The Mass Psychology of Fascism - Anxiety Depression Self-Help

metaphysics. Then we open an avenue of approach to the sources of metaphysics itself, and comprehend not only
its historical basis but also its material substance. The results of this explanation speak for themselves.
2. THE OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE FUNCTIONS OF IDEOLOGY
What leads most frequently to misunderstandings of the relationship between an ideology and its historical
function is the failure to distinguish its objective from its subjective function. The concepts of a dictatorship
derive directly from the economic base. Thus, the fascist race theory and nationalist ideology in general derive
from the imperialistic goals of a leading stratum of society which tries to solve economic difficulties. The
German as well as the French nationalism of the first world war appealed to the "greatness of the nation" behind
which were hidden the expansion tendencies of German and French finance. But these economic factors
constitute only the social soil on which the corresponding ideology can develop, they are the social prerequisite
but not the substance of the ideology itself. Occasionally, nationalism is not even socially represented, much less
in harmony with a racial point of view. In the old Austria, nationalism did not correspond to any race, but to the
"homeland" Austria-Hungary. When Bethmann-Hollweg in 1914 appealed to "Germandom" to rise against
"Slavdom" he should have proceeded, logically, against Austria, a predominantly Slav nation. The economic
prerequisites of an ideology, it is true, explain its material basis, but not its irrational core. This core is the
character structure of the people who are subject to the respective economic conditions and thus reproduce, in
their ideology, the historical economic process. By forming ideologies, people change themselves; the process of
ideology formation has a material core. An ideology, then, has a twofold foundation: a direct one in the
economic structure of society, and in an indirect one in the typical structure of the people, a structure which in
turn is determined [68] by the economic structure of society. Thus the fact becomes understandable that irrational
ideology formations create irrational human structures.
The structure of the Fascist proved to be characterized by metaphysical thinking, piety, and the belief in abstract
ethical ideas and in the Divine mission of the "Führer." These traits rested on a basis of a strong authoritarian
fixation to a Führer-ideal or the nation. The belief in a "master race" was the strongest motive for the fixation of
the National Socialist masses on the "Führer" and for their voluntary submission to the status of crawling
subjects. Besides this, however, there was another decisive element: the intense identification of the mass
individual with the Führer which made him oblivious of his insignificant role as a member of the subject mass. In
spite of his submission and dependence, every National Socialist felt himself a "little Hitler."
The problem is the characterological basis of such attitudes. It is a matter of finding those energy functions
which can change human structures in such a manner that they develop such reactionary irrational ideologies;
that, in full identification with the "Führer," they become oblivious of the insult of being called "Untermenschen."
If one is no longer blinded by ideological phraseology, if one analyzes its irrational content and realizes its
connection with the sex-economic aspects of the process of ideology formation, one is first struck by the
stereotyped equation of "race pollution" and "blood poisoning." What does this equation mean?
3. RACIAL PURITY, BLOOD POISONING, AND MYSTICISM
"Running parallel to the political, ethical, and moral contamination of the people, there had been, for many
years, a no less terrible poisoning of the national body. Especially in the big cities, syphilis was beginning to
spread more and more . . ." writes Hitler (MEIN KAMPF, p. 246ff.). "The cause lies, primarily, in our prostitution
of love. Even if its result were not this frightful plague, it would nevertheless be profoundly injurious to man, [69]
since the moral devastations which accompany this degeneracy suffice to destroy a people slowly but surely. This
Jewification of our spiritual life and mammonization of our mating instinct will sooner or later destroy our entire
offspring . . . Blood sin and desecration of the race are the original sin in this world and the end of a humanity
which surrenders to it." Mixing of races, according to this concept, leads to "blood poisoning of the national