The Mass Psychology of Fascism

The Mass Psychology of Fascism

Cover of the German edition
Author	Wilhelm Reich
Original title	Die Massenpsychologie des Faschismus
Language	German
Subject	Fascism
Publisher	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date	September 1933
Published in English	November 1980 (translation based on the third, enlarged edition from August 1942)
ISBN
OCLC	411193197

The Mass Psychology of Fascism (German: Die Massenpsychologie des Faschismus) is a 1933 book by Wilhelm Reich, in which Reich explores how fascists come into power, and explains their rise as a symptom of sexual repression.

Reich—originally from Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and practicing psychoanalysis and psychiatry in Vienna—joined the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) in 1928. He joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) upon moving his psychoanalytic practice to Berlin in 1930. However, The Mass Psychology of Fascism was seen as being so critical of the Nazi regime (as well as the Communist regime in the Soviet Union) that Reich was considered to be a liability to the KPD and was kicked out of the party upon the book's publication in 1933.

The question at the heart of Reich's book was this: why did the masses turn to authoritarianism even though it is clearly against their interests? Reich set out to analyze "the economic and ideological structure of German society between 1928 and 1933" in this book. In it, he calls Bolshevism "red fascism", and groups it in the same category as Nazism.

Reich argued that the reason Nazism was chosen over communism was sexual repression. As children, members of the proletariat had learned from their parents to suppress sexual desire. Hence, in adults, rebellious and sexual impulses caused anxiety. Fear of revolt, as well as fear of sexuality, were thus "anchored" in the character of the masses. This influenced the irrationality of the people, Reich would argue: