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Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research

August, 2021, Volume 38, 2, pp 30160-30167

Review Article

Review Article

Jung as a Fascist Theorist or Philanthropic Victim: A Second Look

Saeed Shoja Shafti*

Author Affiliations

Full Professor of Psychiatry, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Razi Psychiatric Hospital, Tehran, Iran

Received:August 10, 2021 | Published:August 18, 2021

Corresponding author: Saeed Shoja Shafti, Full Professor of Psychiatry, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Razi Psychiatric Hospital, Tehran, Iran

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2021.38.006122

ABSTRACT

Fascism is a system of government merging the most extreme features of both authoritarianism and totalitarianism and is classically considered to be at the far-right end of the political continuum, and sees racial hygiene, political violence, battle, and expansionism as means that can attain national rejuvenation. Emergence of Fascism in the last century in Europe, which had been raised up from somewhat democratic settings, has not been overlooked by intellectuals, who are in search of origins and physiognomies of Fascism. While many of researchers appreciate Fascism as a sociological phenomenon that demands psychological autopsy, there are investigators, as well, who are in search of developmental, biological, political, economic, or administrative backgrounds of Fascism. In this regard, the connection between Jung and Fascism, also, was an intricate story that has been reflected again in a number of new studies. In the present article, Fascism, as a political dogma in the spectrum of authoritarianism, though not an unfamiliar administrative scheme in the globe and history, has been looked over psychosocially, along with some remarkable standpoints of some of the most known intellectuals, who were studying Fascism, Fascists, and masses in close proximity.

Keywords: Fascism; Totalitarianism; Autocracy; Democracy; Nationalism; Ultranationalism; Jung; Nazism

Introduction

Emergence of Fascism in the last century in Europe, and later sociopolitical complications and geopolitical clashes, has not been overlooked by intellectuals, who are in search of origins and physiognomies of Fascism. While many of researchers appreciate Fascism a sociological phenomenon that demands psychological autopsy, there are investigators, as well, who are in search of developmental, biological, political, or economic backgrounds of Fascism [1]. On the other hand, seven decades ago, “The Doctors’ Trial” at Nuremberg, exposed an awkward scheme of the criminal use of medicine in the arenas of public health and human research. These practices, where the racial hygiene constituted one of the essential doctrines and euthanasia programs were the most noticeable result, disrupted the known bioethical principles, because the psychiatric patients were the primary sufferers [2]. So, is there something intrinsic in being a physician that stimulates a transition from healer to butcher [3,4]? Although the Holocaust is often placed at the beginning of bioethics, we comfort ourselves with the opinions that the persons involved in the events of the Holocaust were evil or mad and not like other physicians and scientists. Nevertheless, those professionals were cultured and talented members of a technologically refined society who believed they were in some way behaving properly within the context of their social-political circumstances [5].

Furthermore, the connection between Jung and Fascism, also, was an intricate story that has been reflected again in a number of new studies [6]. Before the Nuremberg legal proceedings were started, some consideration was given to an appeal that the offenders be shot in the trunk and not in the head in order for later brain autopsies to be undertaken. In the end of course the selected way of execution was hanging, as the firing squad, it was supposed, might be appreciated as a more honorable style of assassination. But the appeal to conduct a probe in the brain is telling: as though the answer to Nazism might lie in some biological lesion or anomaly [7]. In the present article, Fascism, as a political dogma in the spectrum of authoritarianism, has been looked over psychosocially, along with some remarkable standpoints of some of the most known intellectuals, who were studying Fascism, Fascists, and masses in close proximity.

