The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich

Yet it is not at all possible to bring about a loosening of the character structure of present-day man by penetrating to this deepest and so promising layer without first eliminating the nongenuine, spuriously social surface.

In this core, under favorable social conditions, man is an essentially honest, industrious, cooperative, loving, and, if motivated, rationally hating animal. If one penetrates through this destructive second layer, deeper into the biologic substratum of the human animal, one always discovers the third, deepest, layer, which we call the biologic core. Orgone biophysics made it possible to comprehend the Freudian unconscious, that which is antisocial in man, as a secondary result of the repression of primary biologic urges. It represents the Freudian “unconscious” or “what is repressed” to put it in the language of sex-economy, it represents the sum total of all so-called “secondary drives.” The surface layer of social cooperation is not in contact with the deep biologic core of one’s selfhood it is borne by a second, an intermediate character layer, which consists exclusively of cruel, sadistic, lascivious, rapacious, and envious impulses. There would be no social tragedy of the human animal if this surface layer of the personality were in direct contact with the deep natural core. On the surface layer of his personality the average man is reserved, polite, compassionate, responsible, conscientious. As I demonstrated in my book Character-Analysis, these layers of the character structure are deposits of social development, which function autonomously.

Preface to the Third Edition, Revised and EnlargedĮxtensive and painstaking therapeutic work on the human character has led me to the conclusion that, as a rule, we are dealing with three different layers of the biopsychic structure in the evaluation of human reactions. Fascistic Irrationalism, by Wilhelm Reich, M.D.įrom the book The Mass Psychology of Fascism, by Wilhelm Reich, M.D., FS&G, New York 1970.

The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich