THE CASE OF MACK The clinical part of Mack's
interview
follows.
Adorno-T-Authoritarian-Personality-Harper-Bros-1950
.
.
Many Negroes have come to the West Coast.
.
.
.
(Have you ever had Negroes as friends?
) Yes .
.
.
Not intimately, though have known a number that I've liked and enjoyed.
(What about intermarriage?
) I think it's a false issue.
?
.
.
They say, 'What if your sister married a Negro?
' I wouldn't have any feelings about it, frankly.
.
.
.
(Negro traits?
) No.
"
As to the Jews, he does not come to their "defense," but actually denies that they are a "problem":
(What about the Jewish problem? ) "I don't think there is a Jewish problem. There again, I think that's been a herring for agitators. (How do you mean? ) Hitler, Ku Klux Klan, etc. (Jewish traits? ) No . . . I've seen Jewish people exhibit so- called Jewish traits, but also many non-Jewish people. " . . . (Subject emphasizes there is no distinction along racial lines. )
The danger implicit in the "Easy-Going" syndrome, i. e. , too great reluctance to use violence even against violence, is suggested by the following passage:
(What about picketing Gerald K. Smith? ) "I think Gerald K. Smith should have an opportunity to speak, if we are operating under a democracy. (What about
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
picketing as registering a protest? ) If a certain group wants to, they have a right to. . . . I don't think it's always effective. "
That the subject's attitude of noncommitment to any "principle" is actually based on a sense of the concrete and not purely evasive is indicated by the following highly elucidating passage:
(Interviewer reads question . . . about tireless leader and refers to subject as agreeing a little, asks for elaboration. ) "I agree a little. However, the opposite of that, Huey Long, was a courageous, tireless leader and Hitler (laughs). It depends. (How do you mean? ) Well, I admired Willkie; I admired Roosevelt; I admired Wallace. But, I don't think we should ever have leaders in whom the people put their faith and then settle back. People seem to seek leaders to avoid thinking for themselves. "
This subject's interview concludes with the dialectical statement that "power is almost equivalent to the abuse of power. "
5. THE GENUINE LIBERAL
By contrast to the pattern just described, this syndrome is very outspoken in reaction and opinion. The subject in whom it is pronounced has a strong sense of personal autonomy and independence. He cannot stand any outside interference with his personal convictions and beliefs, and he does not want to interfere with those of others either. His ego is quite developed but not libidinized-he is rarely "narcissistic. " At the same time, he is willing to admit id tendencies, and to take the consequence-as is the case with Freud's "erotic type" (39). One of his conspicuous features is moral courage, often far beyond his rational evaluation of a situation. He cannot "keep silent" if some- thing wrong is being done, even if he seriously endangers himself. Just as he is strongly "individualized" himself, he sees the others, above all, as individ- uals, not as specimens of a general concept. He shares some features with other syndromes found among low scorers. Like the "Impulsive," he is little re- pressed and even has certain difficulties in keeping himself under "control. " However, his emotionality is not blind, but directed towards the other person as a subject. His love is not only desire but also compassion-as a matter of fact, one might think of defining this syndrome as the "compas- sionate" low scorer. He shares with the "Protesting" low scorer the vigor of identification with the underdog, but without compulsion, and without traces of overcompensation: he is no "Jew lover. " Like the "Easy-Going" low scorer he is antitotalitarian, but much more consciously so, without the element of hesitation and indecision. It is this configuration rather than any single trait which characterizes the "Genuine Liberal. " Aesthetic interests seem to occur frequently.
The illustration we give is a girl whose character of a "genuine liberal" stands out the more clearly, since, according to the interviewer,
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
she is politically naive like the majority of our college women, regardless whether they are high or low.
No "ticket" is involved. Fszs
is a 2 1-year-old college student. She is a handsome brunette with dark, flashing eyes, who exudes temperament and vitality. She has none of the pretty-pretty femininity so frequently seen in high subjects, and would probably scorn the little feminine wiles and schemes practiced by such women. On the contrary, she is extremely frank and outspoken in manner, and in build she is athletic. One senses in her a very passionate nature and so strong a desire to give intensely of herself in all her relationships, that she must experience difficulty in restraining herself within the bounds of conventionality.