Background

A) Definition of Fascism and Parallel Political Structures

Fascism is a system of government merging the most extreme features of both authoritarianism and totalitarianism and is classically considered to be at the far-right end of the political continuum. Fascism is characterized by the imposition of autocratic power, government control of production and market, and the violent suppression of antagonism [1]. The basis of Fascism is a mixture of ultranationalism—an exaggerated devoutness to one’s nation over all others—along with a widely held belief that the nation must and will be by some means saved or “reborn.” So, Fascists encourage the growing of national unity and racial purity. The said passion for racial purity often led Fascist leaders to undertake compulsory genetic modification packages planned to create a pure “national race” by means of selective breeding [8]. Moreover, Fascist leaders usually strive to create a zealously nationalistic culture of “military citizenship” in which all inhabitants are enthusiastic and ready to take on some martial responsibilities during times of warfare, including real war. On the other hand, Totalitarianism is a method of management in which the state’s supremacy is limitless and controls nearly all aspects of private and public life. This mechanism extends to all administrative and monetary matters as well as the beliefs, morals, and attitudes of the folks, which are sometimes abridged: “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” An authoritarian state, as well, is categorized by a solid central regime that lets people a restricted degree of political liberty.

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However, the political process, along with all individual sovereignty, is controlled by the regime without any legitimate answerability [9]. While Fascists think that liberal democracy is outdated, they believe that such a state should be led by a strong leader - such as a dictator and a military regime composed of the adherents of the governing Fascist party - to make national unity and keep a stable and organized society. Besides, Fascism sees political violence, battle, and expansionism as means that can attain national rejuvenation [10]. Fascists, while historically criticize conservatism, communism, and parliamentary liberalism, advocate a mixed economy, with the principal goal of achieving autarky (national economic self-sufficiency) through a corporatist, protectionist, and interventionist economic policies. Although Fascist economic ideology supports the profit motive, emphasizes that industries must uphold the national interest as superior to private income [11]. Some scholars believe that, though Fascism plays with populism in an attempt to create mass support, it is better appreciated as an elitist philosophy, because it worships the leader, the race, and the state, rather than the people [12]. Unlike Marxism, Fascism views workforces and industrious entrepreneurs in common as productive people who are in conflict with opportunistic components in society including: corrupt political parties, corrupt financial capital, and feeble people. Similarly, Fascism criticizes egalitarianism as preserving the weak, and they are in principle opposite to the idea of social welfare and claims that it encourages the preservation of the degenerate and the feeble, which should have been wiped out in the process of natural selection [13].

B) Some Remarkable Outlooks Re Fascism, In Brief

Psychodynamic Models: It is remarkable that a range of studies of Fascist psychopathology, concentrated on the conception of “superego”, were mobilized in postwar planning, military intelligence, and strategy approvals for ‘denazification’. So, Freud’s philosophies were sometimes supported by particular army physicians and government organizers; at other times they were mixed with or substituted by other psychiatric and psychological methods of management and various studies of the Fascist ‘personality’ [7]. For instance, Ernest Jones noted how the ordinary morality, which is directed outwardly, can be brutal and persecutory. Also, the idea of the superego flourished in many creative ways in Freud’s own thought and beyond, particularly in the work of Klein, as an ego-destructive superego [7]. On the other hand, as said by some scholars, Fascism is not a political ideology. It would be more precise to call it a society-level mental illness hidden in political ideology, because, as stated by Rudolph Virchow, politics resembles medicine on a large scale [14]. Wilhelm Reich, as well, believed that Fascism, ideologically, is the revolution of a deadly sick society, sick sexually as well as economically [15].

In probing the works of Otto Fenichel, Ernst Simmel, Erik Homburger Erikson, Rudolf Loewenstein and Bruno Bettelheim, racial prejudice has been investigated thru the mechanisms of projection, the process of massive splitting mechanisms of the group mind, fantasies of felonious adolescent aggrandizement, sado-masochistic and perverse oedipal dynamics, and a morbid identification with the torturers , which seemingly had obliterated the individual’s sense of sovereignty and ability to respond ethically [16,17]. Also, it seems that there is a psychopathologic link between authoritarian personality and prejudice [18].

