There has been much written about how and why Hitler was able to assume dictatorial control in Germany of its people after World War I. Neo-Freudian Erich Fromm, one among many, wrote extensively about this phenomenon. Some of the things he wrote about fall within the context of the Versailles Treaty; loss of jobs, massive unemployment; shame in losing World War I; authoritarian upbringing; loss of confidence in the political hierarchy including the following characteristics of the population: 1. Fromm believed there was a tendency for these individuals to give up their independence or their own individual self in an attempt to identify with somebody or something outside of self. They did this unconsciously in an attempt to procure the strength which the individual self is lacking. Freud would’ve called this phenomena part of the task of one’s Ego ideal. 2. Fromm also believed that within the personality of these individuals existed a sadomasochistic character structure with a striving for submission and domination. 3. This sadomasochistic personality component addresses itself in different forms. For example, within masochistic strivings are feelings of inferiority, powerlessness, and individual insignificance. 4. These tendencies result in unsatisfactory attempts to deal with phenomena of aloneness.

Additional research led to the study of authoritarian reared children and the effects on their development. Preschool children from authoritarian reared homes were found to be quiet, well behaved and were socially non aggressive. These children tended to be rewarded for obedience to parents, and for conformity with parental standards. With older children, Else Frankel-Brunswick employed about 1500 California boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 16 for her study. Some of her findings included that children’s ethnic prejudices were related to their personality structure and that the prejudiced adults tended to be rigid, authoritarian, highly conforming and overly moralistic. Her findings were that prejudiced attitudes of children included the rejection of all that is weak or different; rigid conceptions of appropriate sex roles; boys had an intolerance of passive or feminine behavior in boy’s as well as masculine exhibited behavior in girls; admiration of the strong, tough and powerful. And the boys fear of weakness in themselves. Also, she found rigid conformity to social values and moralistic thinking along with a condemnation of others different. These children had feelings of helplessness in a world that they believed to be chaotic and destructive. These same children complained of submission to stern harsh punitive treatment. Further, they had significantly poor self-concepts and less satisfaction with their own mental abilities and had impaired social relations with members of the same sex, along with greater dissatisfaction toward parents and teachers.

To be continued