Trump has the classic authoritarian personality – not the same as being authoritarian, writes Mary Wilkinson, plus, letters by Tom Brown, Jim Hatley, Sally Burch and Alison Routh
Jonathan Freedland’s comments about Donald Trump highlighted two Trumps: the shoot-from-the-hip tough guy and the supplicant at the court of Vladimir Putin (Trump is the world’s greatest showman – and the weakest strongman it has ever seen, 21 February). Isn’t he an example of the authoritarian personality (not to be confused with being authoritarian)?
Rupert Wilkinson’s 1972 book The Broken Rebel explored the subject. Some of the characteristics of the authoritarian personality that he listed are submission to a strong, admired authority; aggressive hostility to people in authority whose traits he resents, often as a result of being dominated himself in childhood or to compensate for a sense of weakness; open hostility to outsiders and admiration for his own side; a desire to be strong, to hold power and assert it aggressively; detests ambiguity and uncertainty; craves simple solutions and obvious results.
Mary Wilkinson
London
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