Authoritarian psychodynamics have never been proven causally, only correlationally

Evidence

On the level of interpretation, the level on which repression is supposed to lead to displacement, rationalization, and anti-intraception, things are less certain. These ideas about personality dynamics cannot be proved by correlation. Studies of an entirely different kind are needed. Is it the case, for example, that if an authoritarian somehow became able to tolerate ambivalence, to see faults in himself and his parents, that he would thereupon lose his prejudices or at any rate become able to adjust them to fact? One would have to find a way of bringing ambivalence into consciousness (psychotherapy? hypnosis?) without in any way directly attacking the prejudice. It would not be an easy kind of research to do and it has not been done. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 652

I am hardly saying we should close the book on psychodynamic attempts to explain authoritarianism (Hopf, 1993; Lederer, 1993; Meloen, 1993). They may turn out to be much better models than anything I, at least, can cobble together. Certainly, as we shall see in later chapters, a lot goes on (and does not go on) in the authoritarian mind. It is, undoubtedly, psychodynamic. But if one is to convince the scientific community with such explanations, terms will have to be well defined, constructs will have to be validly measured, hypotheses will have to be falsifiable, and so on. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 618

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with the vault’s psychoanalytic readings (Fromm/Adorno) in the Frankfurt School material — Altemeyer grants their intuitions but disputes their scientific standing. — connects to: Authoritarianism is not a single coherent psychological construct — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 525
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 652; Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 618