COGNITION AND IDEOLOGY - A RHETORICAL APPROACH TO CRITICAL-THEORY

Extracts of an argument which defended the assassination of the popula r South African leader, Chris Hani, are used to show variability in th e style of fascist cognition. Such variability, although compatible wi th current dialogical models of thinking, contradicts the theoretical predictions of the classical social psychological theory of the author itarian personality. Furthermore, it undermines this traditional attem pt to develop a psychological critique of fascism because the emergent nature of cognitive processing means that a pervasive psychological i rrationality cannot underlie fascist thinking. In particular, fascists cannot be described as intolerant of ambiguity. It seems that once ag ain the postmodern understanding of an emergent self leads to an anti- critical relativism. In this paper I develop a Bakhtinian understandin g of cognitive style in order to advance an alternative approach to a critical social psychology. I argue that research may gain a critical impulse by analysing forms of utterance in terms of the social languag es through which they ventriloquate.