Blog : The Authoritarian Personality

91 posts
9/16/2018 9:44 pm

The Authoritarian Personality

There have been many books etc on this subject from various individuals who have summarized some key characteristics of the authoritarian personality. One noted German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900-1980), was noted for such books as Escape From Freedom. Fromm was an atheist, but described himself as "nontheistic mysticism". He fled Germany in 1934 after the Nazi takeover. The subject is always based on the two part, sado-massochistic nature of the authoritiarian personality. Here are some studied characteristics of such given through the years, with later studies pointing out the relative similarities of right wing versus left wing authoritarianism:

[from Josef Smolík--Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno]

... study resulted in a set of specific attitudinal predispositions which are characteristic of the so-called authoritarian syndrome (cf. Krech, Crutchfield, Ballachey 1968: 239). Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson and Sanford (1950) have identified and described nine characteristics of the authoritarian personality which served as the basis for the Californian F-scale, composed of nine characteristics distributed into thirty items: (F-scale >Freudian)

1)Conventionalism. Rigid adherence to conventional, middle-class values.
2)Authoritarian submission. Submissive, uncritical attitude toward idealized moral authorities of the ingroup.
3)Authoritarian aggression. Tendency to be on the lookout for, and to condemn, reject, and punish people who violate conventional values.
4)Anti-intraception. Opposition to the subjective, the imaginative, the tender minded.
5)Superstition and stereotypy. The belief in mystical determinants of the individual’s fate; the disposition to think in rigid categories.
6)Power and „toughness“. Preoccupation with the dominance-submission, strong-weak, leader-follower dimension; identification with power figures; overemphasis upon the conventionalized attributes of the ego; exaggerated assertion of strength and toughness.
7)Destructiveness and cynicism. Generalized hostility, vilification of the human.
Projectivity. The disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go on in the world; the projection outwards of unconscious emotional impulses.
9)Sex. Exaggerated concern with sexual „goings-on“.

[and...]
Another important social scientist and a representative of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow, has (according to Krejčí 2004: 156) highlighted the following typical traits of the authoritarian character:
- hierarchical consciousness, that is the tendency to perceive other people as competitors who occupy either a higher or a lower position than the authoritarian personality in question. The external attributes of power, rather than internal qualities of the individual, are important;
- the tendency to generalize the characteristics of dominance and discomfort;
- striving for external attributes of prestige, such as power, money, status, etc.;
- presence of animosity, hate and prejudices in the person’s character;
- identification of goodness with weakness and an attempt to use it for one’s
own benefit;
- sadomasochistic tendencies;
- incessant discontent and an inability to achieve gratification in life;
- intra-psychic conflict;
- feelings of guilt which produce animosity.

[And yet another source>>>exploringyourmind...]

1. Blind loyalty to certain values, customs and ideals.
2. Ethnocentrism in authoritarian people.
3. The culture of fear.
4. My achievements will always be better than yours
5. Aggressive leadership.
6. Prejudice and rigid thinking.
7. Simplistic reasoning.

>Personal notes:
Yet having said the above, there are still civil-minded people per se' in any otherwise authoritarian gov't/regime. Of recent interest, is controversial British historian David Irving, who was no doubt erroneously labeled as a 'Holocaust Denier" for his claim that deaths by gas chambers never occurred. In the UK, he tried to sue, and lost his claim for libel against those calling him thus. But why would any court [trial by judge], descended from the spoils of such victory in WW2, rule in favor of having to re-write history, and thus virtually condemn the work of erroneous conformist historians? Certainly, Irving would not jeopardize his own reputation or life based on known false evidence! It is all too obvious that the opposition thought to expedite and build Irving into a villain, rather than open a whole new can of worms on Hitler and the Holocaust. Yet the whole war was a Holocaust, not just Europe and the Jews, even if no gas was used, and not to exclude the Pacific. Irving contends that the likes of H. Himmler and A. Speer were those leading the 'Final Solution'. Irving also contends that Hitler did NOT approve of such, even if he did know about it. Yes I know there is no excuse, but js. How many people do you know today that would be willing to play Moses and deliver the captives without thought to their own skin? lmao. After all, he was still the Nazi leader, and should NOT think to take fire into his bosom without getting burned.

But now, as to the shoe being on the other foot, is the case of the Israeli attack on the USS LIberty (USN Technical Research Ship) off the north coast of the Sinai Pen on June 8, 1967, during the 6 Day War. To this day, ship survivors say they were 'deliberately attacked by murderous b*st*rds'. There were few in Washington DC hesitant to inevitably brush it all under the rug as a veritable hush-up. However, these acts by Israeli jet and naval crew of three torpedo boats, likely had nothing to do with the Israeli High Command or lack of communication. The Liberty was flying the US flag and sporting the large white ID hull letters according to the crew.. Haha, you will notice the double standard here. If you are an Israeli soldier on your high as it were, and end up killing people because you are on a power trip, you get to walk free. Albeit the Israeli gov't did indeed give compensations to the survivors and families of those killed and wounded (34 and 171). If a neutral nazi power would have done this, nothing short of a declaration of war would have ensued.

And then there is the WTC on 911. The world still wonders...

Abuni_versem7 61M

159 posts
9/16/2018 10:09 pm

A house divided...will not stand--Matt 12:25. That goes for the New World Order even as the authoritarian man never has enough.