Contesting the Far Right: A Psychoanalytic and Feminist Critical Theory Approach by Claudia Leeb (review)

Claudia Leeb’s new book is an important contribution to the study of contemporary forms of far-right politics and fascist propaganda. This work of critical political theory advances a Freudo-Marxist analysis to suggest that economic and psychological explanations should be articulated together if we want to arrive at a fuller, more accurate appreciation of why fascist propaganda works, and how the new far right is able to gain mass support. Carefully delineating what this strand of interpretation may offer to the analysis of contemporary rightwing resurgence, Leeb then brings these insights to bear on four different “case studies”: Trump supporters, especially as reflected in Arlie Hochschild’s interviews in Strangers in Their Own Land; the alt-right culture of “tendentious” jokes; the Austrian Freedom Party; and Martin Sellner’s propagandistic writ - ings in the Austrian Identitarian Movement. Selected and paired because of the author’s own biography and interests, these cases form a constellation that presents an important opportunity to think about far-right politics both more contextually and more comparatively. Each of these case studies offers theory in action , as it were; collectively, they enrich our understanding of the psychic foundations of fascism and its mechanisms for generating popular support in the present. My focus will be on the theorical approach Leeb advances in the book, since this approach cuts across the instances she analyzes and offers a coherent framework whose significance goes beyond these specific cases. Theoretically, Leeb’s starting point is Freudian psychoanalysis and Ador - noian critical theory, especially the ways in which Adorno draws from Freud to analyze how individuals become more susceptible to fascist propaganda. She weaves these strands together with a Marxist critique of capitalism that emphasizes the objective and subjective harms it inflicts on the working classes. At the outset, I would like to underline that while psychoanalysis does the heavy lifting of