Authoritarianism’s Annihilation Anxieties
This presentation explores the underlying structure of the authoritarian psyche. Rather than being a product of weak ego functioning, as proposed by the authors of The Authoritarian Personality, authoritarianism, I find, occurs in a world where there is no longer any agreed-upon authority. This exacerbates the anxiety that all we creatures born too soon experience: annihilation anxiety, observed in various ways by psychoanalytic thinkers from Melanie Klein to Donald Winniocott to Wilfred Bion. Those who in their development develop capacities for creativity and reflection can manage to channel this anxiety; but those without such capacities, especially in neoliberal times of precarity, are vulnerable to authoritarianism. As a defense, they become brittle, demanding that some authority arise to hold things together. Unable to tolerate any sense of groundlessness, they become authoritarians themselves. To contain their deep foreboding, authoritarian psyches long for certitude, for guardrails, and for suitable targets of externalization. They cannot tolerate anything that is new, different, contingent, or paradoxical, especially around issues of identity and sexuality. The root of authoritarianism, then, is not bravado and bluster but a dread of annihilation.
Dr. McAfee is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the PLEDGE Horizon Europe Project.
Professor Admire Mare specialises in the complex and unpredictable intersections between [media] technology and society with a special attention on global digital journalism studies, disinformation studies, digital diplomacy studies, digital surveillance studies and digital platform studies. He is full Professor of Communication and Media Studies. He is also the Head of Department: Communication and Media Studies at the University of Johannesburg.