Apart from a semiprofessional interest in music she also "enjoys painting and dramatics. " As to her vocation, however, she is still undecided. She
has taken nurses' aid training. She liked helping people in this way. "I enjoyed it. I feel that I could now take care of a sick person. It didn't bother me to carry bed- pans and urinals. I learned that I could touch flesh without being squeamish. I learned to be tactful about certain things. And then it was patriotic! (slightly joking tone). People liked me. (Why did they like you? ) Because I smiled, and because I was always making cracks-like I'm doing now. "
Her views with regard to minorities are guided by the idea of the individual:
"Minorities have to have just as many rights as majorities. They are all people and should have just as many rights as the majority. There should be no minorities; there should only be individuals and they should be judged according to the indi- vidual. Period! Is that sufficient? "
(Negroes? ) "Same thing! Still as individuals. Their skin is black, but they are still people. Individuals have loves and sorrows and joys. I don't think you should
kill them all or liquidate them or stick them in a corner just because they are dif- ferent people. I would not marry one, because I should not want to marry a person who has a trait I don't like, like a large nose, etc. I would not want to have children with dark skins. I would not mind if they live next door to me. " (Earlier in the interview subject had brought out the fact that she had also to care for Negro " patients during her nurses' aid work, and that she had not minded at all having to give baths to them, etc. )
(Jews? ) "Same! Well I could marry a Jew very easily. I could even marry a Negro if he had a light enough skin. I prefer a light skin. I don't consider Jews different from white people at all, because they even have light skins. It's really silly. (What do you think are the causes of prejudice? ) Jealousy. (Explain? ) Be- cause they are smarter and they don't want any competition. W e don't want any competition. If they want it they should have it. I don't know if they are more intelligent, but if they are they should have it. "
The last statement shows complete absence of any aspect of guilt feelings in her relation to the Jews. It is followed up by the joke:
"Maybe if the Jews get in power they would liquidate the majority! That's not smart. Because we would fight back. "
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
Her views on religion, with a slightly humorous touch, are centered in the idea of Utopia. She mentions the word herself, when referring to her read- ing of Plato. The gist of her religion is contained in the statement: "Per- haps we will all be saved. " This should be compared with the prevailing "anti-Utopian" attitude of our subjects.
The description of both her parents contains elements of her own ego ideal, in quite an unconventional way:
"Father has been employed for 25 years in the freight complaint department of t h e - - R. R. Co. His work involves the hiring of many men. He has about 150 people working under him. " (Subject described her father as follows:) "He could have been vice-president by now-he has the brains-but he does not have the go- get-in nature; he is not enough of a politician. He is broad-minded-always listens to both sides of a question before making up his mind. He is a good 'argumenter' for this reason. He is understanding. He is not emotional like mother. Mother is emotional, father factual. Mother is good. She has a personality of her own. She gives to all of us. She is emotional. She keeps Daddy very satisfied. (In what way? ) She makes a home for him to come home to-he has it very hard at the office. It's living. Their marriage is very happy-everybody notices it. Their children perform too-people notice them! Mother is very friendly. Understanding. She gives sym- pathy. People love to talk to her. Someone calls her up on the telephone and they become lifelong friends just from having talked on the telephone! She is sensitive; it is easy to hurt her. "
Her attitude towards sex is one of precarious restraint. Her boy friend
wants to have sexual intercourse everytime that they have a date-in fact he wanted it the first time he dated her-and she doesn't want it that way. She cries every time he tries something, so she supposes it cannot be right for her. She thinks that friendship should precede sexual relations, but he thinks that sex relations are a way of getting to know each other better. Finally she broke with him three days ago (said with mock tearfulness). He had said, "Let's just be friends," but she didn't want that either! The sex problem bothers her. The first time she danced with him he told her that he thought she wanted intercourse; whereas she just wanted to be close to him. She is worried because she didn't mean it the other way, but perhaps unconsciously she did!
It is evident that her erotic character is connected with a lack of repression with regard to her feelings towards her father: "I would like to marry some- one like my father. "
The result of the interview is summed up by the interviewer:
The most potent factors making for the low score in this case are the open-mind- edness of the parents and the great love subject's mother bore all her children.
If this can be generalized, and consequences be drawn for high scorers, we might postulate that the increasing significance of the fascist character de- pends largely upon basic changes in the structure of the family itself (see Max Horkheimer, 53a).
