Episode Details

Why is it that the masses desired and worked toward their own servitude in the 1930s? In this episode, Craig, Will, and Adam take a look at an essay in Wilhelm Reich’s Mass Psychology of Fascism, “Ideology as a Material Force.” Here, Reich pushes back against some of his Marxist contemporaries. To Reich, the purely economic explanation of the rise of fascism is insufficient. What are the limitations of the purely economic explanation of the success of reactionary politics? How is it that the fascist political project is able to alter mass psychological structure of the working populace? What can be gained from Reich’s reading of Freud and his notions of the sex-economy and sex politics? How does the family structure replicate and reaffirm the authoritarian state? And how does Reich’s work impact our readings of Herbert Marcuse, Deleuze, and Guattari. Also mentioned: Tiqqun and Lyotard.

James Strick's lecture on Reich: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKPvkguGSi8

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