with manifesta- tions of authoritarian submission. As clear a manifestation as any, perhaps, is the conception of God "as strictly a man, one who would treat us as a father would his son. " There would seem to be no doubt that Mack has longed for his father's love-as we should expect in a boy who lost his mother when he was 6 years old. He has tried to replace the imagery of a bad, dangerous father with imagery of a good father who would spend "all of his time with us. " But Mack is not able to admit this need. Even while acting in a submis- sive and deferential manner he seems to cling to the belief that he is very manly and self-sufficient. The reason for this self-deception, we can well believe, is that, for this subject, to submit to a man and so to gain his love has definite sexual implications. It may be connected with very primitive imagery of passivity and emasculation. One might say that Mack's homosexuality, repressed in childhood in a setting of sadomasochistic relations with the father, has remained on an infantile level; insufficiently sublimated, it can- not find gratification in friendly, equalitarian relations with men but, instead, it determines that most such relations have to be on a dominance-submission dimension.
d. FEAR OF WEAKNESS. It is Mack's repressed homosexuality, very prob- ably, that is mainly responsible for his compelling fear of weakness. If weak- ness means emasculation, if it means being at the mercy of an irresistibly strong man, then it is not difficult to see why this subject should exert every effort to make himself appear impregnable.
Fear of weakness, and the need to conceal any signs of it, comes almost to the surface in Mack. As we shall see in a moment it seems to lie immediately behind a number of his most pronounced manifest traits and attitudes. But just because Mack is so concerned to cover up his fear, direct evidence of its existence is not easy to obtain. Perhaps the closest he comes to an open admis- sion is when he writes, in response to the Projective Question, "What mood or feelings are most disturbing? ": "Physical weakness, perhaps due to ill health continued over the last four years. " If the weakness is clearly physical and can be excused on the ground of ill health, then it can be fully admitted. But
5 Cf. S. Freud (41), E. Jones (58), and, for a recent discussion, C. Thompson (117).
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 799
it is not physical weakness aione, but a general sense of inadequacy which seems to be expressed indirectly in Mack's response to the Projective Ques- tion pertaining to greatest assets: "A definite desire to raise myself phys- ically, financially, and socially. " Not that a desire to raise oneself is neces- sarily based upon an underlying sense of inadequacy; the argument that it is so based in Mack's case rests upon what appears to be the extraordinary em- phasis that he places upon this desire and upon supporting indications from the T. A. T. It may be recalled that the analysis of Mack's stories gave con- siderable emphasis to the "underlying fears and feelings of inadequacy behind the desire to 'be a strong individual' or to 'be like most men. '"
The T. A. T. throws rather direct light upon the sexual aspects of the fear of weakness. The manifest attitudes of contempt and distrust toward women seem clearly to derive from the idea that they will drag a man down or de- prive him of his "strong character. " It is because women are weak that they are not to be trusted; they are out to exploit the man and to reduce his manli- ness by involving him in the "sordid" business of sex.
The role of Mack's physical illness, particularly in childhood, in determin- ing the fear of weakness should not be underestimated. W e can well imagine that the experiences of illness rearoused the infantile anxiety of helplessness. More than this, the sense of being a "sickly boy" might have put Mack at a disadvantage in his relations with his Cousin Bud, so that homosexual feelings were aroused-with the consequences that have been discussed above. Again, the weaker Mack was in actuality the ~tronger would the father appear to him; and it was the idea that the father was too strong and dangerous, we may suppose, that prevented any basic identification with him. This failure in identification would, by itself, be sufficient ground for the fear that he was not quite a man. The mother's illness and death was probably a factor here also. As suggested above, there is some reason to believe that in the early years of his life Mack tended rather strongly to identify with his mother. (His illness may, indeed, have been in some part an identification with her. ) He still has his "softer side," as it were. But following her death this identi- fication could hardly have remained as a source of inner security; on the contrary, Mack had had an experience well calculated to promote terrify- ing ideas of what it might mean to be feminine, and we should expect him to regard any feminine traits within himself primarily as areas of vul- nerability.
This consideration of Mack's fear of weakness seems to throw further light on his struggle with dependence. It is very likely that he regards his dependent needs as signs of weakness-the same kind of weakness that has just been discussed-and that this is another reason why he cannot freely admit the existence of these needs. It is as if accepting help or love or comfort from a woman meant being somehow identified with her, and hence open to the dangers with which women have to contend. Accepting help oriove
? 8oo THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
or comfort from a man suggest being treated like a woman by that man, and hence threatened with the loss of masculinity. But because in his innermost self Mack would like to be treated in just this way, the sense of weakness is constantly stimulated, and no amount of counteractive striving can entirely dispel it.
