The Fascist State of Mind and the Manufacturing of Masculinity

This book explores fascism as a product of certain forms of masculinity and focuses on the dynamics of masculinity as a mode of psychic functioning.

Auteur

Christina Wieland is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice, a training therapist, teacher and supervisor. She is a visiting Fellow and teaches at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex.

Résumé
The Fascist State of Mind and the Manufacturing of Masculinity: A psychoanalytic approach attempts to describe in psychoanalytic terms the psychological consequences of massive social trauma and national humiliation, and the regression that takes place within the individual under these circumstances. The book is not about understanding fascism as a historical, political or sociological phenomenon, but about understanding the special relationship between masculinity and fascism and the state of mind which both shaped, and was shaped by, the historical phenomenon of fascism. Christina Wieland explores fascism as a product of certain forms of masculinity and focuses on the dynamics of masculinity as a mode of psychic functioning. She examines in detail masculine anxieties and defences and their interaction with stresses of modernity and with the social and political unrest that followed World War One. The Fascist State of Mind and the Manufacturing of Masculinity is divided into four parts: Part One - The meaning of fascism and the fascist state of mind - theories and definitionsPart Two - Masculinity, its meaning and its vulnerability Part Three - Group and group theory, and the total environmentPart Four - Exploring the links between masculinity, groups and fascism The Fascist State of Mind and the Manufacturing of Masculinity uses clinical material, literary texts, and extensive psychoanalytic interpretation of some passages from Mein Kampf to illustrate the interplay of the psychological processes with social and political events. This book will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, teachers and students of psychoanalysis and gender studies. It will also appeal to those interested in the application of psychoanalytic insights in the understanding of social and political phenomena.

Contenu

Introduction. Part I: The Fascist State of Mind. What is the fascist state of mind? Views of Historians and Social Scientists. Totalitarianism. Hannah Arendt's Theory of Totalitarianism. The Fascist State of Mind: Early Psychoanalytic Views. The Fascist State of Mind: Contemporary Views. Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel's Theory of Utopia and Totalitarianism. Fascism as a Group Phenomenon. Conclusion. Part II: Masculinity and its Discontents. Masculinity and Violence. The Masculine Dilemma. Oedipus and the Sphinx - Masculinity and the Retreat From the Oedipus Complex. Clinical Example. Discussion. Masculinity and the Fascist State of Mind. Conclusion. Mad Men and Warriors. Femininity, Aggression and Paranoia in the Male. Pentheus' Deadly Transgression. Femininity and Paranoia in Senatspaesident Schreber. Masculinity in Psychoanalysis I. Theoretical and Clinical Considerations. Preliminary Remarks. Freud and Masculinity. Castration Anxiety - Narcissistic Wound or Separation Anxiety? Narcissistic Wholeness, Narcissistic Loss and Separation Anxiety. The Struggle to Accept Reality. The Wolfman. Melanie Klein' Theory of Masculine Development - The Boy's Early Relation to Mother. Masculinity in Psychoanalysis II. Contemporary Perspectives. The 'Dis-identification' Hypothesis. Critical Review of the Dis-identification Hypothesis. Vulnerability of Masculinity - Attacks and Defences. Re-Thinking the Oedipus Complex Discussion. Part III: Groups, Fascism and Masculinity. Groups and the Internal World. Preliminary remarks. Groups External and Internal. The Internal Group. The Lack of an Internal Space: Portrait of the Fuehrer as a Young Man. The Group as the Early Mother. Groups and Masculinity. The Homogenised Group. Groups, Masculinity and the Rise of Fascism.The Flaw in the Pattern. Homogeneous Groups. Total Projective Identification. Helplessness and Dependence. Pathological Organisations. The World of Perversion and the Strive for Homogeneity. Part IV: Masculinity and Fascism. Masculinity and the Fascist state of Mind. Masculinity, Humiliation and Violence. Men, Groups and Homogenization. Masculinity and Feminisation. Conclusion. Pact with the Devil - The Fascist State of Mind and the Manufacturing of Masculinity. The Destruction of the Object. Emptiness, Omnipotence, and Paranoia. The Jews. Epilogue - Hollow Men.