Looking into the Hearts of the Workers, or: How Erich Fromm Turned Critical Theory into Empirical Research

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Abstract
This paper provides an appraisal of the first opinion survey which applied modern psychological methods to the investigation of electoral and political behavior. The survey was conducted from 1929 to 1931 among white-collar and blue-collar workers in Weimar Germany. Despite questions of authorship, purpose, ideological biases, and technical problems, it warrants attention not only as a historical document; it also constitutes a provocative example of empirical research which can still provide food for thought for today's students of political psychology. It (a) demonstrates how opinion surveys can be inspired by psychoanalytic technique; (b) proposes a reasonable way of assessing the depth of democratic commitment; (c) advances a nonreductionist hypothesis concerning the interrelation of personality and politics; (d) takes into account internal contradictions in political attitudes and behavior; (e) relates to respondents as active subjects embedded in a network of social relations; and (f) puts to use intuitions from past and present political theory.

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