Rokeach found attitude change at the study site (a mental hospital located in Ypsilanti Michigan)—though we wonder at what cost the attitude change took place. Did psychological damage accompany the gradual realization of each man that they were not Christ. One of us [WB] witnessed something that closely resembles that which occurred in Ypsilanti. He was working at a mental hospital in Boston Massachusetts during the early 1960s. One of his patients believed that she was Jacqueline Kennedy. Then the president was shot. My patient had to deal with the fact that her husband was now dead. What had been a protective illusion for this woman (who had lived a life of domestic abuse and trauma) had suddenly been shattered. She was once again abused. Violence had once again visited her psyche. I witnessed the horrible suffering that followed the death of this patient’s loved “husband”. We witnessed not only her grieving of a dead husband but also the grieving of a dead illusion. We can imagine what the suffering was like for the three Christs of Ypsilanti.
Neuropsychological Perspectives: Antonio Damasio
While most of the attention (and bias) associated with the study of authoritarianism has tended over the years to be focused on the cognitive systems associated with this phenomenon, the neurobiologists have weighed in (at least indirectly) during the past two decades as they explore the internal mechanisms of the brain in processing information and in seeking to integrate thoughts and feelings (especially as related to human interactions). Antonio Damasio has been at the forefront of this emergent social neurobiology field. We are attending to his work because Damasio has focused on this integration in Feeling and Knowing (Damasio,2021) – which provides us with further insights regarding the rigid single-mindedness of authoritarians.
We should first note that Damasio adds a third element to his analysis of feelings and thoughts. His third element is Being. This third element, in fact, represents the first stage in what Damasio identifies as evolutionary stages. As our consciousness evolved as human beings, we were first able to acknowledge our own existence (“being”) as independent sentient beings. Then came feelings and thought.
Feelings as Bridge from Being to Thinking I: Damasio identifies and honors the critical role played by feelings in the life of all sentient species and in the evolution of human consciousness. He (Damasio, 2021, p. 28) notes that:
Feelings provide organisms with experiences of their own life. Specifically, they provide the owner organism with a scaled assessment of its relative success at living . . .
Even at this early point, we begin to glean some insights from Damasio regarding the source of an authoritarian perspective. If feelings provide one with a sense of relative life success, then what is likely to be the impact of someone’s sense that their life is a failure (because of the “enemy’s powerful and malevolent impact”) and that they are prevented from entering the community of those who have the power as a member of the undeserving “elite”?
Unconventional Feelings: Damasio devotes a considerable amount of attention to his neurobiologically-based conclusions regarding the nature of feelings—and the power they hold in the functioning of the human being. He (Damasio,2021, p. 76) indicates that:
Feelings are interactive perceptions. Compared with visual perceptions—the canonical example of perception—feelings are unconventional. Feelings gather their signals “inside the organism” and even “inside the objects located in that inside” rather than simply around the organism. Feelings depict actions that occur in our interior, as well as their consequences, and let us catch a glimpse of the viscera involved in those actions. Little wonder that feelings exert a special power over us.
Thus, the feelings of an authoritarian that are associated with an alienated and failed life are likely to be particularly powerful and determinative.