3. DYNAMICS OF SURFACE BEHA VIOR AND A TTITUDES
Given these underlying trends-'-dependence, hostility against the father, submis~;ion, passivity and homosexuality, and fear of weakness-it is possible to offer reasonable explanations for most of Mack's characteristic traits and attitudes. These surface trends can be understood in large part as derivations or transformations of the deep-lying needs we have discussed. Surface and depth are connected by means of well-known psychological mechanisms.
An abstract formulation of Mack's personality, in its genetic aspects, is sketched in its general outlines in Figure 1 (XX). Genetically early forces and events appear at the bottom of the chart, and the course of development is followed by reading upward, arrows indicating the directions of de- termination and the points at which it is applied. No attempt is made to indicate the nature of the causation in the various instances. A rough cor- respondence between order in the genetic sequence and degree of depth within the contemporary personality structure is assumed, the earliest reac- tion tendencies being regarded as those which now lie deepest within the personality.
It may be noted at once that fear of weakness occupies the most central position on the chart. Deriving, as we have seen, chiefly from the deep-lying tendencies toward dependence on the one hand and toward subinission, pas- sivity and homosexuality on the other, this fear necessitates several protective devices which lead to a variety of behavior patterns and general attitudes at the surface level. The fear has to be denied, allayed, and if possible, overcome.
? W e observe in Mack, therefore, attempts to conceal weakness by verbal denial and by presenting a fac;ade of toughness, to get rid of weakness by projecting it onto other people, chiefly outgroups, and then condemning them on this score, to overcompensate for weakness by strivings for power and status and to allay the sense of weakness by aligning himself with power- ful individuals and groups.
Little more need be said, it seems, concerning Mack's straightout verbal denial of weakness. It is simply that all through his interview he is at pains to tell us that he is not weak but strong and that if at any time he has appeared to be weak, then this was entirely justified by external circumstances. Of particular importance for Mack's susceptibility to fascist propaganda is the fact that the need to excuse weakness sometimes leads him into distortions of reality; he exaggerates the power and misreads the intentions of outgroups accQrding to the formula, "If I appear to be weak, it is because they are so
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THE GENETIC ASPECTS OF MACK'S PERSONALITY
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? 8o2 THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY
strong and out to take unfair advantage of me. " The mechanism is the same as that which underlies the "persecution complex" so regularly associated with repressed homosexuality, though the conflict in Mack seems much less intense than that found in clinic patients. What we see on the surface here is the self- pity implicit in his thesis that he has done well considering all that he has had to contend with, and his projective thinking about such outgroups as the Jews, the New Deal, and the Washington bureaus. There can be little doubt that the problem with which Mack is struggling here was first presented to him in connection with his childhood relations with his father: "How can I be expected to oppose, to be strong and independent, to become a man, when father is so strong. " That he has been able to transpose the whole complex into the area of group relations saves him from having to oppose any individ- ual or group that is really strong, and at the same time-since his ideas are now shared for various reasons by many other people-to achieve an appearance of "normality" that he would not have were he to concentrate on a single private "enemy. "
Mack has made some attempt to conceal weakness by contriving a tough exterior. The leather jacket and the "nice equipment, for example a good rifle" are probably intended as unmistakable signs of masculinity. Mack is unable, however, to behave aggressively,6 and hence the device of over- compensatory toughness does not serve him as well as it does many prejudiced men. But if he is unable to be physically tough, he can at least be tough- minded. His general attitude of anti-intraception can be understood as pri- marily an attempt to ward off any suggestion of "softness" that might be implicit in a more human way of looking at things.
The most primitive mechanism for dispelling a sense of weakness is the projection, "I am not weak, they are. " Mack makes some use of this mech- anism, though not in the crudest possible way. It is not so much that he sees weakness where none exists; rather, he thinks of people and groups in rigid categories of weak versus strong, and if any weakness is actually there it is what first strikes his eye, as it were, and he reacts to it in a particular way. His main concern is not to be in any way identified with weakness. Religious people, Jewish refugees, and women may actually be, in one sense or another, weak, but for Mack this is the main fact about these groups of people and he must at all costs set them apart from himself.
