Fascist personalities substitute a group ego for their own super-ego
Evidence
Its replacement through a ‘group ego’ is exactly what happens to fascist personalities. … They fail to develop an independent autonomous conscience and substitute for it an identification with collective authority which is irrational as Freud described it, heteronomous, rigidly oppressive, largely alien to the individuals’ own thinking and, therefore, easily exchangeable in spite of its structural rigidity. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 310
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- DEFINE: Defines the mechanism of super-ego externalization — the precise psychological substitution Adorno later runs on mass culture consumers.
Related
- Fascist leaders are focal points of citizens’ reactions, not supermen (similarity 0.81)
- Adorno grounded his analysis of fascist propaganda in Freud’s group psychology. (similarity 0.80)
- Outsider groups serve as involuntary conduits for fascism’s own taboo impulses (similarity 0.80)
- Fascism exploits psychological tendencies rather than being caused by them. (similarity 0.78)
- Fascist propaganda succeeds by reproducing rather than challenging the existing mentality. (similarity 0.78)
- Personalized leader propaganda substitutes psychological imagery for objective discussion (similarity 0.78)