The Authoritarian Personality and It’s Enemies: Wilhelm Reich, Theodor W. Adorno, Alice Miller and Klaus Theweleit Cover Image

Osobowość autorytarna i jej wrogowie: Wilhelm Reich, Theodor W. Adorno, Alice Miller i Klaus Theweleit
The Authoritarian Personality and It’s Enemies: Wilhelm Reich, Theodor W. Adorno, Alice Miller and Klaus Theweleit

Author(s): Katarzyna Szumlewicz
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe ChAT
Keywords: authoritarian personality; fascism; upringing; family; domestic violence; denial; patriarchy; antisemitism

Summary/Abstract: The essay presents a reconstruction and critical interpretation of four theories of authoritarian personality related to analysis of fascism. The first theory origins from a book The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich, published already before the Second World War, the second theory comes from a famous The Authoritarian Personality by Theodor W. Adorno. The third was presented by Alice Miller in For Your Own Good, and the fourth – by Klaus Theweleit in groundbreaking Male Fantasies. Only one of them, by Miller, refers directly to pedagogy. Nevertheless, the essay presents all four publications in relation to upbringing. The essay raises following questions: what is authoritarian personality? Which elements of education support its development and which prevent it? The theories are presented in relations to each other. Some of their conclusions are consistent, but other present conflicting positions. The dialectical method applied by the author enables to see, among others, how Adorno’s theories are put upside down by Miller, as well as Theweleit, who develops Reich’s ideas. The reconstruction of the dialogue between presented theories enables to put new questions related to the role of authoritarian personality in contemporary times.

  • Issue Year: X/2019
  • Issue No: 4 (29)
  • Page Range: 47-62
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish