The Authoritarian Personality

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"In the immediate wake of World War II, a team of researchers, including most famously Theodor Adorno, set out to understand the psychological roots of fascism. The result of their research, The Authoritarian Personality, was published in 1950. There are many reasons for returning to The Authoritarian Personality that have nothing to do with Donald J. Trump, but the real trouble with his tabloid narcissism is that we have all become participants in it. A glaring weakness in his character is also his greatest political strength: the uncanny ability to make it all about him. So contagious is this self-absorption that even the opposition is formed by it, by the consoling and congratulating idea that Trump is the exception. The historical precedents that he follows, the social conditions he reflects, and the structural disrepair that enabled him to assume the American presidency--all of these get buried under the generalized narcissism of our current political moment. One of the many things we learn by returning to The Authoritarian Personality is that "Trumpism" runs deep, historically and psychologically. Its current avatar is a television brand and a social media celebrity, without ideological substance beyond his personal ambition, but "Trumpism" is a discernable force in American political history" -- Introduction.