The False Alchemy of Totalitarianism: Savitri Devi, Mao, and the Work Turned Outward
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This essay examines the symbolic and psychological parallels between Savitri Devi's esoteric interpretation of National Socialism and Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution through the framework of C. G. Jung's analytical psychology and alchemical symbolism. Although emerging from opposing ideological traditions, both movements are examined as systems of collective purification in which political violence assumes the character of transformative necessity. Drawing upon Jungian concepts of the shadow, projection, individuation, and the alchemical opus, the essay argues that totalitarian movements externalise the psychological work of confronting the self, transforming perceived impurities into political enemies and collective violence into an imagined process of renewal. Through a comparative analysis of political mythology and the psychological mechanisms of ideological identification, the essay considers how the promise of collective transformation can become a substitute for individual psychological integration.
Author: Goldt, Ys
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225339595