Registration: office@exilforschung.ac.at
Else Frenkel-Brunswik (1908–1958) may be known to some as one of
the co-authors of the famous study The Authoritarian Personality
by Theodor W. Adorno and others. However, as was the case with
other Austrian sociologists such as Marie Jahoda and Maria Hertz
Levinson, Frenkel-Brunswik’s role in empirical research remained
seldom discussed in later reception. Along with their names, a
specific influence was forgotten that had significantly shaped this
research — a distinct combination of empirical sociology, (social)
psychology and psychoanalysis that had emerged in Vienna in the
period before World War II and was expelled during Austrofascism
and Nazism.
The symposium invites international experts to explore the work of
Else Frenkel-Brunswik, in particular her research on authoritarianism,
and the legacy of this research for the social sciences today.