13 The Authoritarian Personality

Recapitulation

Dialectic of Enlightenment ended with a question: is its picture of enlightenment turning into myth a description, an exaggeration, or a warning? Today the question becomes concrete: fascism in the liberal-democratic West, and the Institute’s attempt to study it with the tools of empirical sociology.

The Institute in its American exile

Comfort and anxiety

America gave the Institute safety, but not peace. Personally there was Benjamin’s (BEN-yah-meen; /ˈbɛnjamiːn/) death, and the fate of Adorno’s family. Generally there were the immigration quotas, hostility to refugees, and fascist and racist currents in American life itself.

Right-wing populism, racism and nativism in America

• the German-American Bund (BOONT; /bʊnt/) (1936–1941), which held a rally of some twenty thousand people in Madison Square Garden in 1939;
• the radio priest Father Charles Coughlin (late 1930s to early 1940s) and the agitator Martin Luther Thomas (late 1930s);
• the internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans, Issei (EE-say; /is.seː/) and Nisei (NEE-say; /ɲi.seː/), from 1942 to 1946;
• the continuing lynching of Black Americans: Emmett Till, fourteen years old, was murdered in 1955.

The Institute’s empirical studies in America

The Institute’s American research appeared in the series Studies in Prejudice, edited by Horkheimer (HORK-hy-mer; /ˈhɔʁkhaɪ̯mɐ/) and Samuel H. Flowerman (quotation 1):

• The Authoritarian Personality (1950), by Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson and Sanford;
• Dynamics of Prejudice (1950), by Bruno Bettelheim and Morris Janowitz, a study of veterans;
• Anti-Semitism and Emotional Disorder (1950), by Nathan W. Ackerman and Marie Jahoda;
• Rehearsal for Destruction (1949), by Paul W. Massing, on political anti-Semitism in imperial Germany;
• Prophets of Deceit (1949), by Leo Löwenthal (LUR-ven-tahl; /ˈløːvn̩taːl/) and Norbert Guterman, on the techniques of the American agitator.

The motives were personal and political at once: the genocide of a whole culture in Europe, and a growing assault on the political left.

The Authoritarian Personality (1950)

A massive research project

The authors were a mixed team:

• Theodor W. Adorno;
• Else Frenkel-Brunswik (1908–1958), a Viennese psychoanalyst and refugee in the psychology department at Berkeley;
• R. Nevitt Sanford (1905–1995), an American from a Baptist family with a psychology PhD from Harvard, at Berkeley, later founder of the Wright Institute; in 1950 he was dismissed in the McCarthyite Red Scare, and later reinstated;
• Daniel J. Levinson (1920–1994), a graduate researcher at Berkeley in 1947, later a professor of psychology at Harvard and Yale.

The method combined quantitative surveys with qualitative interviews and psychoanalytic interpretation. The population studied was 2,099 people, in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oregon and elsewhere.

The basic premise

The book’s premise is the rise of a new “anthropological species,” the authoritarian type of man. Unlike the old-style bigot, he combines the ideas and skills of a highly industrialized society with irrational or anti-rational beliefs. He is at once enlightened and superstitious, proud to be an individualist and in constant fear of not being like everyone else, jealous of his independence and inclined to submit blindly to power. (Quotation 2.) This type is distinctively modern, and increasingly common.

What the study measures is susceptibility to fascism: the potentially fascist personality. Several scales measure the degree of overt ideological commitment: the AS-scale (anti-Semitism), the E-scale (ethnocentrism), the PEC-scale (politico-economic conservatism). The famous F-scale (“F” for fascism) measures something underneath them: an implicit authoritarian personality that may predict that commitment.

What are the marks of a high scorer on the F-scale? Conventionalism; submissiveness; aggression; anti-intraception, an antipathy to self-reflection; superstition and “stereotypy”; toughness; “destructiveness and cynicism”; and “projectivity,” the tendency to see the world as fearsome and dangerous, with a pronounced, moralizing concern with other people’s sexual activity. (Quotation 3.)

Two cases: Larry and Mack

The book brings its types to life in individual cases. Mack, “a man high on ethnocentrism,” and Larry, “a man low on ethnocentrism,” are both older college students who came back to school after years away, and on the political questionnaire they give exactly the same pattern of answers. Their interviews show how different two people with the same stated views can be: how they talk about their parents, their ambitions, and other groups is where the scales’ differences come alive.

Adorno’s chapter on syndromes and types

Adorno’s own chapter complicates the picture. Even among low scorers there is a “rigid” type, whose tolerance is itself a kind of stereotype. So the typology must be a critical typology: it has to understand the typing of people as itself a social function. The more rigid a person is as a type, the more deeply he bears the marks of social rubber stamps. The real dividing line is between people who are standardized and think in a standardized way, and people who are truly individualized and resist standardization; and the more “typified” the low scorers are, the more they unwittingly express the fascist potential within themselves. (Quotation 4.)

