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.
Adorno-T-Authoritarian-Personality-Harper-Bros-1950
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
? . .
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. If one asks why he cannot have pity for weak people but instead actually hates them, the answer is two- fold. In the first place, they remind him too much of his own weakness and all the dreadful fear with which it is associated. Second, and probably more important, he believes weak people to be dangerous. When he says that Jews "should not resent" their persecution we can readily infer that he believes they do resent it and will seek revenge in time. Women and Ne-
6 Cf. in this connection J. F. Brown's findings, from the use of the Rosenzweig Picture- Frustration Test, on "passive anti-Semitism" (r6).
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 803
groes, as the T. A. T. analysis made clear, are regarded in this same way. It is to be granted that the strictness of Mack's mother, and later attempts of the sister and the aunt to carry out her policy, helped to teach Mack that women could be aggressive, but there is reason to believe that his notions about the dangerous aspects of "weak" people are based primarily upon a projection. The feeling of being persecuted aroused in him the strongest impulses to violence ("the young man looks like he might commit murder if oppressed") and he imagines that "downtrodden" people are similarly motivated.
Fear of the weak woman, as has been pointed out, would largely explain Mack's sexual backwardness, and this in turn offers sufficient basis for the moralistic sex attitudes expressed on the questionnaire and in the interview. How is the rejection of women to be reconciled with the fact that Mack idealizes his mother and intends to marry a girl with a "tremendously nice personality"? Here it must be considered that Mack actually has two con- ceptions of women: the "bad," weak, dangerous, exploitive, sexual woman who drags one down, and the good, wholesome, asexual one who gives. It is the former with whom one dares to have sex relations as "the aftermath of a New Year's party"; the latter is described mainly contrasting her with the former; she is not interested primarily in "a good time" or "in spending fellows' money" or in anything "sordid. " Undoubtedly the imagery of this "good" woman derives in part from the imagery of the mother "who devoted her last strength to us kids. " Certainly Mack would like to recapture some of the love and comfort that he received from his mother, provided this mo- tive on his part can be adequately rationalized. It must be pointed out, how- ever, that his appreciation of his mother seems somewhat overdone, enough so to suggest that his idealization of her is based partly on bad conscience and is an attempt to undo hostility that was directed against her. One cannot be very optimistic about the prospects for Mack's forthcoming marriage. While on the one hand he wants more than any woman can give him, on the other hand, he feels it would be weak to ask his wife for anything at all. And this is not to mention the problem of how sex is to be introduced into the picture without spoiling it altogether. ?
It has already been suggested that Mack's strivings for power and status- his desire to "raise" himself-may be regarded as largely overcompensatory. Indeed, it would be very surprising if some kind of counteractive activity did not have a place among the devices he employs for overcoming the sense of weakness. From this point of view we can understand why it is that the needs for affiliation and recognition when they appear in the T. A. T. are expressed mainly as a desire for having the members of his group look up to him, and why being an officer in the DeMolay and in his class at business school is im- portant to him. The crucial role of the status drive in determining Mack's
general ideology was first indicated in the analysis of his remarks concerning vocation and income. There it seemed clear that for him "going up" meant
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
going up in a hierarchy; in his mind the existence of dominant groups and submerged groups was "natural" and, far from being concerned with chang- ing this state of affairs, his aim was to have membership in the groups that were dominant. This is something different from the ordinary, everyday desire to improve one's lot in a sociological sense. It seems that here again Mack's thinking about group relations is dominated by the rigid categories of "strong" and "weak. " In the light of the foregoing personality analysis we may say that, once again, Mack brings to his interpretation of group rela- tions images and attitudes which have remained unchanged since their genesis in the childhood relations with his father. That one was weak and the other strong was then the salient fact, and the persistence of this idea is a part of the fixation upon the traumatic situation of childhood. Since Mack could not con- ceive of himself opposing the irresistibly strong father, his attempt at a solu- tion was to convince himself that his father was "good" and so to align himself with him. This corresponds exactly with Mack's present approach to group relations. He does not oppose any group that is, in actuality, strong; instead, he argues that the strong ones are the good ones, and even while ad- miring and being subservient to them he overcomes weakness through gain- ing a sense of participation in their power.
This last is, of course, one aspect of the general attitude which we have termed authoritarian submission, and which we have previously seen to be an outstanding feature of Mack's manifest personality. To say that this atti- tude rests upon an attempt to overcome weakness through identification with power is to mention only one of its major sources. In so far as authori- tarian submission is a means for overcoming weakness it stands as a kind of defense against the underlying homosexual submission and passivity; it re- mains to be pointed out that this surface trend offers at the same time gratifi- cation for these very same needs. In glorifying strong groups and individuals -"father figures"-he is expressing the need for a father's love and support and guidance, for a God who is "strictly man, greater than any on this earth, one that would treat us as a father would his son. " Whereas most channels for the expression of this need are closed because they pass too close to weakness, it can in certain circumstances come into the open and be gratified: Chiefly when the strong man or strong group is strong enough, strong enough so that there is a chance for participation in real power and strong enough so that submission can be readily excused. If one should ask why Roosevelt, who was almost universally experienced in this country as a father figure, was not happily accepted and admired by Mack instead of being rejected as a "dictator," the answer would seem to be that he was not strong enough:7 he "would come off second best in a contest with Winnie," while as for Gen- eral Marshall, "nobody could alter his position. "
How authoritarian submission promotes political conservatism and moral 7 This point has been elaborated in Chapter XVII.
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY 805
conventionalism in this subject has been described in sufficient detail in Chap- ter II. Lacking a firmly internalized superego, a result of the failure to achieve a basic identification with the father, Mack looks outside of himself for guidance as to what to do and what not to do, and turns naturally to the authorities that seem strongest and most commonly accepted. He cannot, however, admit that this is the case, but clings to the illusion that he has a stubborn nature and is a man to make his own decisions.
This last suggests that Mack's relations with his authorities are not entirely harmonious, that he is not altogether comfortable with the arrangements that he has made. This is no more than we should expect from a consideration of the sources of his authoritarianism. It springs originally, as we have seen, from hostility toward his father. This hostility led to submission based on fear and, although -submission offers other rewards as well, the element of fearful neces- sity still has an important role in Mack's attitude toward authority. It is this circumstance that gives his adherence to conventional standards the aspect of rigidity; since they have never been fully integrated with the ego, it is neces- sary to adhere to them strictly lest they be thrown overboard altogether.
Mack's hostility against minority groups and other groups and individuals is almost always justified by him on moral grounds. And the morality to which he appeals is that of the external authorities to which he is subservient. His manifest aggression is, so to speak, in the name of authority. He arranges things so that his conscience and his deepest antisocial impulses operate in collaboration. But if we ask what is his conception of the outgroup and why it provokes him so we are led back to the same sources that gave rise to his conceptions and attitudes concerning ingroup authorities. Outgroups are hated, as we saw in Chapter II, for being selfishly and ruthlessly aggressive.
(That outgroups are also "weak" may be a logical contradiction, but it is not a psychological one; Mack's thinking about social and political matters is dominated by unconscious processes and, hence, cannot be expected to con- form with the rules of logic. 8) The power-seeking features of the outgroup, no less than the admirably strong aspects of the "good" ingroup, can be understood as derivatives of the infantile imagery of the father. Since Mack dared not oppose his father but could only submit to him, it became necessary to convince himself that the father was good. But this did not dissipate the original hostility against the father. Nor did Mack attempt to handle it by turning it against himself; one of the outstanding features of his case is the relative absence of self-criticism. What he did was displace the hostility onto outgroups; or better, the frustrating, punishing, persecutory features which had to be denied in the father were seen as originating in outgroups who could then be hated in safety, because they were not strong in actuality, and in good conscience, because the traits ascribed to them were those which the
8 Cf. Freud's discussion of "exemption from mutual contradiction" as one of the characteristics of unconscious processes.
? 8o6 THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY
ingroup authorities would condemn. Thus it is that each "good" trait that the father is said to have is the opposite of a "bad" trait which belongs to the image of the Jew: while the father's "greatest contribution was denying him- self pleasures to take care of us kids" the Jews are not "interested in human- ity," while the father was renowned for his "honesty," one has to be careful of Jewish clothiers. At the same time, when it comes to the one trait in the father which Mack is almost inclined to criticize, that is, social withdrawal, one finds that it too looms large in the imagery of the Jew: they refuse "to mingle and become a part of our people," "they would rather be alone. " If the Jews have thus to bear the brunt of Mack's ambivalent feelings toward his father, there might be some comfort for them in the fact that his feelings toward them are also somewhat ambivalent. It may be recalled that Mack's explanation for what he supposes to be Jewish pressure on Congress and for the fact that Jews have been "fully repaid" for their part in the war effort is that "they are businessmen," and we know that he has nothing but admira- tion for businessmen, especially those who represent a "concentration of wealth in a certain class," i. e. , "the big capitalists. " Unfortunately, however, it is very doubtful that the Jews could ever benefit from the positive phase of Mack's ambivalence, for their supposed inability makes them more dan- gerous to him. The separation of the good father image from the bad is an essential of Mack's personality adjustment and he could no more see "good"
? in his image of the Jew than he can see "bad" in his father.
As far as our material goes the only outlets for the expression of aggression that Mack has is through his ethnocentrism, that is, through authoritarian
aggression against various kinds of outgroups. There is, however, one other. manifestation of underlying aggression which may afford some vent for his feelings, and that is cynicism. This prominent tendency in our subject has been described in Chapters II and VII. It seems clear enough now that its major source is the bottled-up resentment with which the present analysis has been so largely concerned. We must understand, however, that in cyni- cism the destructiveness is directed against the self as well as against the world. 9 It is not only that the subject's own aggressiveness is projected onto other people, who are then accused of being acquisitive and warlike, but con- tempt for other people seems to be closely related to contempt for himself. In Mack's case-and this probably holds generally for authoritarian personali- ties-the self-contempt derives from his sense of weakness and this, as we have seen, is the aftermath of his surrender to his father. This surrender can- not be wholly excused, and as long as he cannot permit himself to feel ag- ? gressive toward those who are actually strong, there will be a nagging re- minder that he, in reality, is weak. He tries to free himself from this thought
9 On the topic of cynicism Sanford, Conrad, and Franck (108) have published findings based on a questionnaire similar to those employed in the present study.
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 807
by projecting the contemptibleness onto mankind, and thus there is some basis for saying that he hates others because he hates himself.
To complete the picture it is necessary to return now to the topic of Mack's dependence. The sense of deprivation that followed the loss of his mother, and the growing feelings that because of his weakness people might leave him out or take advantage of him, seem to have generated in him a general attitude of acquisitiveness and, more specifically, a feeling that somebody ought to give him something. The highest praise of mother, father, sister, or fiancee is that they gave or will give to him, and one of the major character- istics of "bad" people is that they are selfish or "not interested in humanity. " It is not difficult to infer that his concern with justice is primarily concern with getting something. A man who can speak sentimentally of justice in one breath and almost in the next speak of barring Hitler's victims from this country on the ground that they are "Europe's misfits" is hardly employing the term "justice" in its basic sense. But apparently his acquisitiveness en- counters his conventional moral standards and has to be reacted against. He is very careful to assure us that he has "repaid" what he got from others, and he is moralistically temperate in stating his objectives with respect to income. The importance of this conflict about acquisitiveness for Mack's social out- look lies in the fact that it supplies the basis for another accusation against outgroups. They are said to be "materialistic" and "money-minded. " This seems to be in part a projection, since outgroups are accused of doing exactly what he and his own group do but would like to deny, and in part a mere complaint about the fact that the world goes its own way without paying much attention to him and his wants.
A remarkable feature of Mack's dependence is that although it has been rendered ego-alien and as an unconscious force leads to the misjudgment and rejection of other people, so much of it still finds expression in behavior.
(This has been brought out in the above discussion of underlying depend- ence. ) This is testimony to his outstanding facility in rationalization, some- thing that is made possible, as it seems, by his unwillingess to look at himself.
This brings us to a place where we must consider Mack's stereotypy, a characteristic of his thinking that is highly pronounced and, clearly, of the greatest significance for his prejudice. In one sense, his stereotyped thinking about social phenomena seems to be related to his general attitude of anti- intraception and to be dependent, in part at least, upon the same underlying conditions. It might be said that one reason why Mack's explanations of social phenomena are so primitive and oversimplified (for example, differences among ethnic groups are categorical and due to differences in blood strain) is that he is unable to make any use of social or psychological theories of determination. This can hardly be due to a lack of intelligence or of informa- tion, for an examination of his interview leaves a strong impression that with regard to those factors he is above the average for college students. A stronger
? 8o8 THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY
argument could be made for the view that his is an educational deficiency, that he simply has not been subjected to instruction about man and society. But this is such a widespread phenomenon in this country that it can hardly be used to explain why Mack stands out from the group. Besides, he could have made some use of the social and psychological viewpoints that are available, but he chose not to. And, for that matter, the fact that anti-intra- ceptive education is so widespread has itself to be explained, and we can well believe that factors of individual psychology have an important role to play. In Mack's case at least there is a strong suggestion that he cannot reckon with either the sociology or the psychology of other people because he cannot examine the conditions or determinants of his own behavior. Ideas or observa- tions that would be necessary to lend breadth or depth to his view of the world or of himself cannot enter the picture, because they would arouse too much anxiety. It is as if-to put it somewhat dramatically-he can see only what he has seen before and learn only what he already knows. In our con- sideration of Mack's anti-intraception we were given reason to believe that he has to avoid introspection or attention to human factors in order to main- tain his sense of being tough-minded. The fuller analysis of his personality shows that his problem is much more serious: he has to deal with a variety of strong unconscious impulses which are not integrated with the ego and which he feels-not without good cause-might get out of hand. In short, the task of maintaining his repressions imposes a heavy burden upon him. This state of affairs has been described, in previous chapters, as ego weakness, and Mack's case offers an excellent illustration of this concept. The problems with which he was faced as a child-problems centering around the loss of his mother and the necessity for making an adjustment to the "distant" father -were too much, they were more than the undeveloped ego could handle. Primitive defenses, chiefly repression and countercathexis, were necessary; and since that time, the ego has had to devote so much energy to maintaining these defenses that it could not develop normally. It remains narrow and con- stricted, in danger of being overwhelmed by emotional impulses from within or authoritative commands from without. Since the inner impulses are more to be feared than the outer authorities there is rigid adherence to the stand- ards of the latter, but since these authorities are not accepted in any funda- mental way this adherence could be given up altogether in circumstances that made it safe to do so. Since the traumatic experiences of childhood have not been integrated with the ego, the categories with which the child struc- tured the world have persisted, in more or less unmodified form, to dominate contemporary thinking. Since there is little that is truly inside the personality, there can be little tolerance of inner conflict and little self-criticism; instead there is an attitude of hostile watchfulness toward a world that is largely alien.
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY 809
C. THE CONTRASTING CASE OF LARRY
We may now tum to the case of Larry. A final appraisal of Mack and a judgment of the implications of his case can better be made after the two cases have been compared.
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
? . .
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. If one asks why he cannot have pity for weak people but instead actually hates them, the answer is two- fold. In the first place, they remind him too much of his own weakness and all the dreadful fear with which it is associated. Second, and probably more important, he believes weak people to be dangerous. When he says that Jews "should not resent" their persecution we can readily infer that he believes they do resent it and will seek revenge in time. Women and Ne-
6 Cf. in this connection J. F. Brown's findings, from the use of the Rosenzweig Picture- Frustration Test, on "passive anti-Semitism" (r6).
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 803
groes, as the T. A. T. analysis made clear, are regarded in this same way. It is to be granted that the strictness of Mack's mother, and later attempts of the sister and the aunt to carry out her policy, helped to teach Mack that women could be aggressive, but there is reason to believe that his notions about the dangerous aspects of "weak" people are based primarily upon a projection. The feeling of being persecuted aroused in him the strongest impulses to violence ("the young man looks like he might commit murder if oppressed") and he imagines that "downtrodden" people are similarly motivated.
Fear of the weak woman, as has been pointed out, would largely explain Mack's sexual backwardness, and this in turn offers sufficient basis for the moralistic sex attitudes expressed on the questionnaire and in the interview. How is the rejection of women to be reconciled with the fact that Mack idealizes his mother and intends to marry a girl with a "tremendously nice personality"? Here it must be considered that Mack actually has two con- ceptions of women: the "bad," weak, dangerous, exploitive, sexual woman who drags one down, and the good, wholesome, asexual one who gives. It is the former with whom one dares to have sex relations as "the aftermath of a New Year's party"; the latter is described mainly contrasting her with the former; she is not interested primarily in "a good time" or "in spending fellows' money" or in anything "sordid. " Undoubtedly the imagery of this "good" woman derives in part from the imagery of the mother "who devoted her last strength to us kids. " Certainly Mack would like to recapture some of the love and comfort that he received from his mother, provided this mo- tive on his part can be adequately rationalized. It must be pointed out, how- ever, that his appreciation of his mother seems somewhat overdone, enough so to suggest that his idealization of her is based partly on bad conscience and is an attempt to undo hostility that was directed against her. One cannot be very optimistic about the prospects for Mack's forthcoming marriage. While on the one hand he wants more than any woman can give him, on the other hand, he feels it would be weak to ask his wife for anything at all. And this is not to mention the problem of how sex is to be introduced into the picture without spoiling it altogether. ?
