Den auktoritära personligheten

[The authoritarian personality]Anders Ramsay’s article is a thorough review of the book The Authoritarian Personality and the research project, Studies in Prejudice, of which it was a part. Ramsay describes the background of how Max Horkheimer’s Institute for Social Research, in exile in the USA during World War II with funding from the American Jewish Committee and together with other research groups in the new country, devised and carried out a major research program on anti-Semitism, prejudice and authoritarian tendencies. To map out the mentality that formed a prerequisite for fascism’s success on the European continent – prerequisites that also seemed to exist on the other side of the Atlantic. But above all, he elucidates The Authoritarian Personality itself: how the study was built up from attitude surveys, psychological tests and in-depth interviews, how the analysis of the collected material was carried out and what the authors mean to say regarding an authoritarian personality. Ramsay also addresses the criticism that has been levelled at the work since its publication. At the end of the article, he introduces the study’s famous typology and thus also the chapter from the book by Theodor W. Adorno that follows as the next article in this journal issue.Publication history: The article is a compilation and slight reworking of those parts of Anders Ramsay's doctoral dissertation, Upplysningens självreflexion: Aspekter av Theodor W. Adornos kritiska teori (Department of Sociology, Lund University 2005), that concerns The Authoritarian Personality.(Published 23 November 2023)Citation: Ramsay, Anders (2023) “Den auktoritära personligheten”, in Den auktoritära personligheten. Det vita fältet IV, special issue of Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, issue 16, pp. 25–46. https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.16.1 ; Anders Ramsays artikel är en grundlig genomgång av boken The Authoritarian Personality och det forskningsprojekt, Studies in Prejudice, som den var en del av. Han tecknar bakgrunden i hur Max ...