I’m incredibly sympathetic to your point. I agree that fascism is a social illness, in the sense that it’s a mental dysfunction with a high potential of social contagion.

But I believe fascism should be classified as a mental disorder. It is much more illuminating when trying to understand fascist behavior, and is much more effective when engaging with fascists. This is especially true in comparison to the status quo, which is to treat it merely as an ideology, similar to capitalism or communism. When you see a fascist as someone with an addiction-based behavioral disorder where the focus of their addiction is power, their individual behavior and group history make much more sense.

I believe fascists should be opposed with violence, but the most humane and effective solution in the long term to exterminating fascism is to eliminate food insecurity, provide housing for all, and free medical support for both physical and mental ailments. The opposites of these things are sources of fear that plague all people, and in addition to this fear metastasizing into fascist movements, it is also an influencing factor in a number of other anti-social behaviors and mental afflictions. I believe if we can survive this era of fascist contagion and build an egalitarian society, we can solve the problem of fascism completely. I think there’s a precedent for this in the role that scientific public education has in curtailing disappearing penis delusional disorder, for example. Many mental disorders have strong social and environmental components, and can be mitigated with social and environmental solutions.

My classification is not a rhetorical flourish, meant to attach the stigma of mental illness on to a group I personally abhor. It’s the observation cribbed from Umberto Eco that ideologies of a type have tenets of their platform in common, but fascist movements don’t have any broad principled agreements – not between each other, and even fundamentally change their own stated tenets given time and motivation. Instead they’re easier to identify using symptomatic features. The implication is that fascism is a disorder masquerading as a philosophy.

My opinion is also bolstered by Bob Altemeyer who studied authoritarian personalities in a clinical setting. His research makes a very good case that people with particular temperaments are predisposed to be more susceptible than others to fascist leaders and ideas, and that fear is a trigger. His freely available book The Authoritarians is a very illuminating read.

I don’t blame you for assuming from context that my statement was an insensitive slur. I hope this essay somewhat convinces you that it comes from a place of empathy, even for our enemies. I do want to clarify that empathy for the victims of fascism takes priority over empathy for fascists, and energy should not be spent recuperating fascists when it could be more effectively used to defeat them and protect their victims. But ultimate victory over fascism means understanding its causes and sources, and that requires viewing fascists as people also.

Psychiatry has a blind spot in its focus on making people ‘better-adjusted’ to living in a crapsack world. Mental healthcare is provided usually when a disorder causes productivity problems at work. I think our classification of fascism is hampered because the delusions of individual fascists usually don’t reduce their traditionally-measured productivity in a workplace environment.

Thank you for standing up and speaking out for people with mental illness. Social stigmatization of mental illness is a subject I have a little knowledge about, but I don’t have a personal connection to it, and am interested in your feedback on my admittedly unconventional position. I hope clarification in my defense doesn’t discourage you from speaking up again in a similar context. Empathy and this type of solidarity definitely need to be the core of anti-fascism.