It has already been suggested that Mack's strivings for power and status- his desire to "raise" himself-may be regarded as largely overcompensatory. Indeed, it would be very surprising if some kind of counteractive activity did not have a place among the devices he employs for overcoming the sense of weakness. From this point of view we can understand why it is that the needs for affiliation and recognition when they appear in the T. A. T. are expressed mainly as a desire for having the members of his group look up to him, and why being an officer in the DeMolay and in his class at business school is im- portant to him. The crucial role of the status drive in determining Mack's
general ideology was first indicated in the analysis of his remarks concerning vocation and income. There it seemed clear that for him "going up" meant
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going up in a hierarchy; in his mind the existence of dominant groups and submerged groups was "natural" and, far from being concerned with chang- ing this state of affairs, his aim was to have membership in the groups that were dominant. This is something different from the ordinary, everyday desire to improve one's lot in a sociological sense. It seems that here again Mack's thinking about group relations is dominated by the rigid categories of "strong" and "weak. " In the light of the foregoing personality analysis we may say that, once again, Mack brings to his interpretation of group rela- tions images and attitudes which have remained unchanged since their genesis in the childhood relations with his father. That one was weak and the other strong was then the salient fact, and the persistence of this idea is a part of the fixation upon the traumatic situation of childhood. Since Mack could not con- ceive of himself opposing the irresistibly strong father, his attempt at a solu- tion was to convince himself that his father was "good" and so to align himself with him. This corresponds exactly with Mack's present approach to group relations. He does not oppose any group that is, in actuality, strong; instead, he argues that the strong ones are the good ones, and even while ad- miring and being subservient to them he overcomes weakness through gain- ing a sense of participation in their power.
This last is, of course, one aspect of the general attitude which we have termed authoritarian submission, and which we have previously seen to be an outstanding feature of Mack's manifest personality. To say that this atti- tude rests upon an attempt to overcome weakness through identification with power is to mention only one of its major sources. In so far as authori- tarian submission is a means for overcoming weakness it stands as a kind of defense against the underlying homosexual submission and passivity; it re- mains to be pointed out that this surface trend offers at the same time gratifi- cation for these very same needs. In glorifying strong groups and individuals -"father figures"-he is expressing the need for a father's love and support and guidance, for a God who is "strictly man, greater than any on this earth, one that would treat us as a father would his son. " Whereas most channels for the expression of this need are closed because they pass too close to weakness, it can in certain circumstances come into the open and be gratified: Chiefly when the strong man or strong group is strong enough, strong enough so that there is a chance for participation in real power and strong enough so that submission can be readily excused. If one should ask why Roosevelt, who was almost universally experienced in this country as a father figure, was not happily accepted and admired by Mack instead of being rejected as a "dictator," the answer would seem to be that he was not strong enough:7 he "would come off second best in a contest with Winnie," while as for Gen- eral Marshall, "nobody could alter his position. "
How authoritarian submission promotes political conservatism and moral 7 This point has been elaborated in Chapter XVII.
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conventionalism in this subject has been described in sufficient detail in Chap- ter II. Lacking a firmly internalized superego, a result of the failure to achieve a basic identification with the father, Mack looks outside of himself for guidance as to what to do and what not to do, and turns naturally to the authorities that seem strongest and most commonly accepted. He cannot, however, admit that this is the case, but clings to the illusion that he has a stubborn nature and is a man to make his own decisions.
This last suggests that Mack's relations with his authorities are not entirely harmonious, that he is not altogether comfortable with the arrangements that he has made. This is no more than we should expect from a consideration of the sources of his authoritarianism. It springs originally, as we have seen, from hostility toward his father. This hostility led to submission based on fear and, although -submission offers other rewards as well, the element of fearful neces- sity still has an important role in Mack's attitude toward authority. It is this circumstance that gives his adherence to conventional standards the aspect of rigidity; since they have never been fully integrated with the ego, it is neces- sary to adhere to them strictly lest they be thrown overboard altogether.
