@article{Samelson, author = {Samelson, F.}, title = {Authoritarian Personality: History of the Concept}, series = {Smelser, N. J., and Baltes, P. B. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social \& Behavioral Sciences, Amsterdam (Elsevier) 2001, pp. 967-970.}, journal = {Smelser, N. J., and Baltes, P. B. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social \& Behavioral Sciences, Amsterdam (Elsevier) 2001, pp. 967-970.}, abstract = {During the final years of Weimar Germany, two Marxian psychoanalysts, Wilhelm Reich and Erich Fromm, proposed related psychodynamic models of an 'authoritarian character structure' in their attempts to account for the attraction of Germany's lower middle class to Hitler. Subsequent development by the exiled Frankfurt Institute's Critical Theorists linked up with empirical research on antisemitism by psychologists at the University of California. In 1950, the Berkeley Group (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford) produced a massive volume entitled initially >The Antidemocratic Personality< and then >The Authoritarian Personality<. Soon the highly praised work inspired literally thousands of research reports of sometimes indiscriminate applications. Later, it also stimulated related work abroad, especially in West Germany. But the theory gradually succumbed to methodological criticism, spotty empirical confirmation, and changed societal priorities. More recently, attempts to revive the Authoritarian Personality failed to make much headway. Social psychological textbooks of the 1990s usually devote only a few - respectful - paragraphs to it. Although it had been an intriguing idea, promising some understanding of major historical-political developments, its empirical applications had failed to be convincing.}, language = {en} }