Talk:Authoritarian personality

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This article could definitely use more references as John Ray is in no way unbiased. See his blog which says that Hitler was a leftist, and that fascists are actually leftists, "greenies" are actually motivated by hate for human beings, etc. (User:Transhumanist)

I don't think we needed to go, ad hominem, into the details of Ray's beliefs ... just pointing out that he is biased - and in the opposite direction to many other researchers in social psychology, no less - would have been enough. FYI, note that Ray added those references himself. Incidentally, isn't it true that the National Socialist party proclaimed themselves to be, well, socialists? Ppe42 08:31, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

They mainly used it in the name of the party, because it was originally supposedly labour-oriented. At the same time they considered Bolshevists to be their enemies - Skysmith 09:04, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Many left-of-centre movements saw the Bolsheviks as an enemy (trotskyists, social democrats, anarcho-syndicatists), especially after their authoritarian nature was revealed in the Spanish Civil War. Early on at least, the Nazis considered pretty much everyone to be their enemy, even Fascist Austria and Italy.66.133.180.60 11:45, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Criticisms

Reading this article, you would never know that this work is widely discredited today. [1][2]

Erm, following up on your links, I'm not really convinced it is discredited. The first ref is a synopsis/precis of an article I can't really evaluate. The description assumes that everyone knows the original book is flawed in many ways but without specifics, I'm not willing to give the paper's author the benefit of the doubt. The tone of his CV and page do not inspire confidence in the rigor of his analysis. The second ref doesn't appear to say anything to discredit the book. My impression is the theory/findings in the book have continued to be developed over the last 50 years. While that doesn't bear directly on this piece about the original book, I think it says something about continuing relevance of the work. --Pigman (talk • contribs) 03:07, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Well Wikipedia is not about truth. The only way you can assert that the work is not discredited, is by reference to another (recent) scholarly work that says it's not. It is as simple as that. Intangible 03:17, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

In the book Mass Hate (N. J. Kressel, 2002), which is not exactly a scholarly article, but instead a book that tries to understand why a country's citizens are influenced to commit genocides (the relationship to Authoritarianism and the Authoritarian personality should be obvious). Regarding The Authoritarian Personality's history, he says in sum, "the theory presented in the 1950 volume was not 'objectively and impartially subjected to the rigorous demands of scientific method' (Sahakian 259). Still, this does not imply that the theory is false" (190). Thus, while the studies might have had flaws, the theory may still be correct. Any other published scholarly views on the idea would be appreciated. --MyOwnLittlWorld 00:02, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Historical Relevance

References to the Authoritarian Personality appear frequently in college textbooks as illustrations of at the least a strong connection between certain traits of personality and fascistic tendencies. That fascism is dead in most of the West and Japan may demonstrate cultural changes perhaps in part of deliberate design in education (for example, the democratic successors of fascist states reshaped educational policies to promote intellectual curiosity and moral courage in place of blind obedience and nationalist chauvinism) and in part mass culture. It's hard to imagine anyone who has familiarity with the more hedonistic mass culture of the 1960s and later to believe that tradition must trump any possibility of human happiness. Think of almost any Beatles lyric as the antithesis of pre-WWII fascism. Add to this political changes that result from the success of popular movements that have asserted successfully the rights of ethnic and religious groups once treated as pariahs.

The Authoritarian Personality as a type is itself an ugly stereotype of humanity -- one that few would consciously either accept or impose in knowledge of anything else. It is almost pure pathology. One can readily see hypocrisy in persons quick to condemn homosexuality and interracial marriage with violent repression, but willing to endorse and accept military overkill as a response to some insult to national 'honor'.

Note well that after World War II, communists in central and Balkan Europe found an adequate supply of persons willing to do their dirtiest work. It's easy to imagine a former rank-and-file member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross, the Romanian Iron Guard, or the Croatian Ustaše exchanging a traditional authoritarianism for a Marxist authoritarianism. New norms are set for uncritical obedience, a new set of political figures fulfills the need for idealized leaders, new groups of enemies appear to deserve harsh treatment, imagination and subtlety are again pointless, kindness toward political outcasts is pointless, the non-Marxist world teems with bizarre and menacing plots, and anyone could be a traitor. Marxists seem to be far more tolerant than fascists about sex.

Josef Goebbels saw a potential nazi in any "Aryan" member of the Red Front; Karl Radek saw a potential Bolshevik in any member of the SA. Neither saw a potential totalitarian in either a liberal or a genuine conservative, and for good reason; the liberal is too open-minded to have any use for authoritarianism, and the genuine conservative who has a stake in the old economic order at least needs the freedom with which to innovate and enjoy the fruits of his efforts.

So we can say that the Authoritarian Personality is effectively extinct as a political force in the most socially and politically advanced parts of the world. What of the others? Wherever people are expected to acquiesce in a hardscrabble world in which a few get great privileges and most are people treated as pack animals or automata I would expect some form of authoritarian personality to fit the local norm. That fits pre-WWII fascism, nazism, and Ku Kluxism very well, and Marxism-Leninism almost as well. But those are mostly dead in the First World and most of the ex-Communist world (central Asia obviously excluded). It's not poverty alone; I would expect authoritarianism to have faded out in India and to be discredited in South Africa, rather poor countries, to a greater extent than in Saudi Arabia.

So the Authoritarian Personality is a stage of moral development in a nations, one that many nations seem to outgrow, even if some people don't. It may have fit the middle class in most of the West at one time, but that is all past. It may have been more relevant to the European, North American, and Japanese middle classes in the 1920s than in the 1960s or later. When it was relevant it tolerated and promoted fascism, gutter racism, and such hysteria as McCarthyism and once it disappeared as a norm it became impotent at frustrating the changes that it held must never occur.

Relevance to history? Sure. The horrors of fascism were impossible without the Authoritarian Personality. Any political, economic, or religious leadership that tries to inculcate it in a people degrades that people and threatens the rest of the world. Nothing says that it cannot be revived.Paul from Michigan 21:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC)