Deconstructing the Cult of Pseudo Individuality

[논둑길맨발로]

Ortus’ Philosophy

Deconstructing the Cult 

of Pseudo Individuality

Mankind must toil unceasingly to bring forth individual great men: this and nothing else is its task. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

Genuine humanistic educators are students of man; they are students of themselves. They unveil what man is not in order to discover what man truly is. In the process of dissolving what and who we are not, the true Self – the authentic inner nature- becomes visibly and freely expressed. (Claudia Rosane)

I speak not to nations, only to the individual few, for whom it goes without saying that cultural values do not drop down like manna from heaven, but are created by the hand of individuals. If things go wrong in the world, this is because something is wrong with the individual, because something is wrong with me. Therefore, if I am sensible, I shall put myself right first. For this I need – because outside authority no longer means anything to me – a knowledge of the innermost foundations of my being, in order that I may base myself firmly on the  eternal facts of the human psyche. (Carl Gustav Jung)

Man must quit running from his Self, from his Truth, from his own perfection, from what he truly is within, from his inner (psychical) world. Man must stop ignoring the wisdom of his authentic Self; he must stop chocking his inner nature, his inner power, his uniqueness, his inner Truth. (…) He must take possession of his mind, of his inner house, of his inner territory, his infantile, primitive passions and drives. (…) He must learn to appreciate, embrace, and exalt the gift of authentic, sovereign individuality. He must turn to his inner Power, to his inner Nature. He must become inner oriented, inner guided. (…) He must become guided exclusively by his inner Self-Truth rather than by the external world, rather than by the world of appearances, rather than by the submission to man, rather than by the submission to an external authority. (Claudia Rosane)

The human psyche is split off. The ego came about due to this trauma, this split in the collective human psyche. This split is the root cause of fear of Truth and, in turn, sorrow, psychological imbalances, psychical pathologies, and personality disorders. The individual will never know happiness unless this split is completely healed and the  psyche completely integrated, that is, made whole. We have arrived at a turning point in human psychological evolution in which we can no longer afford ignoring this split. (…) This traumatic tear, this unhealed (psychical) open wound, in the collective unconscious is the reason the hearts of all people do not beat as one; the reason the hearts of mankind are not united. (…) Provided that we keep ignoring this split, we will destroy the entire planet and ourselves with it. This split is driving humanity into a planetary holocaust, into complete self-destruction. (…) In its most profound dimension, the ultimate purposes of education are (a). to facilitate the process of individuation (i.e., the process of integrating the conscious with the unconscious), the process of being whole;  and (b). to promote the healing of – the wholeness of – the collective psyche one individual at a time. (Claudia Rosane)

Ortus strives to take school beyond a training, instructional site. Ortus seeks to transcend the mechanistic traditional notions of training, instruction and schooling by providing its community of learners with a unique approach to adult and higher education, which is grounded in the psychoanalytic theory of mind and the humanistic approach, integrating the thought and works of humanists, such as Célestin Freinet, Paulo Freire, Lev Vygotsky, Álvaro Vieira Pinto, Abraham Maslow and Erich Fromm; existentialist philosophers, such as Søren Aabye Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger; the work of Carl Gustav Jung, and the thought of Arthur Schopenhauer and many other philosophers and contemporary independent researchers and scholars.

We believe that there is a positive answer, that the process of growing freedom does not constitute a vicious circle, and that man can be free and yet not alone, critical and yet not filled with doubts, independent and yet an integral part of mankind. This freedom man can attain by the realization of his self, by being himself. (Erich Fromm)

Higher Education as Transformative Action

We believe in the innate human striving for independence, creativeness, and originality. We reject the mechanistic views of the world and of man. Ortus also rejects the reductionist views of nature and man. Ortus commits itself to transcending behavioristic, mechanomorphic learning – as well as the instinctivistic and the behavioristic theory and approaches. Ortus opposes the rewarding of “positive” reinforcements or any other techniques for operant conditioning. Ortus concerns itself with transcending the dichotomy instinctivism-behaviorism (i.e., the nature-nurture dichotomy, the instincts versus learning-conditioning paradigm).

Sociocultural psychology, socio-historical psychology 

Cultural-historical psychology: A response to Cartesian dualism 

People are not blank slates or “empty receptacles of knowledge”.1 (See note 1 on page 2.) People are not machines, tools or objects devoid of freewill – devoid of the capacity for associative thinking, for critical intelligence, for emotional intelligence, for original ideas (original thinking), for self-governance – and therefore incapable of making moral choices on their own. Hence, Ortus education does not concern itself with behavior modification; it rather concerns itself with mindful action – reflection in action.

Ortus rejects the mechanic accumulation of information, compartmentalized curriculum, regurgitation of knowledge, mechanistic memorization of concepts, mechanistic use of language, techniques and methods, and mindless repetition of phrases – We oppose all compulsive activity and uncritical, automatized (mechanistic) behavior. Ortus concerns itself with the framework of beliefs and ideas through which people interpret and interact with reality. For instance, Ortus interests itself in cognitive processes, principles and concepts that guide people’s decision making and behavior. Ortus interests itself in the meaning behind any given behavior – i.e., character-conditioned drives and strivings; character-rooted passions; the understanding of conscious and unconscious forces , motivations and motivating impulses; conscious and unconscious factors in man’s character which trigger his acts.

Espousing positive freedom

It is sine qua non that people break free from oppression. Ortus recognizes in humanistic education the path to human liberation – the kind of education (rooted in humanistic psychology) that nurtures shifts in consciousness, that espouses free, bold, daring (original) thinking, that concerns itself with self-knowledge. Humanistic education is aimed at diffusing the vicious circle of oppression. We understand that oppression is not a problem confined to class, gender, and ethnicity; oppression is an issue of consciousness, and it affects the whole of humanity. Oppression is, therefore, a state of consciousness. The forms of oppression we see in the external world (e.g. genocides, famines, racism, sexism) are symptoms of the psychic turmoil (unbalance) that goes on within man. For us, oppression means the loss of man’s sovereign individuality and authentic spontaneity. External oppression is caused by the repression of man’s true self (authentic individuality).

In order to release the feeling of loss of dignity and authentic individuality – and break free from the circle of oppression and bondage – the individual must know himself and therefore become cognizant of his critical capacity to make his own choices, to turn to- and to submit to his inner Truth, and to transform the world. Through humanistic education (as the path to self-knowledge), not only does he become aware of his oppressed situation (i.e., he no longer denies, fears, ignores, or feels he is a victim of dehumanizing conditions) but also, in order to change his situation, he becomes actively engaged in the process of transformative action – a process which begins and largely takes place inside of him (in the unconscious).

Humanistic education concerns itself with the premise that,

Man is neither good nor bad; that life has an inherent tendency to grow, to expand, to express potentialities; that if life is thwarted, if the individual is isolated and overcome by doubt or a feeling of aloneness and powerlessness, then he is driven to destructiveness and craving for power or submission. (Erich Fromm)

Promoting psychoanalytic reading and criticism of cultural history

People who are subject to (and submit themselves to) the choices of others are oppressed beings whether or not they are (consciously) aware of that. As long as they hold the oppression consciousness (a pseudo self), they live an inauthentic life and therefore are unable to create a new (authentic) reality. The pseudo-self (the ego) is a social construct. The pseudo self is a psychical corpse; it is a ghost; it is a psychical layer of defenses, censors, debris, unconscious necrophilic drives, unconscious death-instinct strivings, and hypocrisy that makes us oblivious, apathetic, and numb to Truth, which makes us lost in a world of fantasies and idealizations. Ego-possessed people are psychologically (mentally and emotionally) dead. Oppressed people live mechanistically, transformed into objects and conformist automatons.2 (See Notes  2 on page 2)

The oppressed character behaves mechanically; i.e., he learns mechanically through hearsay, without direct experience or critical reflection; he repeats mindless slogans and phrases; he lives passively (either mechanically/automatically or compulsively)– with a naïve, false, unclear view of the world and a distorted self-image (a pseudo self-image). He is morally broken. He has lost all self-respect and dignity. Because he lives to fulfill the expectations (and covert or overt agendas) of others – he lives to please others – he feels anxious – with deep (unconscious) feelings of weakness and worthless – and he is therefore prone to use mechanisms of escape from freedom and psychological (ego) defense mechanisms, such as escapism-mental diversion, and projection bias and introjection mechanisms. To the humanist, an oppressed person is a Self-less man. Oppressed people have lost their true individuality; they are identified with their roles, their pseudo self (the ego). They are the very well-adjusted and well-adapted slave (e.g. the blind follower, the simple-minded protester, the docile servant).

If humanistic science may be said to have any goals beyond sheer fascination with the human mystery and enjoyment of it, these would be to release the person from the external controls and to make him less predictable to the observer (to make him freer, more creative, more inner-determined)3 even though perhaps more predictable to himself. (Abraham Maslow) (See note 3 on page 2)

The oppressor character (consciously or unconsciously) craves for power over man, whereas the oppressed character (consciously or unconsciously) craves for submission to man and to idols. “There will be tyrants as long as there is a person willing to submit to the dictates of others. Anyone whose inner nature is not expressing itself freely, whose potentialities are not being fully developed, and who is not self-fulfilling, is an oppressed person. Oppression means the loss of authentic individuality by both the ‘oppressor’ character and the ‘oppressed’ character. They both hold a hive mentality – they do not have an authentic individuality, are slaves of public opinion and consensus, and dread rejection and criticism from the ‘tribe’- and therefore have a pseudo individuality, a pseudo self (the ego). Giving up spontaneity and authentic sovereign individuality results in man’s adopting a pseudo self, and this is dehumanization (oppression); i.e., man goes through life either mechanically or compulsively rather than spontaneously (authentically). If a person has adopted a pseudo self, he is then living a pseudo, inauthentic life. If a person is inauthentic, that is he has a pseudo identity, then everything in his life (i.e., his relationships, his job, his ideals, his dreams, etc.) must also be inauthentic, artificial, false.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

“The worst form of oppression seems to be self-oppression, that is, the repression of one’s inner potentials (inner nature)  i.e., self-denial, self-repression, self-deception, self-distrust, self-rejection, self-betrayal, self-condemnation, self-disrespect, etc. Man dehumanizes (oppresses) himself when he denies himself the right to be himself; when man is against himself rather than for himself, and he says ‘yes’ when in his heart, deep inside, he wants to say ‘no’ and vice versa. Man dehumanizes himself when he sides with the world and against himself; when man turns his back on his inner truth, his innate discernment. Man betrays himself when he gives himself up to a tribe (See note 4 on page 2) and allows his powers to be suffocated not by an external force but by his own fears of what others might say or think; when he is taken by his fears of being authentically different, unique, free, idiosyncratic – when he is taken by his fears of being himself, of  freely expressing his soul: his innate reverence and love for life, for truth, for authentic sovereignty, for authentic freedom, for spontaneous self-expression‎, for productive growth.” (Dr. Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

“After all,

‘authority does not have to be a person or institution which says: you have to do this, or you are not allowed to do that. While this kind of authority may be called external authority, authority can appear as internal authority, under the name of duty, conscience, or superego.(…) The rulership of conscience can be even harsher than that of external authorities, since the individual feels its orders to be his own; how can he rebel against himself?’ (E. Fromm, source here)”

“Transformative (humanistic) education provides the tools to help man self-liberate and therefore overcome the causes of his oppression – which is rooted in the unconscious, because the growth of his authentic self is blocked in its very core. Education provides the tools, but no one can liberate such a man (from his internal mechanisms of oppression, internal authority) except he himself.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

“The role of humanistic education is not to liberate (save) people but rather to provide the tools for self-knowledge, which leads to self-liberation, self-affirmation, self-mastery… It encourages the individual to move toward free development and personal growth (the deconstruction of his pseudo self, and the healthy growth of his authentic self/individuality. Once the pseudo self is weeded out, the authentic self is free to grow, expand and express itself, and this is called spontaneous expression‎. Humanistic education does not give man a fish (humanistic education is not paternalistic, authoritarian, demagogic, oppressive), but it rather teaches people how to fish (i.e., to bring forth their individuality, uniqueness, and ingenuity).” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

“The oppressor-character person, no matter how well-intentioned, altruistic, helpful, virtuous, or nice he may seem, has no respect (consciously or unconsciously) for another person’s inner nature (potentials, call in life, capacities, etc.). The oppressor character tries to convince himself (and others) that he has the right to control others through the rationalization that other people are incapable of making choices on their own, are incapable of taking care of themselves, are incapable of knowing what they want or need, are victims of fate, are too stupid (or evil, or weak, or lazy, etc) to tell right from wrong, good from bad, etc. The oppressor character underestimates another person’s inner potentials for growth, for goodness, for productiveness.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

“The oppressor character sees other people as helpless (i.e., the oppressor character, as well as the oppressed person, usually builds up some sort of rationalization to justify his views, attitude, behavior, biases, destructive tendencies and drives, etc. so that he can escape from the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness derived from the loss of individuality, selfhood, and freedom). Under extreme dehumanizing circumstances (i.e., genocides, slavery and forced labor, sex slavery, human trafficking), the oppressor character rationalizes that others (‘his’ object-slaves) are creatures unworthy of living, of freedom, of humane treatment because of their gender, ethnicity, religious or political beliefs, etc.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

“The oppressor-character person is, in fact, completely out of touch with his own inner nature – he is completely possessed by a pseudo self – and he unconsciously projects that (loss of freedom and individuality) onto those around him (i.e., When the oppressor character says: ‘These people are too weak, too poor, too lazy, etc. to take  care of themselves!’ That is an unconscious projection (and a rationalization) of the fact that he (the oppressor character) moved by his pseudo self illusions/irrational striving-passions cannot take care of himself (this is a projection of his unconscious fear of powerlessness, rejection, and abandonment) because he has lost his own authentic individuality and freedom. Thus, the oppressor character projects his unconscious feeling of powerlessness/helplessness onto other persons (his ‘victims’).” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

He is sadistic because he feels impotent, unalive, and powerless. He tries to compensate for this lack by having power over others, by transforming the worm he feels himself to be into a god. He may kill and torture, but he remains a loveless, isolated, frightened person in need of a higher power to whom he can submit. (Erich Fromm, Read further here.)

“For instance, when the oppressor character says: ‘These people need my guidance. They depend on me (on my money, my ‘wisdom’, my protection, my advice, my assistance, etc! Without me they will  be lost!’ He unconsciously means, ‘I desperately need these people to give meaning to my life … I cannot let them go … I cannot let them find out how powerful and free they really are! I will do whatever it takes in order to keep them in bondage… I need them to give meaning to my existence… I must convince them that they are powerless and that they need me… The truth is that I need them desperately because I have lost my authentic individuality, but I would rather die than admit that (truth) to myself! I escape from truth by projecting my feeling of powerlessness and lack of spontaneity onto others!’.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

“The oppressor character can be the overprotective parent, teacher, etc.; the codependent partner, parent, etc.; the arrogant (know-it-all) intellectual; controlling person with serious (psychic) boundary issues (especially the narcissistic exploitative personality type); the over-accommodating, bossy, authoritarian, domineering person; the bureaucrat teacher, doctor, scientist, etc; the unhealthy altruist; people with the god complex, the paternalistic person, the idiot savant, the pedant, the ego-absorbed person lost in his/her grandiose fantasies, mental delusions, and idealizations, etc.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

“To inflict oppression, pain, humiliation, and suffering on another person is the very essence of the sadistic drive. “The oppressor are sadistic. The more desperate, frightened, powerless, submissive, helpless his objects (‘victims’) the more aroused the oppressor-character person feels. The ‘relationship’ (the bond) between the oppressor character and the oppressed character is essentially symbiotic sadism-masochism (sadist-the oppressor and masochist-the oppressed). (See note #6, at bottom of page.) The oppressor character, as well as the oppressed character, ignores and denies the humanity in man – that is, he abhors and therefore covertly or/and overtly denies man’s inner nature, inner beauty, inner powers, inner potentials, authentic freedom (sovereignty), sensible and sober rebellious spirit, spontaneity, child-like innocence, child-like curiosity, child-like scientific spirit, healthy questioning, exploration, and inquisitiveness, authentically critical, associative and analytical (scientific) skills, creative reasoning, authentic individuality, and selfhood.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page 2.)

Deconstructing the Cult of Pseudo Individuality

Part 1 here

“Oppression is the symptom of profound psychological unbalance – in other words, it is a pathology; it is a syndrome. Oppression is caused by the feeling of complete powerlessness, by a terrifying sense of impotence due to the shattering of the Self – the death or chocking of one’s authentic individuality. ‘Psychologically the automaton, while being alive biologically, is dead emotionally and mentally.’ (Fromm, E. Further read here) The oppressor character has no faith in man, because he has lost faith in himself. Like his ‘victims’, the oppressor character has lost inner power, moral strength, moral courage, and integrity. By the same token, the oppressed character has no faith in himself. Both the oppressor and the oppressed are not opposite poles; they are not one another’s antithesis. That is to say, the oppressor character and the oppressed character are facets of one single problem: the loss of the authentic self; the loss of faith in one’s own inner strength and power! They are completely absorbed by their egos, by infantile (inferior) cravings, by an unhealthy (false) sense of pride, by vanity, by despite, by envy, by greed, by the ‘poor me’ syndrome, by (personal and/or group) narcissistic drives. The oppressor character and the oppressed character complete each other; they need each other; they feed off each other’s pathology. They are both ego-possessed, ego-absorbed.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page.)

There is an unconscious battle going on 
between the ego and the authentic, sovereign Self.  
As a result, people find themselves in permanent conflict with
themselves, with unconscious emotions, with repressed,
unhealed memories, with limiting, toxic beliefs. This war,
this conflict, between the ego (the unhealed,  wounded,
crippled, automaton, crooked, 'dark' aspect of man's soul)
and the authentic, 'divine',  enlightened aspect of man's psyche
must be resolved, corrected. Suffering and problems come
about due to this conflict within the psyche. 

Ego-possessed persons are outer-oriented, outer-driven; they are constantly pushed around by people and the external environment. They behave as though they were performers on a stage, as though they were on a TV reality show. Their focus is not on their inner world but rather on what they believe their audience might think about their performance. A lot of personal energy (willpower) is put into trying to control the audience’s response to their performance. They cannot relax. They are constantly anxious. They cannot enjoy life. They may have fun through addictions, media entertainment, and other types of mental diversion mechanisms (and postmodern society offers a lot of mental diversion toys), but they cannot truly in-joy themselves. Joy and fun are two different and separate things.

(…) Meaningless entertainment is a mechanism the ego-absorbed man uses to escape from himself, from his life, from his inner nature, from his inner truth. The more a person is disconnected from his inner nature, the more prone to addictions and mental distractions.

Ego-possessed people do not allow themselves to be themselves because of their obsession with what others may think about their performance, because of their fear of criticism and rejection. Most modern persons are obsessed with the idea of selling and marketing themselves like an object, a product on a store shelf. The more people are ego-absorbed, the more fixated with their audience’s reactions, with what the market wants.

In a desperate attempt to please, to conform and to submit to the world (i.e., their parents, teachers, older siblings, and so forth), people, early in life, begin to idealize their existence, their purpose in life, and their identity. They unconsciously create a personality (i.e., a persona) compatible to their surroundings. The persona is not a projection of our inner authentic nature. The persona is not our true individuality. A persona is a projection or a mirror of our surroundings, of those around us. A persona is a mask, a set of social roles, a character played by us as though we were actors.

‘All the world’s a stage,
and all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
and one man in his time plays many parts.’ (W. Shakespeare)

We are all actors who have been playing different roles for so long that we have forgotten who we truly are (underneath the mask); we have become completely identified with our characters, our roles; we eventually began to believe we are the roles we play.

We are all chameleon-like. Some chameleon species change their color depending on the environment for the purpose of camouflage and for social signaling. Likewise, we change our persona depending on the surroundings. We hide our ‘true color’ (our authentic individuality) and adopt fake colors (i.e., different roles, pseudo attitudes, masks) in order to blend in with our ‘tribe’ and with the social and psychical surroundings.

Early in life, rather than according to the guidance of their inner nature, people begin to idealize (shape and orient) themselves according to the opinions, criticisms, and reactions (belief systems) of those around them. They begin to negate their true inner nature (i.e., their inner authority-guidance, innate discernment) in order please an outer authority (the audience). As they begin to adjust and adapt themselves to the environment to fit family and social conventions, they adopt a pseudo self (the ego-persona). The ego-persona is a social construct.

People then slowly force themselves to become someone they believe the world expects them to be, they become a projection of (conscious and unconscious) beliefs, frustrations, anxieties, and repressed psychical materials of those around them. In that process, they lose their true, authentic individuality and spontaneity, they lose touch of their innate potentials and discernment.

The child is never the problem. The real issue is the adults around the child, who insist on shaping his psyche according to their own limiting beliefs, idealizations, fears, self-rejection, frustrations, suppressed unwanted memories, and unconscious destructive and self-destructive drives.

When a person turns his back on his true (authentic) nature, he ends up holding a false, pseudo, inauthentic (and limiting) view of reality, of his relationships, of others and of himself. He becomes a slave of his own mind delusions (his idealizations). His idealizations are purely based on what he believes society (and his audience) would want, approve and accept. He will go through his entire life unconsciously struggling to please the outer authorities after whom he shaped his pseudo self, his false self-image, his inauthentic existence.

(…) Idealizations originate from people’s negation of their authentic individuality, of their inner guidance, of their inner truth. People work diligently around the clock to fulfill their idealizations. They make a persevering, painstaking effort to convince themselves and those around them that those idealizations are truly theirs, that their pseudo self is their true, authentic identity. People are infatuated with their pseudo self, with their delusions, with their idealizations. By identifying themselves with ‘their’ idealizations, they are setting themselves up for disillusionment. Even if they managed to achieve all of their mind illusions, they would never feel truly happy, because their idealizations were never inspired by their authentic Self. They were someone else’s dreams and desires.

Due to our extreme emotional immaturity, we behave like a four-year-old child who does not want to let go of his toy. We hold on tight to our toys (i.e., our pseudo self, our false self-image, our idealizations, our attachments to people, our social roles, our pride, our arrogance, our vanity, etc.). We go through life in a miserable existence because we do not want to let go of our inauthentic self, of all that which we are not; because we do not want to face the truth.

It is amazing how our minds will create all sorts of rationalizations in order to escape from the truth that: we are living an inauthentic life; we are pursuing inauthentic goals and dreams; rather than living for ourselves, we are living for other people, for the world; we are living to fulfill the dreams and whims of those around us, of the market, of society.

Persons possessed by their egos unconsciously reject their authentic uniqueness in favor of what they believe society wants them to be. Dying your hair bright orange, or bragging about your grandiose fantasies all day long, or having an antisocial, eccentric, mindlessly rebellious, or argumentative attitude towards authority and society, for instance, is not what I mean by being an authentically idiosyncratic individual. (…) Egoic persons want to be both ‘normal’ and at the same time ‘special’ (i.e., cool, famous, or a role model of some sort); they (consciously or unconsciously) want to be a clone of someone else (e.g. a TV celebrity, a parent, a national hero); they want to fit in; they crave for acceptance, for adulation, for applause, for attention and dread public disapproval, criticism, and rejection.

Their trust and faith are in an external power or authority (the audience) which they have given or sold themselves to. As a result, they are controlled by the collective unconsciousness. Depending on the type of mental conditioning they have been exposed to (early in life), some crave for applause and accolades whereas others crave for solidarity and pity. They orient their behavior and decisions according to their audience’s expectations.

All in all, they ‘live’ to prove themselves ‘good’ and ‘worthy’, that is, to appear ‘good’ and ‘worthy’ since they are trapped in a world of appearances (the world’s stage). They ‘live’ for the world. Ego-absorbed people are controlled by public opinion. They are predictable. And if you want to control people, you want them to be predictable, and you also want them to believe they are free, that they in charge of their lives when, in fact, they are not. You want them not in charge of themselves, their minds, their lives. You want them to ‘live’ by default. You want them lost in their mind delusions chasing after their idealizations. Ego-absorbed people live in default mode, for outer powers, outer authorities (their audience) are in control of their choices, their destinies, their reactions, which they are completely oblivious to. (…) The root cause of suffering, pain, fear, anxiety and depression originates from living an inauthentic life, from being role-oriented, from being ego-driven, from being ego-absorbed. 

The ego is an impostor, a counterfeit of the authentic Self.  
The ego, a social conditioning  mechanism - socially, historically
 and culturally inherited - is programmed to do  whatever
  it takes to keep the individual  from tapping into  
his authentic,  sovereign Self, from becoming emancipated
from limiting dictates of society,  from freeing himself
from political correctness, from liberating himself
from gender, ethnic, sociopolitical, cultural, and
economic pressures and censorship, from untangling
himself from  power struggles (the symbiosis
oppressor-oppressed),   from freeing himself from
collectivist ideals, systems and structures, the pseudo
self (persona), and pseudo-self imposed  limitations
and boundaries, from having conscious,  lucid access
to his inner Truth ... The ego  will either  distort Truth -
or it will filter Truth in order to advance his death-driven
agenda - to keep the individual oblivious to Truth and
therefore trapped in the false belief  that life is inherently
difficult, limited, unkind, hostile,  and unfair, trapped
in social conditioning, in the rat race i.e., the dog-eat-dog
mindset), in his own delusions,  in his caprices, in his
delusions, in his idealizations, in his superiority
and inferiority complexes, in his dramas,  in his
childish (sadomasochistic- necrophilic) cravings,
passions, and drives, in idolatry, in the consumption  
culture, and grandiose fantasies. Ego-absorbed
people (i.e., automatons) unconsciously revile
liberating truth;  they will avoid, censor, and fiercely
persecute any philosophic, educational system that
promotes authentic self-knowledge and self-liberation.

The more the person is inauthentic, the more ‘normal’ and the less natural he is, for to be normal requires that he conform to the norm, to the standard, to what is acceptable, to the status quo, to the common and ordinary type, to the social matrix-box. In order for him to be normal, he must  fight, he must choke, he must strangle his inner nature, his authentic individuality, his innate drive for the authentic life, for truth. The more normal he is, the more intolerant, the more ambivalent, the more black-and-white, the more fanatic, the more rigid his mind becomes.

The normal person denies his own senses just to conform with others. He distrusts himself (his inner nature). Unconsciously, he hates himself; he hates his natural impulses; he hates Life. Unconsciously, he does not will to live. He struggles to repress his true nature so that he can appear normal and acceptable to the world. He believes he will be fine as long as he appears ‘normal’. However, deep inside he is against himself. He has become his own enemy. He believes his survival is dependent upon the world, upon society, or upon an external mythical authority rather than upon his own inner powers. Consequently, he has decided to side with the world rather than with himself. Whereas he worships the world – that is, he surrenders, he gives himself completely to the world or to a mythical authority- he distrusts, rejects, despises his own inner guidance, his inner power, his inner-drive for the authentic life.

He’s constantly stressed out. Deep inside, he is scared and insecure, though he may appear strong and in control to those around him. He is always anxious about the future, about his survival, about what others will think or say about him, always trying to control the outcome, always trying to impress, control, deceive or manipulate someone. He believes his enemies are out there, when in fact the only enemy he has is within himself; his real enemy is his hate of his authentic Self, his hate of his innate drive for life, his hate of life itself.

Quoting Friedrich Nietzsche, ‘But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself; you lie in wait for yourself in caverns and forests. Lonely one, you are going the way to yourself! And your way goes past yourself, and past your seven devils! You will be a heretic to yourself and witch and soothsayer and fool and doubter and unholy one and villain. You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had not first become ashes?”’

Dehumanization refers to the death of authentic individuality, of the will to live, and of spontaneity. From a psychoanalytic perspective, dehumanization originates from man’s being against himself, from self-betrayal, from self-deceit and from self-distrust. When man wages war on his true, authentic individuality in order to conform to the ways of the world, he becomes his worst enemy; he dehumanizes himself. No one else but man himself (i.e., the pseudo self, the ego, the enemy within) is responsible for his troubled life. In other words, man creates his own suffering because he is against himself.

We may be able to deceive the world of appearances, the world of the pseudo self; we may be able to deceive everyone, including ourselves, but we can never deceive our inner nature; we can never deceive our spirit; we can never deceive Nature. (Spirit, in this context, refers to a person’s innate drive for life, for productive growth; his innate will to live; his innate discernment and self-governance; his authentic inner fortitude).

There is nothing more unnatural than a man who lies to himself, a man who is dishonest, inauthentic with himself. There is nothing more unnatural than a man who wants to be a xerox copy, a clone of someone else. There is nothing more unnatural than a man who turns himself into an object, a commodity to be bought and sold in society. (In like manner, there are domineering people – e.g. egoic people with a god complex, the sadistic, narcissistic exploitative character (See my dissertation on oppression on page 1) – willing ‘to buy’ another human being’s personal sovereignty. Both the one selling himself and the buying have lost their true individuality, their sense of self-respect and their reverence for life within. They are possessed by a pseudo self. There are other people who, rather than buying, ‘live’ to plunder another person’s innate capacity of discernment and innate drive for independence, for originality,  for life, for spontaneity, and for individuality. However, no one can steal a person’s individuality unless this person has sided against himself – i.e., he unconsciously doubts his Self, he has begun to distrust his inner guidance, has a (conscious or unconscious) sense of self-rejection and self-negation, has (conscious or unconscious) feelings of guilt, shame, victimism, despite, unhealthy pride, or vanity – and is therefore unconsciously willing to compromise his personal sovereignty. Such a man is like a precious castle without walls, without defense, without sentinel; a forsaken, unguarded treasure chest filled with valuable jewels; a beautiful mansion left abandoned with open doors and windows in the middle of the night. This man is an easy target to psychological assailants and tyrants. An individual’s true psychological defense originates from his siding with himself, from his undivided trust in his innate discernment, from his authentic sense of self-worth. No one can invade or take anything from a man who sides with himself!)

There is nothing more unnatural than a man who rejects his true, authentic self. There is nothing more unnatural than a man trapped in his own delusions and idealizations (his ‘I have tos”, his ‘I shoulds’, his ‘I should nots’, his ‘I-need-to-try-hards’, his ‘they shoulds’, his ‘they should nots’). There is nothing more unnatural than a rigid mind. There is nothing more unnatural than a man against the flow of Life. There is nothing more unnatural than a man against his Self. There is nothing more unnatural than a man who sides with the world and consequently sides against his Self.

The ego - a psychological corpse, a psychical parasite - the
undeveloped, crippled, hypocritical, atrophied, impotent
emotionally immature, mentally rigid, childish-infantile,
barren, necrophilic aspect of the collective and personal psyche,
the part of the psyche addicted to suffering, lack, and
self-destructive dramas which refuses to grow and fears
liberating Truth - will go out of its way to procrastinate
change, productive growth, truth seeking, and healing.
Ego-possessed individuals are psychologically
(i.e., mentally and emotionally) and spiritually dead.
The ego will come up with all sorts of stories, dramas,
and  excuses to keep you stuck in a routine, in the
known, in the ordinary, in the 'normal' and
conventional, in the 'establishment order', in
dehumanization, in daydreams, in the status quo,
in codependent relationships, running in circles,
trapped in the labyrinth of psychological oppression
and fatalism until  your physical body becomes
completely decayed  and your mental, creative,
transformative  powers become completely atrophied
and therefore permanently exhausted.

Society may emulate the ego-possessed, pseudo man; society may consider him a success or even a virtuous man. From Nature’s viewpoint, however, a man who is against himself (that is, a man possessed by a pseudo self) is always an aberration; he is a counterfeit; he is a failure; he is a lie; he is dead (psychologically speaking).

The pseudo-self - the ego- fears and deeply hates and envies
evolution, productive  growth, genuine success, natural beauty, the
unknown, the extraordinary, authentically moral individuality
(personal sovereignty), child-like innocence,  child-like
spontaneity ... child-like curiosity. The ego abhors Truth;
the ego abhors Life, so it automatically sides with ignorance:
(i.e., lies, death, decay, destruction, xenophobia, corruption,  
fanaticism, group narcissism, power struggles, fraud,
oppression, hypocrisy, automatons, necrophilia ...
Genuine truth seekers will never fear physical  death.
They do not fear character assassination.  They do not fear
public opinion; they do not fear public rejection.
Authentic truth seekers, however, dread the loss of
the human spirit. Authentic truth seekers dread  
psychological death: They dread the  death of their soul,
 the death of their mind, the death of the spirit of rebellion  
in man, the death of the spirit of dissent in man, the
death of the spirit of Enlightenment,  the death of their
innate drive  for authentic freedom, the death of their
authentic individuality, the death of their spontaneity,
 the death of child-like innocence, the death of their drive
 for productive  growth, the death of their innate love
and reverence for Truth, Life, and Evolution. 

Man-against-his-Self (i.e., man-who-has-turned-his-back-on-him-Self) is a collective pathology. If man is against his Self, if man negates his authentic individuality, he is automatically against Life; he is automatically against Nature; he is automatically against Truth. A man who is against his Self, automatically sides with lie, deception, corruption, hypocrisy, decay, and destruction.

Life mirrors back to you the same attitude you have toward yourself. That is to say, life treats you the way you treat yourself in the deepest levels of your being, in your inner world, in the unconscious. The way you see yourself, the unconscious image your hold of yourself, sets the standard for others, for life, for everything in your external reality. If you side against your Self, then do not expect life to side with you. Life will always give you what you give to yourself in the exact same amount.

Life is never unfair. People who do not want to take responsibility for writing their own history will always say, ‘Life is unfair.’ However, we are the ones who are unfair to ourselves; we are the only ones holding ourselves back; we are the only ones keeping ourselves trapped in a miserable, inauthentic existence; we are the ones beating ourselves up all day long. We perpetually sabotage, torture, repress, limit, accuse, blame, deceive and abuse ourselves, our bodies, our minds, and then (due to our emotional immaturity) we complain when others do the same to us. Life does not concern itself with the way we treat others; life does not care if we are ‘nice’, ‘kind’, ‘courteous’, or ‘altruistic’ toward others. (If a person is not authentically kind to himself, how then can he be authentically kind to anyone else in this world? If a person is not authentic with himself, how then can he be authentic with anyone else in this world?).

Life does not concern itself  with how we appear or act on the world’s stage – that is to say, if we appear nice or mean to people; it does not concern itself with false, hypocritical smiles; it does not concern itself with political correctness. Life does not concern itself with the world of appearances, social roles, social conventions, sociocultural dramas.

Life concerns itself with our inner world, with the way we treat ourselves in the deepest levels of our Being. That is, life concerns itself with the image you have of yourself, with what you believe you are, with what your self-worth is in the

unconscious.

When man sides with his Self,  that is to say with his inner truth, his authentic individuality – when man allows his inner spontaneity to be freely and fully expressed, when he allows his inner creative powers to flourish in the physical world, with no concern for public opinion, accolades, or criticism; when he speaks his truth through his behavior and attitudes – he automatically sides with Life, with Nature, with Truth, with productive growth, with his full potential, with truthful living. The more the individual is authentic (i.e., the more he seeks to realize and actualize his authentic self, his inner truth), the more he is natural and the less he is normal and rigid. He follows his own inherent sense of right and wrong. He is spontaneous. He is genuinely free. Whatever he does prospers. Whatever he touches heals.

The authentic self gives joy to the heart. The authentic individual is fluid. He is serene. He is gentle. His mind is flexible, large and ever expanding, for it is open to Life. Such a man overflows with life. He trusts the process of life that springs from his inner nature, his authentic self. He has an authentic faith in life, in the future, in himself. He shows an authentic, healthy enthusiasm for life. He has a sober optimistic outlook on life. He orients himself according to the flow of the stream of life within rather than according to societal norms, public opinion, collective consensus. He is unconventional. He is what he is: ever evolving; ever becoming more; ever fresh; ever unique; ever different; ever real; ever new; ever original; ever bearing new fruits. He is himself not for the world but for himself. He lives in the now. He lives for his Self.

(…) Individuals who are healed and fully integrated are inner-driven, inner-guided, inner-oriented; that is to say, the conflict between the ego and the authentic Self has been corrected and healed in the deepest levels of their unconscious. These individuals have reached the highest levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-actualization and self-transcendence.

These individuals are guided solely by their true Self, by their inner spirit, by their innate discernment, by their inner truth.   They put all their faith and trust in the powers of the inner Self. They refuse to perform roles; they know they are an individual rather than a mere set of conventional, social roles.  No one can push such individuals around. They do not fear public opinion. They do not fear public disapproval. They do not seek approval from the world. In fact, they do not expect anything from anyone, for they are truly self-sufficient. They have no need to display themselves for sale, to control and to manipulate people and the world, to impress people, or to compare themselves with others; they have no need to compete with anyone. They are genuine, truthful, real. They do not fear life. They do not fear the future. They do not fear people. They do not fear the world. They are authentic to themselves and therefore express themselves spontaneously; they do not walk the path of others. Instead, they design their own history. They are truly free and walk a genuine, unique, authentic path, which is only theirs; they are the true independent, sovereign minds, the true geniuses, and the true free souls. (Claudia Rosane, 2011)

Towards ... Creative Education  -   Creative Intelligence   -  
Authentic Living - Psychological Healing - Mental Aliveness -
Integrity - Emotional Aliveness - Healthy Growth - Individuation 

“Oppressive education, on one hand, is done by people (parents, teachers, professors, department chairs, scientists, school  and college administrators, educational ‘reformists’ and theorists, students, etc.), who unfortunately seem to have lost their own authentic individuality and freedom. Tragically, these persons not only negate their own individuality and freedom but also the freedom and individuality of others. In fact, a person cannot have reverence for the individuality (the authentic self) and freedom of others if he cannot realize (and actualize) his own individuality and freedom! Oppressive (authoritarian) education is an attack on human dignity; it is a war on the humanity in man.” (Claudia Correa, see note #5 at bottom of page.)

“On the other hand, authentic humanistic education is done by people who appreciate (and are actualizing) their individuality and freedom. Therefore, they have faith in the humanity in man. Authentic humanists do not see themselves as rescuers of mankind. They are students of man, they are students of themselves! Genuine humanistic educators are on the path to self-liberation themselves, and they know firsthand that man has the power to rescue himself – that man does not need to give himself up to an external power, an expert, a teacher, an organization or a group; man does not need to compromise his integrity, his core, his essence nor does he need to sacrifice his authentic self for the herd in order to achieve happiness or freedom! Ortus does not support collectivism. We advocate authentic healthy moral individualism.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page.)

“Humanistic education assures man of his own potential for self transformation – regardless of his current situation – because he is innately free, because he is an individual rather than a rubric, a classification, a label, a tribe, a village. Humanistic education encourages people to trust their own capacity to think about problems that really matter; it encourages people to discover their authentic individuality (authentic self and authentic living), for truth is immunity.  ‘Know thyself’ is the fundamental command in humanistic education. It is through the realization of truth that man  breaks free from the vicious circle of oppression.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page.)

“To anchor oneself in one’s own (authentic) individuality, inner truth, personal power – and to allow it to grow (i.e., to express itself in the outer world), brings about spontaneity, moral strength, moral courage, biophilia (i.e., the reverence for life, life-instinct oriented), positive freedom, and psychological immunity. (See note # 7 at bottom of page.) Humanistic education imbues man with faith in his authentic self. All that really matters is spontaneous activity. Humanistic education proclaims the new man, the true man: a man who knows he has the power to transform himself, his life, and the world.” (Claudia Rosane, see note #5 at bottom of page.)

Since [our] inner nature is good or neutral rather than bad, it is best to bring it out and to encourage it rather than to suppress it. If it is permitted to guide our life, we grow healthy, fruitful, and happy. If this essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, he gets sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later. This inner nature is not strong and overpowering and unmistakable like the instincts of animals. It is weak and delicate and subtle and easily overcome by habit, cultural pressure and wrong attitude toward it. Even though weak, it rarely disappears in the normal person – perhaps not even in the sick person. Even though denied, it persists underground  forever pressing for actualization. (Abraham Maslow)8

Ortus espouses critical humanistic education: Education defined as a process through which man roots out his pseudo self and therefore unveils his authentic sovereign self. Education is the process of bringing to light the re-humanization of man and above all self-sacredness – the actualization of the sacredness of one’s inner sovereign nature ( i.e., the powers of man, the resilience of the authentic Self, life force, life instinct, the will-to-live, élan vital). Humanistic education is an inner-directed path through which people (teachers and students) make lucid choices and together transform their reality … a process through which people write their own history as they walk toward truthful living:

People walk without having to bow any longer. They now walk upright, looking up. There is a pedagogy of walking in this new behavior, walking freely. All of these issues constitute a new way of thinking and a new way of speaking. (Paulo Freire, “The Politics of Education”, 1985, p. 187)

____________________

Notes

1. Expression‎ used by Paulo Freire in his critique of the mechanistic authoritarian education in regards to students.

2. Term used by Erich Fromm when referring to the dehumanized.

3. Bold letters by Ortus. These goals also apply to humanistic education.

4. Erich Fromm’s views on tribal consciousness here.

5.  Psychoanalytic Reading and Criticism of Oppression: Deconstructing the Cult of the Pseudo Self, Claudia Rosane Correa, 2010.

6. “What is the essence of the sadistic drives? Again, the wish to inflict pain on the others is not the essence. All the different forms of sadism which we can observe go back to one essential impulse, namely, to have complete mastery over another person, to make him a helpless object of our will, to become absolute ruler over him, to become his God, to do with him as one pleases. To humiliate him, to enslave him are means to this end and the most radical aim is to make him suffer, since there is no greater power over another person than that of inflicting pain on him, force him to undergo suffering without his being able to defend himself. The pleasure in the complete  domination over another person (or other animate objects) is the very essence of the sadistic drive.” (Erich Fromm, full text here)

7. Dr. Claudia Rosane’s research on unconscious processes which go on in interpersonal relations (e.g. weak ego boundaries, the identification complex, and unconscious projection and introjection mechanisms) suggests that psychological immunity is vital to people’s sense of satisfaction, joy and well-being. Psychological immunity is a sign of psychological health and emotional maturity. Psychologically healthy individuals have strong psychological immunity. The stronger his psychological immunity the healthier the individual psychologically speaking. The weaker his psychological immunity the more vulnerable he becomes to the mood of the environment. Claudia Correa lists psychological immunity as an emotional intelligence (EI) competency.  Psychological immunity comes about as a consequence of the breaking, defusing and un-dichotomizing of the (conscious or unconscious) symbiosis (dichotomous bond) between sadistic and masochistic drives (unconscious strivings), between the person (unconsciously) playing the role of the oppressor-sadist and the one (unconsciously) playing the role of the oppressed-masochist in interpersonal relations. The psychologically immune individual is able to transcend sadistic, masochistic and sado-masochistic character traits and strivings. “We must be realistic. If we cannot heal the whole planet (the psychological environment-sphere), we can at least develop in ourselves strong psychological immunity and therefore make ourselves immune to necrophilia* and other expressions of insanity (psychological toxicity) rampant in the world through anchoring ourselves in our own individuality (our own truth), which enables us to rise above sado-masochistic environmental stimuli, antagonisms of interest, and power struggles. Psychological immunity by no means is identical to isolation. The healthy, psychologically immune man is independent (intellectually and emotionally), but at the same time he is an integral part of humanity.” (Dr. Claudia Rosane, 2010)

* Necrophilia in psychologic theory means “the passion to destroy life and the attraction to all that is dead, decaying, purely mechanical.” (Erich Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, p. 06)

8. A. Maslow. The Psychology of Being. 2nd edition. p.4.

http://www.ortuscollege.org/discover-ortus/vision-the-humanistic-praxis/ortus-philosophy-2/

Analyzing Authoritarian Narcissism

Monday, October 13 2003 @ 10:01 AM CDT

Contributed by: Admin

Views: 2,323

Submitted by Makhno:

Analyzing Authoritarian Narcissism

by William Manson

Fifth Estate

Fall 2003


Analyzing the contemporary struggle agaist the increasingly concentrated power of mega-corporations (and of those politicians who serve them) is actually a struggle against the pathologies of an international ruling class. In the most general terms, it is a fight for non-alienated self-realization, decentralization, and voluntary social relations, against individuals, institutions, and structures that are fixated on expanding the capacities for domination.

It is from this perspective that the radical and anarchist critique of globalized power and plunder could be further broadened by psychological insights. Lamentably, the studies done by the far left wing of the psychoanalytic movement remain largely unexplored and underutilized by today's intellectuals and activists.¹ Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm, and other proponents of radical Freudianism originally wrote their books in the context of fascist European dictatorships, but these works continue to provide very provocative and useful insights into threats to freedom posed by repressed, authoritarian personalities whose narcissism irrationally drives them towards fantasies of limitless domination and wealth-accumulation.

The renegade sexologist Wilhelm Reich had been an active figure in Germany's anti-Nazi socialist landscape; he believed that there was an interdependent and unbreakable bond between sexual repression and capitalism, and he
concluded that any effort to curtail the most preval‎ent forms of human suffering needed to aim for complementary social and sexual revolutions. By April 1935, his writings were banned in Germany as "dangers to public security and order" and he was forced into Scandinavian exile, where he renewed his attacks on the Nazi Party, the counter-revolutionary bureaucratic despotism of the USSR, and the reactionary mindsets of European Stalinists.

His deep disillusionment with Communism and the medical businessmen of psychoanalysis who had accommodated themselves to capitalism spurred his turn toward a Kropotkinesque concept of "work-democracy" and advocacy for the free growth of "natural self-regulation" (implemented by his friend A.S. Neill, in the English school Summerhill)². He earned the admiration of anarchists such as Marie Louise Berneri and Paul Goodman by his adherence to statements like: "Freedom does not have to be achieved - it is spontaneously present in every life function. It is the elimination of all obstacles to freedom that has to be achieved."³.

Reich's 1933 opus, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, is an attempt to explain how sexual repression leads to dictatorships, and why authoritarianism holds such a popular appeal for those who are most likely to be oppressed by it. Much more than a study of Nazi Germany, Reich's book is a chilling look far beyond the standard interpretations of fascism which centered around any one leader's demagogic charisma or the nefarious plots hatched by the politico-economic elites of the military and the capitalist classes. Such explanations were too superficial for Reich, and he offered instead an analysis of fascism rooted in social psychology. He felt that there were certain sets of character structures in modern life that were responsible for making the prospect of living under ruthless authority mystically attractive.

The key to this, wrote Reich, was the power dynamics of the typical lower middle-class family. The neurotically tyrannical patriarch controlled economic and political power within the family, and he demanded obedience and stiff emotional restraint. He was also responsible for fiercely repressing the sexual life of his children, a repression that extended to the quelling of curiosity, rebellion, and the faculties needed for critical thinking.

Reich found that the mechanisms for sexual repression in the psyche were also responsible for social and political submissiveness; as a "factory for authoritarian ideologies and conservative [character] structures", the patriarchal family (and later the school) reinforced the behavioral norms, forms, and attitudes that were most appropriate for perpetuating a repressive social order founded upon exploitation.⁴

Sexually repressed and psychologically scarred children inevitably extended their unquestioning subordination to parents and teachers into an "emotional identification with every kind of authority" later in life. Fear of
sexuality and the fear of revolt were "anchored" in the character structures of the masses as mutually disturbing phenomena that one could avoid by clinging to "traditional values". Those who felt the most choked in an atmosphere of guilt and anxiety over sex and rebellion tended toward dogmatic, moralistic religions which, not coincidentally, served the authoritarian impulses of the ruling class.

