ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to unpack the internal process of emotional engineering behind the Cultural Revolution and argue that the transmission of Mao’s persecutory anxiety activated the persecutory feeling in the Chinese, which then manifested itself in people’s reactions. To address this issue, first, the theories of persecutory anxiety developed by Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein are selectively expanded on. The analytic part of the chapter shows how Mao Zedong was the key source of this anxiety and how—during the ten years before the Cultural Revolution—his sense of persecution subsequently intensified persecutory feelings among his people. Then, the persecutory anxiety transmission is shown with the use of selected newspaper and radio propaganda from the period. Next, the chapter’s focus shifts to the class struggle, the cult of Mao, and to the unleashing of people’s violence as manifestations of the masses’ psychic defences against persecutory anxiety and fear of death. The discussion is concluded by emphasising the psychical resonance between the leader and the masses as one of the chief contributions to the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution.
