Wilhelm Reich, Forcing Elephants Into Foxholes

Abstract The case of fascism, in contrast to liberalism and genuine revolution, is quite different. Its essence embodies neither the surface nor the depth, but by and large the second, intermediate character layer of secondary drives. When this book was first written, fascism was generally regarded as a ‘political party’, which, as other ‘social groups’, advocated an organized ‘political idea’. According to this appraisal the fascist party was instituting fascism by means of force or through ‘political manreuvre’. Contrary to this, my medical experiences with men and women of various classes, races, nations, religious beliefs, etc., taught me that ‘fascism’ is only the organized political expression of the structure of the average man’s character, a structure that is confined neither to certain races or nations nor to certain parties, but is general and international. Viewed with respect to man’s character, ‘fascism’ is the basic emotional attitude of the suppressed man of our authoritarian machine civilization and its mechanistic-mystical conception oflife.