Theodor W. Adorno and Pre-Fascist Personality:

According to a study that included quantitative and qualitative components, structured questionnaires, clinical interviews, and administration of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Adorno and his colleagues, had developed a set of standards for defining authoritarian personality characters, and called it the ‘F scale’. The “F” was short for “pre-Fascist personality.” These characters included authoritarian submission, conventionalism, authoritarian aggression, anti-interception, anti-intellectualism, exaggerated concerns over sex, superstition and stereotypy, power and “toughness”, destructiveness, and cynicism, and projectivity. An essential idea of the Authoritarian Personality is that authoritarianism is the outcome of a Freudian developmental model. Extremely punitive and disciplinary child rearing was postulated to cause children to feel huge anger towards their parents; yet fear of parental discontentment or castigation caused persons to not openly challenge their parents, but rather to identify with and exalt authority figures. Furthermore, they proposed that authoritarianism could have root in suppressed homosexuality, and the authoritarian syndrome was inclined to right-wing ideology, and therefore sympathetic to Fascist governments [19,20]. Lev S. Vygotsky and the ‘Fascism in Psychoneurology’: Vygotsky, the founder of the Cultural - Historical psychology, believed that a system of psychology which would match up to the entire Fascist dogma could be considered as an unavoidable mandate of Fascism. So, titles such as: ‘A Study of Family and Heredity’, ‘The Psychology of Adolescence’ (with definite national characteristics), ‘A Study of Race’, or ‘problem of the leader’, could be an appropriate beginning for Fascist psychology. According to him, psychology must understand and light up, by the bright of reason, the instinctual desires which are laid down in the nationalist movement. Therefore, in order to be able to cure this putrefying idealism, psychologist should use psychology and anthropology to form a methodical basis for making an eventual merger between systematic psychology and ideal militarism, which was in accord with the nationalist (National Socialist) movement (Nazism). So, psychological anthropology can be one of the most imperative foundations for the methodical construction of politics. Race and blood, blood, and race - this is what underpins everything in the world. So, a direct linking fiber stretches all the way from the structure of one’s capillary network to one’s philosophy of life. Accordingly, researchers are beginning to think in a warlike style - The relations among different nations are determined by the fact that at the basics of different cultures lie different mental structures characteristic of the persons who belong to a particular national category.

Thus, the mission of the Fascistic spirit is to lead humanity forward, and that the highest human type, i.e., the Fascist type, matches, according to its chemical formula, to the youthful type, who is characterized by an unending drive forward on the road to the achievement of flawlessness of all humankind. Fascist teaches us not to say ‘either-or’, but ‘both the one and the other’. In contrast, as we have grasped, such kind of psychology declares that it is impossible to enter the complexities of the mental structure of personality without a rudimentary form of physics, because blood and race determine the pureness of ideas. As said by Vygotsky, Fascist psychology symbolizes an integration of idealism and mechanism, for unification of philosopher with the peasant, linking between scientists and storm troopers, and a union of the bayonet and the idea, and, in general, ignores the social nature of human being. Such an attitude, along with the rest of Fascist psychology, can only lead to a terrible intensification of the class struggle. Whilst the people on some parts of the earth are fighting for the emancipation of humankind, and for the attainment of everything which is really advanced, novel, and extraordinary in the history of the human personality, in the Fascist campground people’s consciousness continues to be shaped by the debris of a resuscitated Middle Ages [21].

Wilhelm Reich and the ‘Mass Psychology of Fascism’:

As stated by Wilhelm Reich, who made major contributions to psychoanalysis in the area of character formation and character types, Hitler’s sociological importance did not lie in his personality but in the significance which he was given by the masses, and Fascism is not the deed of a Hitler or Mussolini, but the expression of the irrational structure of the common people, particularly by taking into consideration that, before taking power, Fascism deceitfully promise everything to everybody. Similarly, the race theory is not a manufacture of Fascism; Fascism is a creation of race hatred and its politically organized expression. The race ideology is a true biopathic character symptom of the drastically impotent person. As said by Reich, Fascism is based on that spirituality which stems from sexual perversion; it alters the masochistic character of the old patriarchal persuasions into a sadistic doctrine. It turns the otherworld idea of suffering into sadistic massacre in this world. Fascist mentality is the mentality of the dominated “little man” who desires authority and insurgents against it at the same time. It is not by accident that all Fascist dictators stem from the milieu of the little conservative man. But, while the Fascist is the top-sergeant type in the vast army of our sick civilization, it has no reply to practical questions of living, for it comprehends everything only in the mirror of ideology or in the form of the state uniform.

