The Mass Psychology of Fascism

Broke new ground in the study of the relations of social structure to individual character * New York Times *Written in 1942 with the terrible reality of Nazism all around, Reich’s book is as relevant now as it was then * New Psychiatry *Reich’s work paved the way for understanding totalitarianism – Christian Borch * The Politics of Crowds *The resonances-and the staggering differences-with our present will not be possible to evade – Håvard Friis Nilsen, Professor of Social Sciences at OsloMetIn many ways pathbreaking … Reich’s book was until then the only contribution to the understanding of fascism from the ranks of psychoanalysts, and the first psycho-social analysis of Hitler as a leader * Parapraxis *Reich really strikes to the core of fascism’s mass appeal. His analysis of the twentieth century’s dangerous inhibition of sexual instincts, and his reasons why… people attach such significance to the concepts of ‘law and order’ and ‘the family’ have become important contributions to the study of crowd control and manipulation. It is very easy to see why this book was banned by the Nazis – Gongster * The University of Nottingham *Reich is a rebel with something at heart, he sees many things very clearly, and he knows his subject very well – Karl LandauerHe remains the thinker perhaps most deeply associated with the synthesis of Marx and Freud … He pushed the boundaries of what it meant to move psychoanalytic thinking from the pathology of an individual to that of a whole society – Hannah Zeavin, Historian at UC BerkleyThis book should appeal to all who are concerned with our culture and the consequences brought about by cultural changes * American Journal of Orthopsychiatry *Reich’s work was an attempted integration of two of the most powerful intellectual currents of his day: Marxism and psychoanalysis * The Brooklyn Rail *

Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) was an Austrian doctor of medicine and psychoanalyst. He wrote several books, most notably Character Analysis (1933), The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), and The Sexual Revolution (1936).