? CHAPTER XX
GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORI- T ARIAN PERSONALITY: CASE STUDIES OF TWO CONTRASTING INDIVIDUALS R. Nevitt Sanford
A. INTRODUCTION
As Mack and Larry have been followed through the various techniques of the study each of these subjects has shown striking consistency of response, and numerous differences between them have been found. The consistency embraces personality as well as ideology, and the differences have appeared in each area of investigation, from surface attitudes to the deep-lying needs explored by the T. A. T. Evidence has accumulated in support of the view that the differing ideological patterns are closely associated with differences in personality structure. The present task is to describe these personality struc- tures, to see how they are expressed in ideological trends and, above all, to learn as much as possible about how they developed. Numerous personality characteristics of the two subjects have already been brought to light, and the T. A. T. has given strong indications of what the central forces in each case might be; over-all formulation, however, has had to wait upon an examina- tion of the material from the clinical section of the interview. This material obviously leaves much to be desired, but when it is brought into relation with what has gone before and interpreted with the freedom which the background afforded by the foregoing clinical chapters now permits, rea- sonably complete and meaningful pictures emerge.
Many of the variables discussed in the chapters dealing with data from the clinical interviews will appear again as we consider these two cases. It is hoped that by paying more attention to specific detail than has been possible when the concern was with groups of subjects, we may come to closer grips with some of the concrete phenomena from which our variables were ab- stracted and that they will thus gain something in meaningfulness. The concern here, however, is not so much with particular variables as with the pattern- ing of variables within a single individual. The aim is to achieve as lifelike a portrait of one authoritarian personality, in its genetic aspects, as our frag-
787
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
mentary material permits, and to point up the contrasts with a nonauthori- tarian personality.
Most consideration will be given to the case of Mack: Here, as throughout the book, prejudice, rather than the relative lack of it, is in the focus of atten- tion. Larry's case is used mainly for purposes of contrast-contrast both with respect to the broad outlines of personality structure and with respect to certain turning points of development which seem to have been crucial for prejudice.
B.
THE CASE OF MACK The clinical part of Mack's interview follows.
"Mother was sick in bed a great deal of the time. I remember her reading and singing to us. She devoted her last strength to us kids. I don't have those early recollections of my father. My first recollection of him as a father was one spring morning, when mother passed away. He came back to tell us. Of course, there is such a disparity between his age and mine. He is 77 now. Mother had 3 operations. The third time she left I was very distressed. It was like a premonition. The aunt across the street helped take care of us, when we got sick. Father spent all of his time with us after mother died.
"My sister is 4 years 0lder than I. She has been married about 312 years. She is a housewife, has a 2-year-old boy, and is expecting another. I have had very good relations with her, a few arguments, but not like other brothers and sisters I have seen. She took care of the family cooking and took care of me. They called her 'the little old lady. ' That has kept up. She helped put me through school ,and to buy my clothes. She is an accomplished stenographer and bookkeeper. She loaned me money to get started in the East. I have repaid her. No, she has not influenced me much in ideas. She's like myself in that. She doesn't take religion very seriously; she never drinks or smokes, has high ideals. But father was more responsible for that.
"Up to high school I didn't do much thinking about anything. When I entered high school, my sister had left. The four years in high school I spent mostly with my father. When I graduated, he was living with us in "
(What things did you admire especially in your father? ) "Mostly, his attention to us kids was very admirable. He's very honest, so much so that he won't condone charge accounts. He's known throughout the country as a man whose word is as good as his bond. His greatest contribution was denying himself pleasures to take care of us kids. (What disagreements have you had with your father? ) There haven't been any to any great extent. I had a mind of my own at a very early age. He has too. We've had arguments, but I can't remember any lickings by him. He scolded but usually talked things over. Our arguments were usually about things I wanted that he didn't want me to have-like the 22 rifle I wanted when I was 10, or a bicycle. He had to be very careful about money. He wouldn't let me work-he thought it was beneath me. He was afraid I would hurt myself with the rifle. But he never denied me anything I needed. (What have been the effects of the age discrep- ancy? ) Well, I've had to shift for myself a lot. I would have welcomed instruction that he wasn't able to give me. My first venture socially was in the DeMolay. I was a charter member and later a master counselor. I was vice-president of the student body in high school and president of the student body at business school. He was pleased and encouraged me,
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 789
"Bud, my cousin, and I were always together. He is 2 months younger. W e played baseball and went hunting, etc. We're still close, though we write seldom. He is in India. "
(What are your most pleasant memories of childhood? ) "Those good times Bud and I had, and with other groups. Skiing and tobogganing. My real pleasures are very simple and always have been. 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
? 790
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.
? 792
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.
As to the Jews, he does not come to their "defense," but actually denies that they are a "problem":
(What about the Jewish problem? ) "I don't think there is a Jewish problem. There again, I think that's been a herring for agitators. (How do you mean? ) Hitler, Ku Klux Klan, etc. (Jewish traits? ) No . . . I've seen Jewish people exhibit so- called Jewish traits, but also many non-Jewish people. " . . . (Subject emphasizes there is no distinction along racial lines. )
The danger implicit in the "Easy-Going" syndrome, i. e. , too great reluctance to use violence even against violence, is suggested by the following passage:
(What about picketing Gerald K. Smith? ) "I think Gerald K. Smith should have an opportunity to speak, if we are operating under a democracy. (What about
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
picketing as registering a protest? ) If a certain group wants to, they have a right to. . . . I don't think it's always effective. "
That the subject's attitude of noncommitment to any "principle" is actually based on a sense of the concrete and not purely evasive is indicated by the following highly elucidating passage:
(Interviewer reads question . . . about tireless leader and refers to subject as agreeing a little, asks for elaboration. ) "I agree a little. However, the opposite of that, Huey Long, was a courageous, tireless leader and Hitler (laughs). It depends. (How do you mean? ) Well, I admired Willkie; I admired Roosevelt; I admired Wallace. But, I don't think we should ever have leaders in whom the people put their faith and then settle back. People seem to seek leaders to avoid thinking for themselves. "
This subject's interview concludes with the dialectical statement that "power is almost equivalent to the abuse of power. "
5. THE GENUINE LIBERAL
By contrast to the pattern just described, this syndrome is very outspoken in reaction and opinion. The subject in whom it is pronounced has a strong sense of personal autonomy and independence. He cannot stand any outside interference with his personal convictions and beliefs, and he does not want to interfere with those of others either. His ego is quite developed but not libidinized-he is rarely "narcissistic. " At the same time, he is willing to admit id tendencies, and to take the consequence-as is the case with Freud's "erotic type" (39). One of his conspicuous features is moral courage, often far beyond his rational evaluation of a situation. He cannot "keep silent" if some- thing wrong is being done, even if he seriously endangers himself. Just as he is strongly "individualized" himself, he sees the others, above all, as individ- uals, not as specimens of a general concept. He shares some features with other syndromes found among low scorers. Like the "Impulsive," he is little re- pressed and even has certain difficulties in keeping himself under "control. " However, his emotionality is not blind, but directed towards the other person as a subject. His love is not only desire but also compassion-as a matter of fact, one might think of defining this syndrome as the "compas- sionate" low scorer. He shares with the "Protesting" low scorer the vigor of identification with the underdog, but without compulsion, and without traces of overcompensation: he is no "Jew lover. " Like the "Easy-Going" low scorer he is antitotalitarian, but much more consciously so, without the element of hesitation and indecision. It is this configuration rather than any single trait which characterizes the "Genuine Liberal. " Aesthetic interests seem to occur frequently.
The illustration we give is a girl whose character of a "genuine liberal" stands out the more clearly, since, according to the interviewer,
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
she is politically naive like the majority of our college women, regardless whether they are high or low.
No "ticket" is involved. Fszs
is a 2 1-year-old college student. She is a handsome brunette with dark, flashing eyes, who exudes temperament and vitality. She has none of the pretty-pretty femininity so frequently seen in high subjects, and would probably scorn the little feminine wiles and schemes practiced by such women. On the contrary, she is extremely frank and outspoken in manner, and in build she is athletic. One senses in her a very passionate nature and so strong a desire to give intensely of herself in all her relationships, that she must experience difficulty in restraining herself within the bounds of conventionality.