On the word of Reich, man is influenced by the circumstances of his life in a dual way: directly by the immediate influence of his economic and social position, and indirectly by the ideological structure of his society. For what sociological reason does society suppress sexuality and does the person repress it? There have been many answers to this question. The church says, for the sake of the soul in the hereafter. Mystical moral philosophy says, because of the eternal ethical nature of man. Freud’s cultural philosophy says, for the sake of “culture.” As said by Reich, the authoritarian state develops its huge interest in the authoritarian family: the family is the factory of its structure and ideology. Suppression of the natural sexuality in the child, particularly of its genital sexuality, makes the child shy, obedient, apprehensive, afraid of authority, “good” and “adjusted” in the authoritarian common sense; it paralyzes the recalcitrant powers because any insurgence is burdened with apprehension; it creates, by inhibiting sexual inquisitiveness and sexual thinking in the kid, a general inhibition of thinking and of critical capacities. In short, the goal of sexual suppression is that of producing a person who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all sadness and humiliation. The consequence of this process is unconscious fear of liberty, and a traditionalist outlook. Sexual repression helps political reaction not only through this process which makes the mass individual impassive and apolitical, but also by generating in his structure an interest in energetically supporting the authoritarian order.

The suppression of natural sexual gratification leads to many types of substitute enjoyments. Natural aggression, for instance, becomes inhuman sadism which then is an essential mass-psychological factor in imperialistic battles. The masspsychological effect of militarism, as well, is principally libidinous. The sexual effect of a uniform and of rhythmically perfect parades, of military exhibitions in general, is palpable to the average servant girl, even though they may not be obvious to learned political scientists. Sexual inhibition alters the structure of the economically suppressed individual in such a way that he thinks, feels, and acts against his own material interests. The father’s controlling position reflects his political role and discloses the relationship of family and authoritarian state. He in turn replicates submissiveness to authority in his children, particularly his sons. This is the foundation of the impassive, obedient attitude of middle-class folks toward Führer figures. The more helpless the person was made by his rearing, the more intensely does he identify himself with the Führer, and this tendency to identification is the psychological basis of national narcissism, that is, of a self-assurance based on identification with the “greatness of the nation.” Additionally, an understanding of Fascist ideology is not likely without a study of the psychological effect of mysticism, generally. So, if Fascism shapes so magnificently on the mystical thinking and feeling of the common people, then it can be clashed only if one realizes mysticism and if one battles the mystical infestation of the masses with correct didactic and healing methods.

Experience has displayed that the majority of these “apolitical” publics would not even listen to such economic and political dialogues, but they would be cheerfully influenced by the mystical slogans of a Fascist figure who would not even say much about financial welfare. The development of freedom requires that one shed all illusions. Only then will it be possible to eradicate the irrationalism in the masses and to develop their capacity for responsibility and freedom. The Fascist rulers declare the masses to be biologically inferior and longing power, that is, slaves by nature; thus, they say, any other than an authoritarian tyrannical system is out of the question for them. It is noteworthy that all despots of these days come from the class of the suppressed masses. They know this disease of the masses very well. What they lack, however, is the insight into natural development, and the will to truth and search; thus, they would never think of changing these conditions. On the other hand, truths without the power of putting them into practice are of no benefit, and they remain academic. Likewise, Power without a basis in truth, whatever kind of power it may be, is authoritarianism. Despotic power and truth do not go together. “Power” always means the subjugation of others [15].

