Description du projet
Définir les deux dimensions de la psyché autoritaire
La résurgence de l’autoritarisme est un phénomène mondial en pleine expansion, mais il n’a pas été examiné dans un cadre combinant des facteurs matériels et des traits psychologiques afin d’éviter soit le réductionnisme économique, soit une explication trop individualiste. Le projet PhantomAiD, financé par l’UE, intégrera ces deux dimensions. Il utilisera la notion de possession fantôme pour faire le lien entre les niveaux matériel et psychologique, selon la logique de la propriété. Plus précisément, le projet montrera comment la double autorisation à la violence impliquée par la propriété (le droit de détruire et le droit de défendre ses biens) est ce qui structure la mobilisation autoritaire autour de questions telles que l’immigration, l’avortement, les politiques en matière d’égalité des sexes et d’environnement. C’est sur cette base que les préjugés font office de mécanismes de défense et de défensivité (une caractéristique des psychés autoritaires).
Objectif
Authoritarian political forces are a growing global phenomenon. In critical theory, this is explained either through material factors, running the risk of economic reductionism, or through psychological traits, individualizing the matter in a problematic way. To date, no theoretical framework integrates the two dimensions in a consistent way, leading to deep rifts in political analysis.
The proposed research programme introduces the term phantom possession in order to bridge between the material and the psychological level. The notion of phantom possession allows the reconstruction of authoritarianism as driven by property logic. Conceptualised as a domain requiring control and defence, the phantasmatic entitlement becomes a reference point for authoritarian mobilization. Consequently, the subject of authoritarianism can be characterized as a phantom owner.
The full theory of the authoritarian personality as phantom owner consists of three components. The first is an account of the politics of phantom owners. As Hannah Arendt mentioned in her analysis of modern mass-politics, authoritarianism is destructive in a way prefigured by early modern property discourse. I analyse destructiveness as the core characteristic of authoritarian politics. The second component investigates the psychology of phantom owners. To understand the psychological basis of authoritarianism, I link the Frankfurt School approach of authoritarian character formation with newer trends in feminist object-relations theory. On this basis, prejudices can be understood as defensive mechanisms, and defensiveness as the defining feature of authoritarian psyches.
The third component implements my account. I show how the dual license to violence implied by property – the right to destroy and the right to aggressively defend one’s property – structures current authoritarian mobilization around such disparate domains as abortion, immigration, gender, and environmental politics.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
37129 Verona
Italie