“In its pure form, fascism is the sum total of all irrational reactions of the average human character.”

— Wilhelm Reich , book The Mass Psychology of Fascism

Preface to the Third Edition (August 1942)
The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933)
Context: In its pure form, fascism is the sum total of all irrational reactions of the average human character. To the narrow-minded sociologist who lacks the courage to recognize the enormous role played by the irrational in human history, the fascist race theory appears as nothing but an imperialistic interest or even a mere "prejudice." The violence and the ubiquity of these "race prejudices" show their origin from the irrational part of the human character. The race theory is not a creation of fascism. No: fascism is a creation of race hatred and its politically organized expression. Correspondingly, there is a German, Italian, Spanish, Anglo-Saxon, Jewish and Arabian fascism.

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Wilhelm Reich 89

Austrian-American psychoanalyst 1897–1957

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