Mack's hostility against minority groups and other groups and individuals is almost always justified by him on moral grounds. And the morality to which he appeals is that of the external authorities to which he is subservient. His manifest aggression is, so to speak, in the name of authority. He arranges things so that his conscience and his deepest antisocial impulses operate in collaboration. But if we ask what is his conception of the outgroup and why it provokes him so we are led back to the same sources that gave rise to his conceptions and attitudes concerning ingroup authorities. Outgroups are hated, as we saw in Chapter II, for being selfishly and ruthlessly aggressive.
(That outgroups are also "weak" may be a logical contradiction, but it is not a psychological one; Mack's thinking about social and political matters is dominated by unconscious processes and, hence, cannot be expected to con- form with the rules of logic. 8) The power-seeking features of the outgroup, no less than the admirably strong aspects of the "good" ingroup, can be understood as derivatives of the infantile imagery of the father. Since Mack dared not oppose his father but could only submit to him, it became necessary to convince himself that the father was good. But this did not dissipate the original hostility against the father. Nor did Mack attempt to handle it by turning it against himself; one of the outstanding features of his case is the relative absence of self-criticism. What he did was displace the hostility onto outgroups; or better, the frustrating, punishing, persecutory features which had to be denied in the father were seen as originating in outgroups who could then be hated in safety, because they were not strong in actuality, and in good conscience, because the traits ascribed to them were those which the
8 Cf. Freud's discussion of "exemption from mutual contradiction" as one of the characteristics of unconscious processes.
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ingroup authorities would condemn. Thus it is that each "good" trait that the father is said to have is the opposite of a "bad" trait which belongs to the image of the Jew: while the father's "greatest contribution was denying him- self pleasures to take care of us kids" the Jews are not "interested in human- ity," while the father was renowned for his "honesty," one has to be careful of Jewish clothiers. At the same time, when it comes to the one trait in the father which Mack is almost inclined to criticize, that is, social withdrawal, one finds that it too looms large in the imagery of the Jew: they refuse "to mingle and become a part of our people," "they would rather be alone. " If the Jews have thus to bear the brunt of Mack's ambivalent feelings toward his father, there might be some comfort for them in the fact that his feelings toward them are also somewhat ambivalent. It may be recalled that Mack's explanation for what he supposes to be Jewish pressure on Congress and for the fact that Jews have been "fully repaid" for their part in the war effort is that "they are businessmen," and we know that he has nothing but admira- tion for businessmen, especially those who represent a "concentration of wealth in a certain class," i. e. , "the big capitalists. " Unfortunately, however, it is very doubtful that the Jews could ever benefit from the positive phase of Mack's ambivalence, for their supposed inability makes them more dan- gerous to him. The separation of the good father image from the bad is an essential of Mack's personality adjustment and he could no more see "good"
? in his image of the Jew than he can see "bad" in his father.
As far as our material goes the only outlets for the expression of aggression that Mack has is through his ethnocentrism, that is, through authoritarian
aggression against various kinds of outgroups. There is, however, one other. manifestation of underlying aggression which may afford some vent for his feelings, and that is cynicism. This prominent tendency in our subject has been described in Chapters II and VII. It seems clear enough now that its major source is the bottled-up resentment with which the present analysis has been so largely concerned. We must understand, however, that in cyni- cism the destructiveness is directed against the self as well as against the world. 9 It is not only that the subject's own aggressiveness is projected onto other people, who are then accused of being acquisitive and warlike, but con- tempt for other people seems to be closely related to contempt for himself. In Mack's case-and this probably holds generally for authoritarian personali- ties-the self-contempt derives from his sense of weakness and this, as we have seen, is the aftermath of his surrender to his father. This surrender can- not be wholly excused, and as long as he cannot permit himself to feel ag- ? gressive toward those who are actually strong, there will be a nagging re- minder that he, in reality, is weak. He tries to free himself from this thought
9 On the topic of cynicism Sanford, Conrad, and Franck (108) have published findings based on a questionnaire similar to those employed in the present study.
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by projecting the contemptibleness onto mankind, and thus there is some basis for saying that he hates others because he hates himself.