Carl G. Jung: a Fascist Theorist, or an Honorable Scapegoat?:

Though could be frustrating and unlikely for many of the Jung’s followers, a number of statements by him, show plainly enough the toxic anti-Semitic and pro-Fascist opinions in his thought [7]. Maybe, some of his outlooks were fueled by the perceived occasion to make Jungian psychology dominant over the existing Freudian perspectives; by an academic effort to distance psychoanalytic philosophy from the Freudian emphasis on sexuality and the antagonism between the unconscious and the social order, and then substituting it with the project of discharging the potential of the collective unconscious in the service of the state [22]. So, the ‘New Psychotherapy’ could be founded on a non-Freudian and anti-Semitic dogma and committed to the construction of model citizens of the Nazi Reich [23], although some believe that Jung was put under huge pressure by other colleagues to ‘save’ dynamic psychology (including psychoanalysis) from being destroyed by the evolving Fascism [24]. Nonetheless, Jung used his post to promote his hypothetical attitude to promote ‘Aryan psychology’, and he seems to have been captivated, though ambivalently, in veneration of Nazi values, mystical celebration of the cult of Wotan, anti- Semitic innuendo and self-aggrandizement at the cost of Freudian psychoanalysis. Even before 1933, Jung had honored Mussolini and he was quick to see Hitler as the coming leader the people needed and the SS as a class of knights ruling sixty million citizens [25].

In a speaking delivered in Vienna in November 1932, he stated that the great emancipating conducts of history have jumped from leading personalities and never from the passive hoi polloi [26], which is at all times subordinate and can only be pushed into activity by the demagogue. The autocracies may not be the best form of management, but they are the only conceivable form of regime at the moment [27]. So, some of the scholars believed that Jung ‘was always a half-Nazi’, and a ‘pseudoscientist Nazi auxiliary’, who should be tried in the Nuremberg Tribunal [28]. Jung’s stress on the mysticism of the Nazi phenomenon, or at least its access to mystical dimensions of the country’s spirit, reflected his life-long aberration from Freudianism, with its focus on the material, specially the sexual, as the fundamental force at the bottom of human activity, and the importance he gave to myth and symbol as expressions of human endeavoring was always fundamentally divergent from the reductive tendency in Freudian psychoanalysis [22].

Discussion

Fascism, totalitarianism, and authoritarianism, with different amounts of despotism, though are presently introduced as horrible administrative schemes, are not, archaeologically, unfamiliar political configurations for human, because even culturally they are not very far from the old-style paternalism and conservatism [29]. Since primeval epoch acquirement and keeping power and resources was not a stress-free struggle. So, while democracy is an advanced political approach in the latest epochs, autocracy, absolutely or partly, was in existence since the prehistory. In addition to defensive, shielding, or competitive purposes, aggression or belligerent pose has an extra tactical usage, too, for bullying and achievement of more profits by exploiting unaware or submissive people. Disregard to military dynamics, administrative authority, and economical supremacy, are bases of sturdy political power, whether in a democratic organization or in an autocratic scheme. Without them, no political figure can expect attainment of anticipated short-term and long-term goals. Of course, such an achievement is easier to be conquered in a tyrannical organization than in a democratic arrangement. Though democracy, as the outcome of mental evolution of human being, is a fresher sociopolitical invention, the well-known Fascist regimes in the last centuries in Europe had arisen relatively amid liberal democracy or other non-despotic political circumstances, which had been initially held and voted on a social basis. Though some scholars have introduced Fascism as a kind of social illness [14,15], it is more like a collective choice based on shared obliviousness.

Since populism is an important instrument for mobilization of people, which has been used stereotypically by Fascistic regimes in the last century, and masses usually lack enough political awareness for differentiation between truthful and deceitful propaganda, their manipulation is not an intricate mission. Behavior of Fascist regimes, also, is not the same in different phases; before seizing desired political power they generally behave selflessly, while after grabbing anticipated governmental control, they act inconsiderately, which is the necessary ground for application of viciousness and overpowering. Prediction of such a deviation is not frankly possible for hoi polloi; it demands experienced politicians, who should be honestly and rationally aware of the history and political affairs, to be able to predict the future unorthodoxy based on the detectable contradictions, pretensions, and cravings. For the same reason the first attempt of every authoritarian administration is obliteration of informed political figures who are not pondering or acting parallel to them. Moreover, since the Fascist regimes, after establishment, develop forcefully and endlessly, they do not need, yet again, to charm followers properly, because now they can grab them forcibly. This is an endless morbid cycle. So, in brief, the grounds of authoritarianism lie in collective illiteracy. The rest depends on the leaders’ dogmas or doctrines. Furthermore, after setting up, as said by Karl Marx, the ideals of the ruling class become the ideals of the masses [15]. The issue of induced narcissism, misinterpretation of facts, secondary delusion, and similar psychopathologic processes, as well, have been discussed in another article [30].

On the other hand, though some scholars have tried to define or discover specific psychological or psychodynamic interpretations, or particular organic structures for Fascistic inclinations [7,15,19,21], its ideology seems to be buried in the egocentricity of little Homunculus in the brain, as the symbolic depiction of pleasureseeking Id, although unconsciously or instinctively. This means that every human being has an inner little Fascist within himself or herself, which may display itself only in apposite circumstances. Though tutoring, training and surroundings’ necessities can suppress, repress, slow, defer, disguise, or sublimate its incessant try for gratification of multiple drives, by way of reinforcement of Ego and Superego, but the said unconscious and conscious motivations are not basically eradicable till the organism is alive. So, this is an internal war between Id and Ego, under supervision of Superego, which is projected outside, between individual and other persons, if the state of affairs permits. Many of the known Fascist figures were not necessarily ruthless or uncharitable folks before their political triumphs, and maybe their original purposes were not anything except than magnificence or comfort for their homelands or nations, wishes which are not devoid of organic basis, too [31]. But the reason that could push them further than their apparently believed codes might include the provision of an apt milieu for revitalization of earlier unfulfilled incentives; and after the happening of the said resumption, and especially after a certain step, which usually includes some sort of viciousness, the rest of course will be finalized inevitably by every necessary routine or maneuver.

Such an attitude is to some degree in accord with comparable inferences. For example, according to Pick, Nazism was not to be understood (so it was debated by some historians and psychoanalysts alike) as completely alien or as restricted to a specific region. Rather, such predilections could be comprehended as potentially a part of all of us and/or of European culture and thought [7]. Also, as said by Reich, Fascism is an international phenomenon which infuses all establishments of human society in all realms [15]. There is today not a single person who does not have the components of Fascist feeling and thinking in his structure. Fascism as a political movement differs from other conservative parties in that it is held and supported by crowds of people. Clearly, international Fascism will never be overwhelmed by political tricks [15]. It can only be defeated by the natural organization of work, love, and knowledge on a global scale. There is at work, in the masses, a reactionary, murderous, development-inhibiting force which brings to ruin over and over all the struggles made by the combatants for sovereignty. While no one in this world required the war, all persons are its victims; a monster, which is the biologically rigid human himself [15]. But Reich’s emphasis on suppression of childhood sexuality as the basis of Fascism seems to be overvaluation of a psychosexual process, which includes a combination of unconscious repression and nurturing suppression, as an inevitable historical prerequisite for further sublimation, shaping of social life, and construction of civilization.

