The Mass Psychology of Fascism - Anxiety Depression Self-Help

determines its ideology. While the economic situation of the small farmers, the officials and small businessmen is
different, their family situation is essentially the same.
The rapid development of capitalistic economy during the 19th century, the progressive mechanization of
production, the development of monopolistic syndicates and trusts all led to a progressive pauperization of the
lower middle class business and tradespeople. Unable to compete with big business, small enterprises inevitably
failed.
The middle class can expect nothing from this system but ruthless destruction. The alternative is: whether all will become a large
gray mass of proletarians where all have equally much, that is, nothing, or whether the individual will be able again by his own
strength and industry to create his own property. Middle class or proletarian: that is the question.
Thus speaks the Deutschnationale Partei before the Reichs-presidential elections in 1932. The National
Socialists were not [38] clumsy enough to create a wide gap between middle class and industrial workers and
were therefore more successful.
In the propaganda of the NSDAP the fight against the large department stores played a large role. But the
conflict between the role which National Socialism played for heavy industry on the one hand and the interests of
the middle class on which National Socialism depended was expressed, e.g., in Hitler's talk with Knickerbocker:
"We shall not make German-American relationships dependent on a shop (he was referring to the fate of
Woolworth in Berlin) . . . the existence of such enterprises means furthering bolshevism . . . It destroys many
small enterprises. For that reason, we shall not tolerate them. But you can rest assured that your enterprises of this
kind in Germany will be treated no differently from similar German enterprises." 1 The debts of private business
to foreign countries were a heavy burden on the middle class. But while Hitler favored their payment because his
foreign policy was dependent on it, his followers demanded that they be scrapped. The middle class rebelled
"against the system" by which it meant the "Marxist regime" of Social Democracy.
The economic crisis made a solid organization of the middle class strata necessary, but equally strong factors
militated against it. The competition between the small enterprises had always prevented the development of a
feeling of solidarity such as the industrial workers had developed. Because of his social position alone, the middle
class individual cannot develop solidarity either with his own social stratum or that of the industrial workers; with
his own stratum because there competition prevails, and with the industrial worker because he fears nothing more
than proletarization. Yet, in spite of this, the fascist movement brought about a unification of the middle classes.
The question is, on what mass-psychological basis did this take place?
The answer lies in the social position of the minor officials, government and private. The economic position of
the average official is inferior to that of the average specialized industrial
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1 After the seizure of power, in March and April, there was a mass attack on the department stores to which the NSDAP soon put a stop.
[39] worker; this is partly compensated by certain—or uncertain—prospects of advancement, and in the case of
the government official, that of a lifelong pension. The official, thus dependent on government authority,
develops an attitude of competition toward his colleagues which prevents the development of solidarity. The
social consciousness of the official is not characterized by the fate he has in common with his colleagues, but by
his attitude toward government authority and the "nation." This attitude is one of complete identification with
state authority 2 in the case of the government official, with the business enterprise in the case of the private
official. He is a subject no less than the industrial worker. Why, then, does he not develop a feeling of solidarity
like the industrial worker? Because of his position in between authority and industrial workers. On the one hand
he is a subject of this authority and on the other hand its representative; as such he enjoys a privileged position
morally even if not economically. The most clear-cut embodiment of this mass-psychological type is the top
sergeant.
The power of this identification with the master is seen in a gross form in the servants of aristocratic homes, in