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The concept of authoritarian personality denotes a number of qualities, which according to the theories of Theodor Adorno and his colleagues predict one's potential for fascist and antidemocratic leanings and behaviors. These qualities are assessed by a coherent system--the "structure of personality"--which arises out of characteristic experiences in early childhood and the pattern of internal, psychological processing. Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ...
Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests subordinate to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on, but not limited to, ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes. ...
[edit] Psychoanalytic aspect Adorno and his colleagues regarded the fundamental basis of this presumed system of personality qualities and its linkage to certain attitudes according to a psychoanalytic viewpoint: experiences in early childhood and their internalization.
Freud's psychoanalytic theory suggests that values and norms that are first represented in the person of the father are internalized in the course of the child's development. From these the first unconscious stage of the so-called superego develop. The grappling with an authoritarian, very strict father leads to the development of a very strong superego. Thereby, from the earliest childhood onward, unconscious desires and drives (e.g., power and sexual license) must be thrust down and remain unsatisfied. Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ...
The unconscious conflicts that are unleashed thereby are solved when the person projects the "forbidden" drives and aggressions of his superego onto other people. As a rule, ethnic, political or religious minorities are selected as a screen for these projections, because this way there are no social sanctions to fear. Often, he can fall back on socially acceptable prejudices. Studies by Hans Eysenck, Milton Rokeach and many others go into this question. Hans Eysenck Hans Jürgen Eysenck (March 4, 1916 - September 4, 1997) was an eminent psychologist, most remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas. ...
Milton Rokeach (1918-1988) was a psychologist and served as Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University for many years. ...
Alfred Adler provided another perspective, linking the "will to power over others" as a central neurotic trait, usually emerging as aggressive over-compensation for felt and dreaded feelings of inferiority and insignificance. The authoritarian need to maintain control and prove superiority over others is rooted in a world view populated by enemies, empty of equality, empathy, and mutual benefit. Alfred Adler (February 7, 1870 – May 28, 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor and psychologist, founder of the school of individual psychology. ...
A neurosis, in psychoanalytic theory, is an ineffectual coping strategy that Sigmund Freud suggested was caused by emotions from past experience overwhelming or interfering with present experience. ...
[edit] Extent of Validity Besides these problematic concerns, many have criticised applying the theory with too broad a sphere of validity--that the authors did not account for variables that reflect socioeconomic status such as class, religious indoctrination, and level of education. Some have argued that in these circumstances, these would offer simpler explanations, and increase the practical relevance of the study.
Another criticism is that the theory of the Berkeley group insinuates that "Authoritarianism" is present only on the right side of the political spectrum. As a result, some have claimed that political bias corrupts the theory.
Despite some methodological deficiencies, the theory of the authoritarian personality has had a major influence on subsequent research. In Germany, research on authoritarianism has been more recently carried out by, among others, Klaus Roghmann, Detlef Oesterreich and Christel Hopf. The most active researcher in the field today is probably the Dutch psychologist J.D. Meloen, or his lesser-known contemproary, Breeon "Willie" Coolens, who's groundbreaking work included the scholarly paper, "The Model", which deconstructed an American known simply as "Porter." Many in the field consider Porter to be the "quintessential authoritarian." The most active critic of the theory has been Australian psychologist John J. Ray. Most academic journal articles that mention the theory, however, assume that it is at least largely true.
Three academic journal articles that may be useful in assessing the evidence for and against the theory are as under:
- Ray, J.J. (1988). "Why the F scale predicts racism: A critical review". Political Psychology 9 (4): 671-679.
- Ray, J.J. (1990). "The old-fashioned personality". Human Relations 43: 997-1015.
- Martin, John Levi (2001). "The Authoritarian Personality, 50 Years Later: What Questions Are There for Political Psychology?". Political Psychology 22 (1): 1-26. DOI:10.1111/0162-895X.00223.
A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ...
[edit] Applications to United States politics John Dean makes use of the term (and the research of Robert Altemeyer) to analyze the contemporary political climate in his book Conservatives Without Conscience, an analysis of the George W. Bush administration and neoconservatism. John Dean, May 7, 1972. ...
Wikipedia has a separate article on Rob Altemeyer, who is a politician in Manitoba, Canada and a member of the Manitoba legislature. ...
Conservatives Without Conscience is a book written by John Dean, who served as White House counsel under Richard Nixon and then helped to break the Watergate scandal with his testimony before the Senate. ...
This article is about Neoconservatism in the United States, for neoconservatism in other regions, see Neoconservatism (disambiguation). ...
[edit] See also Right-wing Authoritarianism (RWA) is a psychological personality variable or ideological attitude. It is defined as the convergence of three attitudinal clusters in an individual: Authoritarian submission — a high degree of submission to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives. ...
The Authoritarian Personality is an influential 1950 book by Theodor W. Adorno and others. ...
The F-scale, or Fascism scale, is a psychological measure of authoritarian tendencies. ...
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