Apart from a semiprofessional interest in music she also "enjoys painting and dramatics. " As to her vocation, however, she is still undecided. She
has taken nurses' aid training. She liked helping people in this way. "I enjoyed it. I feel that I could now take care of a sick person. It didn't bother me to carry bed- pans and urinals. I learned that I could touch flesh without being squeamish. I learned to be tactful about certain things. And then it was patriotic! (slightly joking tone). People liked me. (Why did they like you? ) Because I smiled, and because I was always making cracks-like I'm doing now. "
Her views with regard to minorities are guided by the idea of the individual:
"Minorities have to have just as many rights as majorities. They are all people and should have just as many rights as the majority. There should be no minorities; there should only be individuals and they should be judged according to the indi- vidual. Period! Is that sufficient? "
(Negroes? ) "Same thing! Still as individuals. Their skin is black, but they are still people. Individuals have loves and sorrows and joys. I don't think you should
kill them all or liquidate them or stick them in a corner just because they are dif- ferent people. I would not marry one, because I should not want to marry a person who has a trait I don't like, like a large nose, etc. I would not want to have children with dark skins. I would not mind if they live next door to me. " (Earlier in the interview subject had brought out the fact that she had also to care for Negro " patients during her nurses' aid work, and that she had not minded at all having to give baths to them, etc. )
(Jews? ) "Same! Well I could marry a Jew very easily. I could even marry a Negro if he had a light enough skin. I prefer a light skin. I don't consider Jews different from white people at all, because they even have light skins. It's really silly. (What do you think are the causes of prejudice? ) Jealousy. (Explain? ) Be- cause they are smarter and they don't want any competition. W e don't want any competition. If they want it they should have it. I don't know if they are more intelligent, but if they are they should have it. "
The last statement shows complete absence of any aspect of guilt feelings in her relation to the Jews. It is followed up by the joke:
"Maybe if the Jews get in power they would liquidate the majority! That's not smart. Because we would fight back. "
? TYPES AND SYNDROMES
Her views on religion, with a slightly humorous touch, are centered in the idea of Utopia. She mentions the word herself, when referring to her read- ing of Plato. The gist of her religion is contained in the statement: "Per- haps we will all be saved. " This should be compared with the prevailing "anti-Utopian" attitude of our subjects.
The description of both her parents contains elements of her own ego ideal, in quite an unconventional way:
"Father has been employed for 25 years in the freight complaint department of t h e - - R. R. Co. His work involves the hiring of many men. He has about 150 people working under him. " (Subject described her father as follows:) "He could have been vice-president by now-he has the brains-but he does not have the go- get-in nature; he is not enough of a politician. He is broad-minded-always listens to both sides of a question before making up his mind. He is a good 'argumenter' for this reason. He is understanding. He is not emotional like mother. Mother is emotional, father factual. Mother is good. She has a personality of her own. She gives to all of us. She is emotional. She keeps Daddy very satisfied. (In what way? ) She makes a home for him to come home to-he has it very hard at the office. It's living. Their marriage is very happy-everybody notices it. Their children perform too-people notice them! Mother is very friendly. Understanding. She gives sym- pathy. People love to talk to her. Someone calls her up on the telephone and they become lifelong friends just from having talked on the telephone! She is sensitive; it is easy to hurt her. "
Her attitude towards sex is one of precarious restraint. Her boy friend
wants to have sexual intercourse everytime that they have a date-in fact he wanted it the first time he dated her-and she doesn't want it that way. She cries every time he tries something, so she supposes it cannot be right for her. She thinks that friendship should precede sexual relations, but he thinks that sex relations are a way of getting to know each other better. Finally she broke with him three days ago (said with mock tearfulness). He had said, "Let's just be friends," but she didn't want that either! The sex problem bothers her. The first time she danced with him he told her that he thought she wanted intercourse; whereas she just wanted to be close to him. She is worried because she didn't mean it the other way, but perhaps unconsciously she did!
It is evident that her erotic character is connected with a lack of repression with regard to her feelings towards her father: "I would like to marry some- one like my father. "
The result of the interview is summed up by the interviewer:
The most potent factors making for the low score in this case are the open-mind- edness of the parents and the great love subject's mother bore all her children.
If this can be generalized, and consequences be drawn for high scorers, we might postulate that the increasing significance of the fascist character de- pends largely upon basic changes in the structure of the family itself (see Max Horkheimer, 53a).
