Early authoritarian personality research hoped to blame anti-Semitism on deviants

Evidence

These plans were short-sighted, particularly when one thinks of Horkheimer’s note on A Theory of Crime' in Dialectic of Enlightenment where the weaker, more delicate self’ of criminals was discussed, and when one thinks of the ambivalent role played by the `self’ in the Dialectic of Enlightenment as a manifestation of both emancipation from nature and self-denying hardening against nature. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1594

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Dialectic of Enlightenment’s self-hardenation thesis and the broader critique that psychologizing anti-Semitism depoliticizes it. — connects to: The Institute’s anti-Semitism project sought to expose latent tendencies at subconscious levels — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1141; Rigid conventionalism was theorized as the motivational basis of anti-Semitism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1773; The Berkeley group explained anti-Semitism through personality structure interacting with external factors — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1522 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Authoritarian personality research worried US society harbored willing Gestapo recruits #corroborates (0.85)