... the variety of perspectives that this subject has been examined from. One of the first psychologists to examine authoritarianism was Wilhelm Reich in 1933 with the publication of his book entitled Mass Psychology of Fascism. Reich, a student of Freud's, took a psychoanalytic point of view and believed that many people who have authoritarian tendencies crave externally imposed structure, discipline and order. This craving stems from a fear to express their own feelings and sexual repression carried over from childhood. Reich theorized that sexual repression led to conservativism, a fear of freedom, and a predisposition toward relationships containing the dynamic of submission and dominance. He also observed that repressed sexuality also led to a yearning for the mystical aspects of life such as religion, duty, honor, motherhood and nation (Reich, 1933). In 1936, the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt published a study of German workers entitled Studien uber Autoritat und Familie. ...

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