Contesting the Far Right : A Psychoanalytic Critical Theory Approach

Millions of people in the United States and Europe have responded to the negative effects of neoliberal capitalism--isolation, alienation, economic insecurity--by turning to extreme right movements. Claudia Leeb argues that early Frankfurt School (including Adorno, Margarete and Alexander Mitscherlich, Fromm, Leo Loewenthal, and Norbert Guterman) and feminist (such as Wendy Brown, Nancy Fraser, and Robyn Marasco) theorists can provide analytical tools to help explain the complex interaction of economic and psychological factors involved in this large-scale social and political shift. The extreme right has been able to take advantage of what Albena Azmanova calls economic precarity," which affects all labor classes, by emphasizing and exploiting feelings of failure and anxiety resulting from inabilities to achieve high standards of economic success and heteronormative masculinity. By removing inhibitions against aggression toward "inferior" groups, women and minorities, who are seen as the cause of economic and sexual distress, it fosters a form of collective belonging that restores a positive sense of self among group followers. Leeb compares cases such as the appeal of the Alt-Right to American millennials and the growing electoral success of the Freedom Party in Austria, along with illustrative literary examples (such as Ishiguro and Hochschild), to demonstrate how her analysis can be applied broadly and historically, and she suggests approaches to counter the ability of the extreme right to recruit and retain new followers"--

• | Author: Claudia Leeb
• | Publisher: Columbia University Press
• | Publication Date: Apr 23, 2024
• | Number of Pages: NA pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0231213077
• | ISBN-13: 9780231213073