“Paranormal activities” in contemporary authoritarianism research in Germany
Björn Goldstein
March 28, 2023 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/h5nds (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that recent German authoritarianism research reformulates the concept to apply to Covid-19 protesters by making 'projection' central to a 'superstition and conspiracy beliefs' category and inventing a 'libertarian authoritarian' type, both of which treat supernatural believers as a potential threat to democracy. Contends these moves misunderstand critical theory on religion and occultism, arbitrarily revive 'superstition,' and invert right-wing authoritarianism, risking that labeling esotericists authoritarians pushes them toward right-wing conspiracy believers, as 'conspiritualists' show. |
Abstract
Since the Covid-19 pandemic psychological authoritarianism research in Germany has focused on the new social movement against state measures to confine the spread of the virus. Empirical research from the protests shows that left-liberal, anti-authoritarian, non-conformist and esoteric attitudes dominated among the participants, next to a conspiracy believing right-wing minority. Authoritarianism research in Germany is still based in psychoanalysis, especially in its critical theory version. In order to make the authoritarian syndrome applicable to the protesters the concept of authoritarianism had been reformulated in two ways: (1) Sigmund Freud’s defense mechanism ‘projection’ had been given a dominant position in a single ‘superstition and conspiracy beliefs’ category (2) a new type of authoritarian had been invented, the ‘libertarian authoritarian’. Both approaches conclude that believers in the supernatural are a potential threat to democracy. These new trends expose a superficial understanding of its own critical theory tradition regarding religion and occultism, as well as an arbitrary revival of ‘superstition’ in authoritarianism research, and how the concept of ‘libertarian authoritarianism’ is turning Right-Wing-Authoritarianism upside-down. Labeling esotericists in general authoritarians bears the risk of making them turn to their right-wing conspiracy believing co-protesters by in- and out-grouping mechanisms. Conspiritualists are a living example of this possibility.