? CHAPTER XX
GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORI- T ARIAN PERSONALITY: CASE STUDIES OF TWO CONTRASTING INDIVIDUALS R. Nevitt Sanford
A. INTRODUCTION
As Mack and Larry have been followed through the various techniques of the study each of these subjects has shown striking consistency of response, and numerous differences between them have been found. The consistency embraces personality as well as ideology, and the differences have appeared in each area of investigation, from surface attitudes to the deep-lying needs explored by the T. A. T. Evidence has accumulated in support of the view that the differing ideological patterns are closely associated with differences in personality structure. The present task is to describe these personality struc- tures, to see how they are expressed in ideological trends and, above all, to learn as much as possible about how they developed. Numerous personality characteristics of the two subjects have already been brought to light, and the T. A. T. has given strong indications of what the central forces in each case might be; over-all formulation, however, has had to wait upon an examina- tion of the material from the clinical section of the interview. This material obviously leaves much to be desired, but when it is brought into relation with what has gone before and interpreted with the freedom which the background afforded by the foregoing clinical chapters now permits, rea- sonably complete and meaningful pictures emerge.
Many of the variables discussed in the chapters dealing with data from the clinical interviews will appear again as we consider these two cases. It is hoped that by paying more attention to specific detail than has been possible when the concern was with groups of subjects, we may come to closer grips with some of the concrete phenomena from which our variables were ab- stracted and that they will thus gain something in meaningfulness. The concern here, however, is not so much with particular variables as with the pattern- ing of variables within a single individual. The aim is to achieve as lifelike a portrait of one authoritarian personality, in its genetic aspects, as our frag-
787
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
mentary material permits, and to point up the contrasts with a nonauthori- tarian personality.
Most consideration will be given to the case of Mack: Here, as throughout the book, prejudice, rather than the relative lack of it, is in the focus of atten- tion. Larry's case is used mainly for purposes of contrast-contrast both with respect to the broad outlines of personality structure and with respect to certain turning points of development which seem to have been crucial for prejudice.
B.
THE CASE OF MACK The clinical part of Mack's interview follows.
"Mother was sick in bed a great deal of the time. I remember her reading and singing to us. She devoted her last strength to us kids. I don't have those early recollections of my father. My first recollection of him as a father was one spring morning, when mother passed away. He came back to tell us. Of course, there is such a disparity between his age and mine. He is 77 now. Mother had 3 operations. The third time she left I was very distressed. It was like a premonition. The aunt across the street helped take care of us, when we got sick. Father spent all of his time with us after mother died.
"My sister is 4 years 0lder than I. She has been married about 312 years. She is a housewife, has a 2-year-old boy, and is expecting another. I have had very good relations with her, a few arguments, but not like other brothers and sisters I have seen. She took care of the family cooking and took care of me. They called her 'the little old lady. ' That has kept up. She helped put me through school ,and to buy my clothes. She is an accomplished stenographer and bookkeeper. She loaned me money to get started in the East. I have repaid her. No, she has not influenced me much in ideas. She's like myself in that. She doesn't take religion very seriously; she never drinks or smokes, has high ideals. But father was more responsible for that.
"Up to high school I didn't do much thinking about anything. When I entered high school, my sister had left. The four years in high school I spent mostly with my father. When I graduated, he was living with us in "
(What things did you admire especially in your father? ) "Mostly, his attention to us kids was very admirable. He's very honest, so much so that he won't condone charge accounts. He's known throughout the country as a man whose word is as good as his bond. His greatest contribution was denying himself pleasures to take care of us kids. (What disagreements have you had with your father? ) There haven't been any to any great extent. I had a mind of my own at a very early age. He has too. We've had arguments, but I can't remember any lickings by him. He scolded but usually talked things over. Our arguments were usually about things I wanted that he didn't want me to have-like the 22 rifle I wanted when I was 10, or a bicycle. He had to be very careful about money. He wouldn't let me work-he thought it was beneath me. He was afraid I would hurt myself with the rifle. But he never denied me anything I needed. (What have been the effects of the age discrep- ancy? ) Well, I've had to shift for myself a lot. I would have welcomed instruction that he wasn't able to give me. My first venture socially was in the DeMolay. I was a charter member and later a master counselor. I was vice-president of the student body in high school and president of the student body at business school. He was pleased and encouraged me,
? GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY 789
"Bud, my cousin, and I were always together. He is 2 months younger. W e played baseball and went hunting, etc. We're still close, though we write seldom. He is in India. "
(What are your most pleasant memories of childhood? ) "Those good times Bud and I had, and with other groups. Skiing and tobogganing. My real pleasures are very simple and always have been. 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
? 790
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.
? 792
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.
