You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The character trait called hypocrisy is a particular blend between submission and aggression the reasons for which, as Bergler shows in three cases, are unconscious. A tyrannical father asked more lip service than inner conviction. The result was masochistic submission and pseudo-acceptance which carried retaliation in the form of hypocrisy toward the tyrant. The masochistic desire to be mistreated was the deeper motivation of the hypocritical attitude. Hypocrisy is a mechanism which acts in the unconscious ego that is in a constant conflict with the superego. The ego is weak but at the same time elastic and cunning and unable to renounce its intense narcissism. The superego follows the pattern of the educator who tyrannically enforces his rules with no regard as to whether the acceptance is real or feigned. The ego then outsmarts the superego through pseudo-acceptance. The superego is ridiculed in its own house, so to speak; the typical rôle of ego and superego is reversed. This inner struggle is externalized by projection upon innocent victims. Only in this respect is hypocrisy conscious. The action against the superego is always repressed. The constant fight against the educator who has been first introjected and then projected gives the impression of aggressiveness. Unconsciously, the hypocrite is a very passive person who fights desperately to disguise his passivity. The writer indicates that the 'mechanism of hypocrisy' has some bearing on certain groups of criminal actions which express aggression toward the 'hypocritical' society.