Fascist leaders keep libidinal energy unconscious so it can be diverted into obedience

Evidence

Since the libidinal bond between members of masses is obviously not of an uninhibited sexual nature, the problem arises as to which psychological mechanisms transform primary sexual energy into feelings which hold masses together. Freud copes with the problem by analysing the phenomena covered by the terms suggestion and suggestibility. He recognises suggestion as the ‘shelter’ or ‘screen’ concealing ‘love relationships’. It is essential that the ‘love relationship’ behind suggestion remains unconscious. … It is one of the basic tenets of fascist leadership to keep primary libidinal energy on an unconscious level so as to divert its manifestations in a way suitable to political ends. The less an objective idea such as religious salvation plays a role in mass formation, and the more mass manipulation becomes the sole aim, the more thoroughly uninhibited love has to be repressed and moulded into obedience. There is too little in the content of fascist ideology that could be loved. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 184

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the precise mechanism for how suggestion screens unconscious love relationships — a load-bearing concept for the reader’s analysis toolkit.
• XREF: connects to: Outsider groups serve as involuntary conduits for fascism’s own taboo impulses — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 145; The fascist leader performs the forbidden impulses his followers suppress — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 144; Fascist body-worship masks a repressed death-wish that aligns with killing — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 222