The Mass Psychology of Fascism - Anxiety Depression Self-Help

utlers, valets, etc., who change completely by taking over the thinking and demeanor of the ruling class and
often, in order to hide their modest origins, even exaggerate them.
This identification with the authorities, the firm, the state, the nation, etc., which can be expressed by the
formula, "I am the authority, the firm, the state, the nation," is a potent psychological reality and one of the best
illustrations of an ideology which has become a material force. At first the employee or official only has the ideal
of becoming like his boss, but gradually, under the influence of the chronic material dependence, his being
actually changes in the direction of the ruling stratum. Always looking above himself, the middle class individual
develops a divergence
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2 By "identification" psychoanalysis means the fact that a person begins to feel one with another, takes over characteristics and attitudes of the other person,
and takes in phantasy the place of the other person. By this process, the individual who identifies himself with another person undergoes an actual change, in
that he "introjects," takes up, the characteristics of the other person.
[40] between his economic position and his ideology. He lives in straitened circumstances but keeps up
appearances, often to a ridiculous degree. He feeds himself poorly but invests in "decent clothing." The silk hat
and the Prince Albert coat became the material symbol of this character structure. Few things are, at first glance,
more characteristic of a population than its clothing. The attitude of "Keeping up with the Joneses" specifically
distinguishes the middle class structure from that of the industrial worker. 3
How deep is this identification with authority? That such an identification exists has long been a well-known
fact. The question is, however, in what manner emotional factors—superimposed on the immediate economic
conditions—give a solid basis to this middle-class structure to such an extent that it stands firm even in times of
crisis, at a time when unemployment destroys the immediate economic base.
We have said that the economic position of the various strata of the middle classes varies, while their family
situation is essentially the same. This family situation is the emotional foundation of the structure just described.
4. FAMILY FIXATION AND NATIONALISTIC FEELING
The family situation of the various strata of the middle classes is, to begin with, not separated from their
economic position. The family is—except for the employees and officials—identical with the small economic
enterprise. The family members work in the small business; this saves the hiring of expensive help. On the farm,
the identity of family and mode of production is even more complete. The close interweaving of family and
economy is the reason why the agricultural population is "bound to the soil," why it is "traditional" and thus so
accessible to the influence of political reaction. It is not merely the economic situation which creates these "ties to
the soil" and this traditionalism; rather, the mode of production requires a strict familial attachment of all family
members to one another, and this attachment presupposes a far-
________
3 This is true of Europe. In America, the middle-class character of the industrial workers obliterates this distinction.
[41]reaching sexual suppression and repression. Only the combination of these two factors creates the typical
peasant thinking the center of which is patriarchal sexual morality. The difficulties which the Soviet government
encountered in the collectivization of agriculture were due not to the "love of the soil" but essentially to the
authoritarian family ties which result from the agricultural mode of production.
For one thing, the possibility of preserving a healthy peasant class as a foundation for a whole nation can never be valued highly
enough. Many of our present-day sufferings are only the consequence of the unhealthy relationship between rural and city
population. A solid stock of small and middle peasants has at all times been the best defense against social ills such as we possess
today. And, moreover, this is the only solution which enables a nation to earn its daily bread within the inner circuit of its economy.
Industry and commerce recede from their unhealthy leading position and adjust themselves to the general framework of a national
economy of balanced supply and demand.
(MEIN KAMPF, p. 138)