Adult social helplessness, not child biological helplessness, drives the demand for authority

Evidence

The degree of fear and intimidation experienced by the small child is to a considerable extent dependent on the degree of fear which, as an adult, it will later have of society. It is therefore not the biological helplessness of the small child which produces a strong demand for superego and for strict authority; the demands springing from its biological helplessness can be met by any unintimidating person who is friendly towards the child. Rather, it is the social helplessness of the adult which stamps its mark on the biological helplessness of the child, and allows the superego and authority to take on such significance in the child’s development. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 609

The degree of fear and intimidation experienced by the small child is to a considerable extent dependent on the degree of fear which, as an adult, it will later have of society. It is therefore not the biological helplessness of the small child which produces a strong demand for superego and for strict authority; the demands springing from its biological helplessness can be met by any unintimidating person who is friendly towards the child. Rather, it is the social helplessness of the adult which stamps its mark on the biological helplessness of the child, and allows the superego and authority to take on such significance in the child’s development. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 172

Categorization

• DEFINE: Reverse of the commonsense Freudian account — Fromm inverts the typical direction of causal explanation between biological and social determinants.
• XREF: Connects to Erich Fromm’s later work in Escape from Freedom and to the authoritarian-personality literature. — connects to: The absence of conflict in normal people masks authority’s prior suppression of instinct; Administered needs cause individuals to identify with and submit to domination — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 39; Lower classes are most vulnerable to authority because socialization denies them ego-strength — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 610 (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Inverts the intuitive Freudian causal arrow: the child’s need for a strict superego is a projection backward of the adult’s social impotence, which reframes the whole authoritarian-character argument.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 609; Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 172

Broader Connections

• The absence of conflict in normal people masks authority’s prior suppression of instinct #expands (0.82)
• Administered needs cause individuals to identify with and submit to domination #corroborates (0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 39
• Lower classes are most vulnerable to authority because socialization denies them ego-strength #expands (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 610