Compliance to authority appears to be initially alike in democratic and Fascist people, but may diverge later under the influence of genetic, cultural, political, or economic factors. Though nobody can predict the irreversible phase of a behavior or misbehavior, it seems to include at all times uncorrectable injustice and merciless bloodshed; a turning point for making irreparable what was formerly repairable, and a time for strengthening inhumanity, not for further satisfactions, but intended for safeguard against thinkable retaliation. Furthermore, at this time, intellectualization, rationalization, and projection for explanation of further misconduct, like suppression and carnage of opponents, may take place. Paranoid, narcissistic, and antisocial personality traits, irritable mood and nihilistic or pessimistic thought in affective disorders, especially in their subclinical variants, suspiciousness, delusion, overvalued idea, and or even illiteracy, borderline intelligence, political immaturity, and limited problem-solving tactics, may accelerate the said naughtiness by a moody or fanatical decision maker. On the other hand, while absolute rule of a pressure group over the most inhabitants may be indicated easily by political challengers, an unseen tyranny may be missed when the governing administrators are being supported by the mainstream of publics. Therefore, in opposite to some of the scholars, it seems that the sensible or unreasoning vengefulness, excessive vehemence, lack of knowledge, obliviousness, or poorer cleverness of masses, not insight, collapse, or social illness, creates, unexpectedly, political monsters; though sometimes the said beasts, by providing some kind of safety and stability after a period of intolerable mayhem or skirmish, may persuade folks to close their eyes to the existent misdemeanors.

Besides, the said shortages in common people make them more senseless and suggestible towards epic poems and empty promises of Fascism. But finally, people have to synchronize their heart beats with Fascism’s rhythms, because after installation, Fascism may swallow anything and everybody like a vacuum cleaner or maelstrom, and, in line with autocratic dogmas, societies, not themselves, are always responsible for all the existing and forthcoming faults. Nevertheless, illiteracy and negligence does not mean that the people are not responsible about their oblivious choices and historical slips. This debate is disrespect to the probable overseas’ backup for publicizing a specific political schemer and leading, secretly, the outsiders’ national political affairs, which may not be possible without ultimate authoritarian attitudes. Now, another query: Is democracy a cultural attitude or an executive outline? If it was the first scheme, then growing of recognized European Fascistic regimes in the last century from democratic milieus was implausible. But, as a managerial framework, it is fragile. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that though continued existence of democracy cannot be guaranteed customarily, culture is a dynamic factor in its survival.

But then again, despite the fact democracy can be considered as the outcome of mental evolution for considering shared civil desires, it is not yet deprived of the said Homunculus, which exists individually and clandestinely, and is seeable in many of the commonplace encounters. History shows that the known Fascist regimes in the last century, usually, had extended their political power initially by means of democratic approaches, like polling, and then after triumph, abused or blocked such methods ruthlessly. Perhaps, Fascism and democracy are two opposite outlook that may counterbalance each other, from time to time, as a result of intervening social, political, and economical pandemonium. Maybe, it was not by chance that, when known psychoanalysts like Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich, and many Of the leaders of the Gestalt movement, like Kurt Koffka , Max Wertheimer and, Wolfgang Kohler were fleeing the Nazi menace, Jung was at service of Fascism as a theorist of ‘Arya Psychology’, particularly by considering that some of his psychoanalytic concepts, like collective unconscious, archetypes, and mysticism, are a bit comparable with Fascism’s rely on social union, hero worship or heroization, personality cult, and spirit. Therefore, personal attitudes, as well, may make the mentality ready for installation of Fascistic views. Then again, while ideology may predispose the situation for executive or judiciary abuse by the agent, ideological people, also, may be misused easily by the despotic officialdoms.

