Early authoritarianism researchers defined the healthy personality as their own political outlook

Evidence

The Equalitarian opposite to the Authoritarian held the leftish liberal views of a New Dealer in the 1930’s. They were views common to humane liberals, to Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party, to non-Stalinist communists, the authors of The Authoritarian Personality, and most American social psychologists. The Equalitarian was ourselves and the Authoritarian the man in our society whom we feared and disliked. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 431

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: the psychology of personality typing as a covert form of political self-justification — how the ‘democratic personality’ was really just the researchers’ own peer group.
• DEEPTHINKING: The admission that ‘the Equalitarian was ourselves and the Authoritarian the man in our society whom we feared and disliked’ is a startlingly candid acknowledgment that the personality science of the time was projective self-definition — the taxonomy was a mirror.
• XREF: connects to: A pro-American outlook shaped the Chicago study’s interpretation of personality health. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1831