Abstract

The social function of violence was described from the early beginnings of social research - not only in studies of in prejudice. But with the study Autorität und Familie, which was published in 1936, and The Authoritarian Personality, which was published in 1950, the strong connection between violence and subjectivation was figured out as a critique of the society. In this article the thesis of a „secondary authoritarian“ dynamic is developed. Firstly, the empirical findings of the „Mitte“-Studies, a longitudinal research project measuring right wing extremist attitudes in Germany, will be presented to underpin in second step the function of a strong economy: as an authority economy is using force to integrate each individual into modern society. In this understanding right-wing extremist attitudes give a deeper insight into a society as well as into an individual’s prejudices. The society itself is highlighted with psychoanalytical social psychology: it is not research in individual behaviour but in the dynamic of a market society. With the concept of the ‚Secondary Authoritarianism‘, the contemporary social dynamic could be understood as failed process of secularisation.