The Anonymous God: Critical Psychoanalytic Inquiries into Social Domination

Abstract

In the early to mid-twentieth century, the leading Critical Theorists of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research turned to a psychoanalytic study of the authoritarian subject to better understand the rise of fascism. In this dissertation, I focus on Critical Theory’s integration of Freudian psychoanalysis to explain the appeal of dangerous and irrational authorities and modern trends of domination. Throughout this genealogy of anti-authoritarian thought, I pay special interest to the unconscious psychodynamics that characterize reactionary deference to impersonal authorities, that is, modern, techno-bureaucratic authorities that have become so abstract and hyper-reified, they begin to resemble what Max Horkheimer termed an “anonymous god.” The authoritarian experiences themselves as more powerless, impotent, and victimized than anyone else, subjected to an infinitely more powerful entity that hobbles their capacity for self-determination. The anonymous god, as I use it here, refers to a variety of psychological demands and social pressures that come to assume the mystique of ersatz-divinity within the authoritarian imagination. From Critical Theory’s investigation into the patriarchal imago of the fascist super-father to their analysis of the increasingly impersonal regimentation of everyday life, I trace the intellectual history of the authoritarian character and use interpretive inquiry to establish theoretical linkages unrealized in the concept’s development. I explore further the authoritarian’s relationship with the anonymous god, the role of aggression and libidinal attachment in unconscious collusion, and the archaic imago that Critical Theory failed to excavate by limiting their analysis to a critique of the father. I call into question the inevitability of social domination by challenging top-down explanations for submission and command, including claims of supernatural immutability as they are tied to the unseen. In my conclusion, I suggest that the anonymous god operates as an alibi, jettisoning human agency and denying responsibility by appealing to an unalterable social order before which the adherent can only submit.