Herbert Marcuse’s Critique of the Authoritarian Personality

This chapter explores Herbert Marcuse’s contribution to the Frankfurt School’s research into the authoritarian personality, in a political context where, because he is now an official enemy figure of the forthcoming Trump incumbency, the legacy of Marcuse has become more important than ever. Although Marcuse never contributed directly to the formulation of Theodor Adorno’s The Authoritarian Personality (1951), his research into the ideological roots of arbitrary authority is central to its findings. Marcuse’s supplement to the social psychology of authoritarian politics is presented in Eros and Civilization (1964), through the theories of surplus repression and regressive de-sublimation, which explain how discontent with civilization can be mobilized by authoritarian personalities to wider their support base. These theories supply the key to understanding the rancorous atmosphere of rightwing populism, authoritarian resentment and aversive prejudice now politically resurgent around the world on the Far Right. Marcuse anticipated the political events today unfolding in the USA in a crucial essay on the “Historical Fate of Bourgeois Democracy” (1972), which provides an analysis of the objective and subjective preconditions for the rise of the authoritarian personality. Bringing together the strands of Marcuse’s analysis of the relation between crisis dynamics, authoritarian regimes and the authoritarian personality, this chapter develops a Marcusean analysis of the extremely dangerous conjuncture unfolding in America (and beyond).