Though political Marxism, as well, naturally believe in ‘proletarian dictatorship’, and some overlapping between Fascistic attitudes and Marxian approaches exists, nevertheless with different perspectives, extreme fear from radical Marxism, too, may rise ramblingly the protagonists of Fascism. It is interesting that some of the known Fascistic political figures were among the earlier leftists. Explicit or concealed abhorrence, enmity, bullying, egoism, racialism, xenophobia, political narrowmindedness, customary populism, disproportionate militarism, Machiavellianism, and continuous undue scorn of rivals, are among the extent characteristics of seemingly spotless political parties or groups that may, sooner or later, transform into Fascistic crowds or regimes in future, after administrative consolidation and seizing the governmental supremacy. Then again, while Fascism usually wishes cohesive society and desires to make a new civilization, favor its elites as an isolated class, which is faithfully devoid of every fault; an incongruous proposition, which disintegrates its dogma right from the outset. Also, disregard to ultranationalist publicities and genuine endeavors for socioeconomic advancement, and probably later expansionism and irredentism, which are initially and usually mesmerizing for masses, the unremitting sociopolitical domination, which is an in-built characteristic of Fascism, sooner or later, distresses folks and exhausts the public; a situation that lowers communal patience and induce a condition which is like a bird in a golden cage.

In our time and with the existence of modern technology and advancement of new communicative tools, discrimination and oppression cannot be covered up and protected from public opinion’s condemnation, whether on a national scale or all over the world, which can be a starting point for eventual breakdown of an insupportable system. Democratic institutions and political parties, honest representatives, independent media, self-ruled juridical organizations, sophisticated general public, and civilized values, are among the utilitarian barricades against development of Fascism. Though Fascism is not eradicable, it is governable. While democratic congruence between people and leaders is comparable to immunization against despotism, and disharmony between them is a risk factor for development of tyranny, a refined nation does not let Fascism to annihilate human’s liberty and morals thru a harsh voracity.

Conclusion

Fascism is not an erratic phenomenon, which belonged to the past or can be occurred only in specific zones or states; it is the obvious echo of obscured ambitions of human being, which is reflected in the mirror of life. Granting it is not eradicable, it is manageable, by means of awareness, knowledge, morality, and democratic attitudes. Partaking of representatives in formal party-political officialdom with clear doctrines, platforms, and constitutions, liberty of media, for proper feedback and public communication, apposite polling for picking the best delegates, and tempting the sense of proprietorship and accountability in publics with respect to the national governmental system, may promise a fitting guard against the ceaseless ambitions of greedy people. Events of the recent centuries have shown that freedom may not be durable if it is based on sightless passion, instead of effective insight. Such an insight also is not deliverable by unaware hoi polloi; it demands attentive persons, liberal officials, informed politicians, and unprejudiced institutions, that is to say democratic foundations, to keep their sovereignty alive, which is based on preceding trial and error, and is not always without charge.

References

Review Article

Jung as a Fascist Theorist or Philanthropic Victim: A Second Look

Saeed Shoja Shafti*

Author Affiliations

Full Professor of Psychiatry, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Razi Psychiatric Hospital, Tehran, Iran

Received:August 10, 2021 | Published:August 18, 2021

Corresponding author: Saeed Shoja Shafti, Full Professor of Psychiatry, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Razi Psychiatric Hospital, Tehran, Iran

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2021.38.006122

Abstract

Fascism is a system of government merging the most extreme features of both authoritarianism and totalitarianism and is classically considered to be at the far-right end of the political continuum, and sees racial hygiene, political violence, battle, and expansionism as means that can attain national rejuvenation. Emergence of Fascism in the last century in Europe, which had been raised up from somewhat democratic settings, has not been overlooked by intellectuals, who are in search of origins and physiognomies of Fascism. While many of researchers appreciate Fascism as a sociological phenomenon that demands psychological autopsy, there are investigators, as well, who are in search of developmental, biological, political, economic, or administrative backgrounds of Fascism. In this regard, the connection between Jung and Fascism, also, was an intricate story that has been reflected again in a number of new studies. In the present article, Fascism, as a political dogma in the spectrum of authoritarianism, though not an unfamiliar administrative scheme in the globe and history, has been looked over psychosocially, along with some remarkable standpoints of some of the most known intellectuals, who were studying Fascism, Fascists, and masses in close proximity.

Keywords: Fascism; Totalitarianism; Autocracy; Democracy; Nationalism; Ultranationalism; Jung; Nazism