Trumps Massenwirkung aus sozioanalytischer und psychoanalytischer Perspektive. Zur Triangulation beider Konzepte

Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s assessment that socioanalysis forms the complementary counterpart to psychoanalysis, the question is raised as to whether and how socioanalysis and psychoanalysis can be combined in empirical research. This methodological question is examined on the basis of Trump’s populist performances. First, Trump’s political actions are examined from the epistemic perspective of socioanalysis, drawing on Bourdieu’s writings on politics. It becomes clear that the manifest meaning of his words, that he is fighting for the people against the establishment, is also effective because it simultaneously makes social power relations unconscious and draws on a social unconscious that has been socially reproduced for hundreds of years. Trump’s mass staging will then be examined from the epistemic perspective of psychoanalysis. An exemplary text passage from his speech on the storming of the Capitol in January 2021 will be analyzed. The investigation, which takes place in the research field of psychoanalytical social psychology, is carried out with the help of the depth hermeneutic cultural analysis developed by Alfred Lorenzer, which reveals the hidden meaning of the speech through its effect on a group of researchers. While the manifest meaning of the speech emphasizes that it is a disgrace that the Democrats stole the election from Trump, the latent meaning of the words, that Americans would run around like headless chickens after the election, arouses deep fears and feelings of powerlessness that trigger anger. Finally, the paper discusses how the research findings of socioanalytic and psychoanalytic reconstruction can be related to each other on a socialization-theoretical level of meaning.