To complete the picture it is necessary to return now to the topic of Mack's dependence. The sense of deprivation that followed the loss of his mother, and the growing feelings that because of his weakness people might leave him out or take advantage of him, seem to have generated in him a general attitude of acquisitiveness and, more specifically, a feeling that somebody ought to give him something. The highest praise of mother, father, sister, or fiancee is that they gave or will give to him, and one of the major character- istics of "bad" people is that they are selfish or "not interested in humanity. " It is not difficult to infer that his concern with justice is primarily concern with getting something. A man who can speak sentimentally of justice in one breath and almost in the next speak of barring Hitler's victims from this country on the ground that they are "Europe's misfits" is hardly employing the term "justice" in its basic sense. But apparently his acquisitiveness en- counters his conventional moral standards and has to be reacted against. He is very careful to assure us that he has "repaid" what he got from others, and he is moralistically temperate in stating his objectives with respect to income. The importance of this conflict about acquisitiveness for Mack's social out- look lies in the fact that it supplies the basis for another accusation against outgroups. They are said to be "materialistic" and "money-minded. " This seems to be in part a projection, since outgroups are accused of doing exactly what he and his own group do but would like to deny, and in part a mere complaint about the fact that the world goes its own way without paying much attention to him and his wants.
A remarkable feature of Mack's dependence is that although it has been rendered ego-alien and as an unconscious force leads to the misjudgment and rejection of other people, so much of it still finds expression in behavior.
(This has been brought out in the above discussion of underlying depend- ence. ) This is testimony to his outstanding facility in rationalization, some- thing that is made possible, as it seems, by his unwillingess to look at himself.
This brings us to a place where we must consider Mack's stereotypy, a characteristic of his thinking that is highly pronounced and, clearly, of the greatest significance for his prejudice. In one sense, his stereotyped thinking about social phenomena seems to be related to his general attitude of anti- intraception and to be dependent, in part at least, upon the same underlying conditions. It might be said that one reason why Mack's explanations of social phenomena are so primitive and oversimplified (for example, differences among ethnic groups are categorical and due to differences in blood strain) is that he is unable to make any use of social or psychological theories of determination. This can hardly be due to a lack of intelligence or of informa- tion, for an examination of his interview leaves a strong impression that with regard to those factors he is above the average for college students. A stronger
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argument could be made for the view that his is an educational deficiency, that he simply has not been subjected to instruction about man and society. But this is such a widespread phenomenon in this country that it can hardly be used to explain why Mack stands out from the group. Besides, he could have made some use of the social and psychological viewpoints that are available, but he chose not to. And, for that matter, the fact that anti-intra- ceptive education is so widespread has itself to be explained, and we can well believe that factors of individual psychology have an important role to play. In Mack's case at least there is a strong suggestion that he cannot reckon with either the sociology or the psychology of other people because he cannot examine the conditions or determinants of his own behavior. Ideas or observa- tions that would be necessary to lend breadth or depth to his view of the world or of himself cannot enter the picture, because they would arouse too much anxiety. It is as if-to put it somewhat dramatically-he can see only what he has seen before and learn only what he already knows. In our con- sideration of Mack's anti-intraception we were given reason to believe that he has to avoid introspection or attention to human factors in order to main- tain his sense of being tough-minded. The fuller analysis of his personality shows that his problem is much more serious: he has to deal with a variety of strong unconscious impulses which are not integrated with the ego and which he feels-not without good cause-might get out of hand. In short, the task of maintaining his repressions imposes a heavy burden upon him. This state of affairs has been described, in previous chapters, as ego weakness, and Mack's case offers an excellent illustration of this concept. The problems with which he was faced as a child-problems centering around the loss of his mother and the necessity for making an adjustment to the "distant" father -were too much, they were more than the undeveloped ego could handle. Primitive defenses, chiefly repression and countercathexis, were necessary; and since that time, the ego has had to devote so much energy to maintaining these defenses that it could not develop normally. It remains narrow and con- stricted, in danger of being overwhelmed by emotional impulses from within or authoritative commands from without. Since the inner impulses are more to be feared than the outer authorities there is rigid adherence to the stand- ards of the latter, but since these authorities are not accepted in any funda- mental way this adherence could be given up altogether in circumstances that made it safe to do so. Since the traumatic experiences of childhood have not been integrated with the ego, the categories with which the child struc- tured the world have persisted, in more or less unmodified form, to dominate contemporary thinking. Since there is little that is truly inside the personality, there can be little tolerance of inner conflict and little self-criticism; instead there is an attitude of hostile watchfulness toward a world that is largely alien.
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C. THE CONTRASTING CASE OF LARRY
We may now tum to the case of Larry. A final appraisal of Mack and a judgment of the implications of his case can better be made after the two cases have been compared.
