精神分析是一個充滿了對現實社會挑戰的學問，權威人格則昃一個反映了政治態 度的觀念。五十年來的相關研究成百上千，動員了不知多少大學一年級的新鮮人當實驗對象 ，也彩納了日新月異的統計方法，但精神分析與權威人格兩者結合所產生的政治效應，大致 未隨著時間的增多而改變。權威人格理論自始就帶著猶太裔左派知識分子的色彩，後來雖然 廣泛應用，甚至也解釋了社會主義中國的政治發展經驗，但畢竟中國不代表歐洲社會主義的 主流，所以並沒有淡化這個理論的核心關懷，以致於即令是對六○年代末期學生運動的分析 ，都引起了這派學者的反彈，因為把有社會主義傾向的學生看成是自戀性格，令他們很難接 受。站在權威人格理論的初衷，被分析的應該是右派（即反社會主義）的種族主義（即反猶 太主義）者。一個新的面向在八○年代中期之後加入了，發生在南斯拉夫（與其他各地）的 屠殺、種族認同問題的復甦，與後現代主義的蔓延，正在逐漸改變著當前學術界的政治生態 ，則權威人格研究恐怕又將獲得新的生機。　

　　　　　Studies on authoritarian personality and their psychoanalytical origin have been controversial throughout the century. The controversy has to do both with the political implications of these studies as well as their methodology and epistemology. The concept of authoritarian personality began as an explanation of the rise of fascism and later became an analytical approach to conservatism, orthodoxy, rebellion, and ethnocentrism. Analysts who do not belong to the left-wing, Jewish tradition first confronted the logic of authoritarian personality, yet gradually learned to apply the concept to the study of socialist development as a peculiar way of rebuttal. More recent discussion has included the notion of narcissism and extended the scholarly interests to include the study of the so-called postmodern personality, which is believed by some to share many of the abnormal characters of the authoritarian personality. This article selectively reviews the literature and examines its theoretical potential for future development.