Donald Trump and the Paranoid Position

Abstract

This article situates Trump in the context of what Daniel Bell called the New American Right and analyzes the mass or group psychological basis of his charisma. Originating with McCarthyism, the New American Right was a reaction to the New Deal—a defense of the “real,” that is, rural, America against urban elites and immigrants. Richard Hofstadter’s famous characterization of the New American Right as “paranoid” drew on the Frankfurt School yet remained essentially descriptive. To deepen Hofstadter’s idea, I utilize Melanie Klein’s distinction between the paranoid (schizoid) and depressive (intersubjective) positions. This distinction helps clarify the difference between the mass psychologies of right-wing and left-wing movements, including in our time. By describing Trump’s relation to his followers, I explicate the paranoid basis of his movement’s violence and provide some clues to its underlying dynamics. Finally, I identify the liberal antagonism to mass movements as a weakness in the struggle against Trumpism.