Subsequently, the existing systems of authority worked hard to protect and preserve the primacy of the patriarchal family in the social realm. Once internalized, these authoritarian constraints became "character armor", a
rigid psychical shell that blocks the flow of intense, spontaneous feeling and distorted natural impulses into secondary, sadistic behaviors.⁵ According to Reich, the armored individuals who felt the most torn between the desire for freedom and the fear of freedom reveled in the obvious contradictions spouted by fascist leaders.

In his Escape from Freedom (1942), Erich Fromm picked up where Reich's The Mass Psychology of Fascism left off. Fromm clinically derived the "fascist" social character from the harsh, punitive treatment of children. Traumatized by parental cruelty (physical and/or emotional abuse), the victim may later become an enthusiast of military aggression and ethnic scapegoating.

The victimized child inverts the hierarchy of power through a potent "identification with the aggressor"; the authoritarian adult, once subjected to episodes of humiliating submission, now experiences a pathological pleasure in complete domination: "the world is composed of people with power and those without it. The very sight of a powerless person makes him want to attack, dominate, humiliate him."⁶ Alfred Adler, an early psychoanalyst excommunicated by Freud, had offered a complementary explanation: The child who experienced painful feelings of inferiority may "compensate" in adulthood through the compulsive drive for power.

For Reich, Fromm, and other neo-Freudian analysts of the pathology of power, "rationalized" (manifest) objectives conceal repressed (latent) motives. The political struggle for dominance is no more intrinsically rational (or sane) than the conspicuous "status-displays of the wealthy described by Thorstein Veblen in his Theory of the Leisure Class.

Emotionally crippled, armored individuals, afraid of natural impulses, find compensatory (sadistic) satisfaction in "life-destructive" law and order, military imperialism, mass destruction and genocide -- all of which gets rationalized as "public safety" and "homeland security". Even the total "release" of nuclear annihilation may be (subconsciously) desired -- as a kind of tension-free nirvana or "cosmic orgasm" -- by pathological rulers and technocrats such as Dr. Strangelove (the necrophilic scientist in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film of that title).

In recent decades, the psychoanalytic concept of authoritarian character, no longer entirely adequate to explain the psychopathology of the power elite, has been complemented by the clinical description of pathological narcissism. Narcissism was initially defined by Freud as a failure of genuine social relatedness: the persistence -- as one analyst noted -- of a "pathologically immature relationship" to significant others, who are perceived solely in terms of their "need-satisfying" aspect. Pathological narcissists "have no empathy for others; other people exist only to serve their needs."⁷ Such deficiency-based motivation may be termed a "greed" for gratification and self-aggrandizement.

The by-product of an impaired growth of the ego, narcissism may be viewed as the antithesis of humane sympathy -- because perception of others is distorted through the lens of infantile self-inflation. As such, its self-serving, amoral opportunism is perfectly in accord with the norms of success in hyper-capitalist, consumer society: competitive self-interest, materialistic preoccupation with personal gratification, exploitative relations toward "subordinates" and customers, and so forth.

Of course, by reducing one's fellow human being into an interchangeable commodity on the labor market, capitalism has for two centuries ideologically claimed that "society" is merely a marketplace of competing individuals single-mindedly pursuing personal gain. Narcissism, as a prison of egotistical calculation, is thus mainifested in the predominance of impersonal contractual relations over an authentic relatedness rooted in shared feelings and empathetic awareness of others.

The pathological narcissist is authoritarian in the sense that expression‎ of power relations extracts "gratification" from others - in the context of contempt, sadism, or simply callous indifference. At the same time, because of his ego defects (and consequent deficiency-motivation), the narcissist is "terribly dependent upon admiration from others."⁸ The acquisition of wealth and social prestige "empowers" the individual to satisfy infantile impulses through excesses of sybaritic luxury and status-display. Unlimited cash offers a powerful temptation toward indolent self-indulgence, and such overweening self-satisfaction is fed by the obsequious "services" which such financial power can command. "Not only does evidence of wealth serve to impress one's importance on others," Veblen remarked, "but it is of scarcely less use in building up and preserving one's self-complacency."⁹

Because of a deep-seated incapacity for sympathetic identification with others, the wealthy member of the global ruling class indulges narcissistic self-satisfaction, the counterpart of which is generally an exploitative attitude toward the weak and powerless. Of course, capitalist ideology conveniently congratulates the rich and stigmatizes the poor. Over the centuries, the moral decadence of a ruling class has been paid for by the hardships of a "service class".

In short, as countless historical examples would illustrate, the attaintment of wealth and power is motivated by (and a compensation for) emotional disability and incapacity for loving relatedness. Instead of egalitarian social relations rooted in reciprocal respect and caring, wealth maintains an authoritarian social order of dominiance and submission in which pseudo-intimacy is purchased and insatiabla need-gratification acquired.

Tragically (for the history of civilization), authoritarian narcissists - driven by such underlying, irrational motivation - scheme to "rule the world".¹⁰

If today's anti-capitalist radicals want to expand their critique of power to include psychological insights into authoritarian narcissism, then they need to continually make explicit the connections between capitalist domination and sexual prohibition and how codes of sexual satisfaction are being manipulated to serve the ends of capitalism. The only way to counter the pathologized sex-politics of fascism, Reich argued, was to offer an emancipatory sex-politics that spoke to the yearnings of the repressed.

******************

William Manson has written The Psychodynamics of Culture (Greenwood Press, 1988), and most recently, "Biophilia: Towards Re-humanization" (FE, Spring 2003)

Notes

1. It would be exciting to see anarcho-0primitivists and other anti-civilization radicals engage with the theories of Geza Roheim, such as his remarkable The Riddle of the Sphinx (1934).

2. See Neil, The Free Child

3. Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism (third edition, Touchstone, 1970), p. 355

4. The Sexual Revolution, 72

5. Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism (third edition, Touchstone, 1970), p. 54. For a discussion of character armor, see Reich's Character Analysis, third edition (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1949), chapter 4.

6. Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom (Avon Books, 1965), pps. 196, 191. Aee also Fromm's The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973); and Alice Miller's For Your Own Good (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1983). For those interested in pursuing these ideas further, it is important to also study Herbert Marcuse's Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud (1955), especially the book's last chapter, "Critique of Neo-Freudian Revisionism". Marcuse argues forcefully that Fromm is far too conservative and timid in his reading of the anti-capitalist and anti-civilization themes in Freud.

7. Otto Kernberg, Narcissism, in Introducing Psychoanalytic Theory (ed. S. Gilman, Brunner/Mazel, 1982), p. 128.

8. Ibid. See also Heinz Kohut's The Analysis of the Self (International Universities Press, 1971).

9. Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (Mentor, 1953), p. 42.

10. See, too, Theodor Adorno, Else Frankel-Brunswick, David J. Levinson, and R. Nevitt Sanford, The Authoritarian Personality

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