Fromm explained Nazism as sadistic-masochistic personality sickness.

Evidence

A psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm (1941), had already given an answer. He argued that the Nazi regime arose from a sickness in the German people. The leaders on the podium at the Nuremberg rallies and the vast crowds of faithful followers before them allegedly manifested the two faces of the sadistic-masochistic personality. This one illness drove both groups, Fromm proposed, locking them into a dominance-submissive authoritarian embrace. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 892

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Fromm’s two-faced sadistic-masochistic personality as the psychoanalytic root of Nazi sympathy.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 892
• XREF: connects to: Heidegger embraced Nazism out of conviction, not convenience or coercion. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 269