The Mass Psychology of Fascism - Anxiety Depression Self-Help

who were developing.
Understandably enough, the whole world watched the development of the Soviet Union, anxiously or hopefully.
In general, the attitude toward the Soviet Union was hardly rational. The Soviet system was as uncritically
defended as it was condemned. Certain groups of intellectuals took the stand that "undoubtedly there were also
many good things about the Soviet Union." This sounds like a Hitlerite saying that "there are also decent Jews."
Such emotional judgments were senseless and fruitless. The leaders in the Soviet Union complained, rightly, that
people did not render practical aid to the Soviet Union, but only quarreled about it.
The struggle between the rational, forward-striving forces in the social development and the reactionary forces
of inhibition and regression continued. Thanks to Marx, Engels and Lenin, the economic conditions of a forward
development were far better recognized than the forces which inhibited it. Nobody mentioned the irrationalism of
the masses. Thus the development toward freedom, so promising in the beginning, first came to a standstill, and
then turned into authoritarian degeneration.
It was more fruitful to understand the mechanism of this [191] regression than to deny it as did the European
communist parties. By their credulous, religiously fanatic defense of everything taking place in the Soviet Union,
they deprived themselves of every practical possibility of solving the social difficulties. On the other hand, there
is no doubt that scientific clarification of the irrational contradictions in human character structure will, in the
long run, help the development of the Soviet Union far more than does narrow-minded talk about salvation. Such
a scientific attitude may be unpleasant and painful, but it is, in reality, based far more on friendly feelings than are
political slogans. This the professionally working Soviet Russians know very well. I may say that at that time the
concern of the sex-economic physicians and teachers was no less deep than that of the Sovietists. This concern
was well justified:
In industry, authoritarian, "responsible" direction took the place of the original "directorship of three" and of the
democratic production councils.
In the schools, the experiments in self-government (Dalton plan, etc.) failed and were replaced by the old
authoritarian school order, even though camouflaged by formal student organizations.
In the army, the original simple and democratic commander system was replaced by a strict order of ranks. The
"Marshal of the Soviet Union" was at first an incomprehensible innovation, then it seemed dangerous, too
reminiscent of "Tsar" or "Kaiser."
In social sex-economy, there was an increasing return to authoritarian, moralistic concepts and laws. This aspect
is presented extensively in my book, THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION.
In interpersonal relationships, there was more and more distrust, cynicism, tactics and insincerity. While in 1929
the average Russian was still fired with enthusiasm for the Five-year-plan and full of hope for the success of the
revolution, in 1935 they gave one a different impression: there was evasion, cynicism, disillusionment and that
certain kind of "sophistication" which is incompatible with a serious social attitude.
The cultural revolution in the Soviet Union had failed. More [192] than that, the regression in the cultural
process smothered, in the course of a few years, the enthusiasm and the hope of a whole world. Now, it is not the
fault of a social leadership if a social regression takes place. But this leadership actively promotes regression if it
a) proclaims the regression to be a progress;
b) proclaims itself the savior of the world; and
c) proceeds with the firing squad against those who remind it of its duties.
In that case, it will have to give way, sooner or later, to a social leadership which continues to adhere to the
generally valid principles of social development.
2. THE "SOCIALIST LONGING"
There were socialist movements and a socialist longing long before there were any scientific insights into the
social prerequisites of socialism. For thousands of years, the suppressed have been fighting their suppressors. It