Modern culture is standardized, and that objectively produces types. The “genuine liberal” is the individual who resists the trend. Here the empirical study opens onto the culture-industry argument we meet in two weeks.

Conclusions and recommendations

The book ends with three claims.

1. Love. If the rigid ethnocentric adult is formed in childhood, attention turns to how children are raised, and the authors say a non-ethnocentric personality could be produced even in the present culture: “All that is really essential is that children be genuinely loved and treated as individual humans.” (Quotation 5.)
2. Eros belongs to democracy. The fascist pattern is largely imposed: people are continually molded from above, because they must be if the economic order is to be maintained, and the energy spent molding them measures how much potential they have for moving in another direction. The tolerant, the evidence suggests, are basically happier than the prejudiced, though they pay in guilt for going against prevailing standards. So democrats need not leave emotion to the fascists and limit themselves to reason and restraint: “If fear and destructiveness are the major emotional sources of fascism, eros belongs mainly to democracy.” (Quotation 6.)
3. Only a changed society. The potentially fascist structure cannot be changed by psychological means alone. Like neurosis, delinquency or nationalism, it is a product of the total organization of society, and can be changed only as society is changed. (Quotation 7.) That is the critical-theory sentence hidden in the conclusion of an American social-science book.

Handout outline (Professor Gordon)

I. Recapitulation

• fascism in the liberal-democratic West
• description or warning
• the Institute’s projects in empirical sociology

II. The Institute in its American exile

• A. Comfort and anxiety
  • personal: Benjamin’s death, Adorno’s family
  • general: immigration quotas, hostility to refugees, fascist and racist currents
• B. Right-wing populism, racism, and nativism in America
  • the German-American Bund (1936–1941)
  • Father Coughlin (late ’30s to early ’40s); Martin Luther Thomas (late ’30s)
  • the internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans (Issei and Nisei): 1942–1946
  • ongoing lynching of Black Americans: Emmett Till (14 years old): 1955
• C. The Institute’s empirical studies in America
  • various examples in the “Studies in Prejudice” series, edited by Horkheimer and Flowerman [quote 1]
  • personal and political motivations
  • the genocide of a subculture in Europe and the growing assault on the political left

III. The Authoritarian Personality (1950)

• A. Massive research project
  • T. W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford. Else Frenkel-Brunswik (1908–1958): Viennese psychoanalyst, refugee; Psych. Dept., UC Berkeley. R. Nevitt Sanford (1905–1995): American, Baptist family; Psych PhD Harvard; UC Berkeley Psych Dept.; founder of Wright Institute (Berkeley); in 1950 Sanford dismissed in McCarthyite Red Scare; then reinstated to his position. Daniel J. Levinson (1920–1994): grad researcher, Psych. Dept., UC Berkeley in 1947; later psychology professor, Harvard and then Yale.
  • quantitative–qualitative research: empirical sociology and interviews and psychoanalytic interpretation
  • population studied: 2,099 individuals (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oregon, and elsewhere)
• B. The basic premise
  • the rise of an “anthropological species,” the “authoritarian type of man” [quote 2]
  • distinctively modern and increasingly prevalent
  • subjective responsiveness or susceptibility to fascist ideology: the potentially fascist personality
  • scales to measure degree of overt ideological commitment: AS-scale; E-scale; PEC-scale
  • “F-scale” measures implicit authoritarian personality that may be predictive of that commitment
  • what are representative features of high-scorers on the F-scale? [quote 3]
• C. Two representative cases: Larry and Mack
  • Larry (low-scoring); Mack (high-scoring) [the handout has these two the other way round; in the book Mack is “a man high on ethnocentrism” and Larry “a man low on ethnocentrism”]
  • some illustrative differences
• D. Adorno’s chapter on syndromes and types
  • the “rigid low-scoring” individual
  • the need for a “critical” typology [quote 4]
  • the standardization of modern culture and the objective rise of “types”
  • the “genuine liberal” as an individual who resists the trend of standardization
  • realism vs. skepticism
• E. Conclusions and recommendations
  • “All that is really essential is that children be genuinely loved and treated as individual humans.” [quote 5]
  • authoritarian personality inclines toward fear and aggression, while eros belongs to democracy [quote 6]
  • the warning about current trends and the allusion to total transformation of society [quote 7]

On the back: (1) the Studies in Prejudice series; (2)–(7) Adorno et al., The Authoritarian Personality (1950).