The application of the basic findings of psychoanalysis to the problems of social psychology—the field to which Freud himself devoted so much time in his later years—daily becomes more widespread and fruitful. Here is a little book written with a great deal of stylistic charm, which succinctly and systematically derives many of the basic characteristics of fascist mentality from the theory of personality structure and psychosexual genesis. Widespread circulation of such a book should do much to overcome for all time the criticisms that one still hears from some social scientists about the 'individualistic' bias of psychoanalysis. For here in eight brief and well organized chapters a much more scientific, as well as plausible, explanation is advanced as to how men come to believe in and function under the tenets of fascism than is to be found in many of the much longer and complicated treatises of historians, economists, and political scientists.

Starting from the thesis that all government represents the acceptance