From Utopian Fantasies to Modern Egalitarian Rage: Why Mises’s Provocative ‘Fourier Complex’ Still Explains the Psychology of Anticapitalism Depicting Socialism as a Consolation to the Discontented — a “Saving Lie” Against Life’s Disappointments.

Introduction

Ludwig von Mises, the Austrian economist and classical liberal, coined the term Fourier complex in his 1927 book Liberalism: A Socio-Economic Exposition, in the chapter “The Psychological Roots of Antiliberalism.” The phrase refers to a pathological psychological syndrome that, in Mises’s view, explained the enduring allure of utopian socialism. Borrowing the name from Charles Fourier — the 19th-century French utopian thinker — Mises argued that anti-capitalist sentiment was rarely grounded in rational critique. Instead, it stemmed from envy, resentment, and neurotic illusions about a world of effortless equality.

Mises saw the Fourier complex not just as an intellectual error but as a psychological neurosis, resistant to logic and argument. His analysis carried across Socialism (1922/1936), Liberalism (1927), and The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (1956), framing socialism as a “saving lie” embraced by those unwilling to face the frustrations of real life.

This essay traces Mises’s use of the Fourier complex across these works: first in Liberalism, where the idea takes shape; second, in his critique of Fourier’s visions in Socialism; and finally, in his broader diagnosis of intellectual anti-capitalism in The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality.

The Fourier Complex in Liberalism (1927)

In Liberalism, Mises makes the argument most directly. In the section “The Psychological Roots of Antiliberalism,” he distinguishes between two forms of anti-capitalist resentment. The first — plain envy — he thinks can be confronted by reason:

“Resentment is at work when one so hates somebody for his more favorable circumstances that one is prepared to bear heavy losses if only the hated one might also come to harm. Many of those who attack capitalism know very well that their situation under any other economic system will be less favorable. Nevertheless…they advocate socialism, because they hope that the rich, whom they envy, will also suffer under it.” (Liberalism, p. 14)

Such resentment, Mises concedes, may be mitigated by rational argument, since one can demonstrate that harming others does not improve one’s own lot.

But the Fourier complex, he insists, is deeper and more intractable:

“The Fourier complex is much harder to combat. What is involved in this case is a serious disease of the nervous system, a neurosis, which is more properly the concern of the psychologist than of the legislator.” (Liberalism, p. 15)

Here Mises invokes Freud, noting that psychoanalysis revealed how delusions function as “saving lies” — emotional crutches resistant to logic. Socialism, he argues, works exactly this way:

“The neurotic clings to his ‘saving lie,’ and when he must make the choice of renouncing either it or logic, he prefers to sacrifice logic. For life would be unbearable for him without the consolation that he finds in the idea of socialism.” (Liberalism, p. 17)

In short, the Fourier complex provides the discontented individual with both a scapegoat (“capitalism is to blame for my failures”) and a hope of vindication (“socialism will bring me the success I deserve”). For Mises, this made anti-capitalist ideology not a reasoned position but a neurosis.

Fourier’s Utopia in Socialism (1922/1936)

Although the specific phrase “Fourier complex” appears only later, Socialism anticipates the analysis by treating Fourier as the archetype of utopian delusion. Mises recounts Fourier’s bizarre predictions — “anti-lions” tamed for riding, “anti-whales” to tow ships, work transformed into play for children — and concludes that Fourier had “introduced the fairies into social science.”

The deeper issue, Mises argues, is not the fanciful imagery but the underlying assumptions:

1. Unlimited resources — nature will provide abundance without scarcity.
2. Work as pleasure — labor will cease to be burdensome and become “life’s prime want.”

These assumptions, Mises stresses, were later inherited by Marxism. Engels’s promises of liberated labor and Marx’s claim that in higher communism “labour has become the first need of life” merely echoed Fourier in pseudo-scientific language. Thus:

“Marxism…never has anything different to advance from what Fourier, the ‘utopian,’ had to offer.” (Liberalism, p. 16)

Fourier’s visions, in Mises’s diagnosis, were not harmless fantasies but evidence of psychological pathology. Only a “theory of neurosis,” he concludes, could explain their popularity.

The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (1956): Extending the Diagnosis

Nearly three decades later, Mises extended the concept in The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality. There, he focused less on Fourier himself and more on modern intellectuals and artists who despise capitalism. Again, the diagnosis is psychological: resentment and wounded pride at the market’s refusal to reward them as they believe they deserve.

Intellectuals, Mises wrote, “dismiss the activities of businessmen as unintellectual money-making” while ignoring the rational and creative skill required to succeed in enterprise. Like Fourier’s disciples, they cling to a saving lie: that their lack of recognition is capitalism’s fault, and that socialism would elevate their status.

Thus, the Fourier complex becomes a general explanation for the persistence of anti-capitalism among those who materially benefit from capitalism itself.

Why the Fourier Complex Still Matters

Mises’s pathologizing of anti-capitalism was — and remains — provocative. By classifying utopian socialism as a neurosis, he suggested that arguments about economic calculation alone were insufficient. The resilience of egalitarian fantasies was psychological, not logical.

This insight resonates today in the persistence of leveling ideologies that prioritize “bringing down billionaires” even at the cost of overall prosperity. The willingness to prefer equality in poverty over inequality in abundance mirrors precisely the attitude Mises described:

“Socialists say that even material want will be easier to bear in a socialist society because people will realize that no one is better off than his neighbor.” (Liberalism, p. 14)

Whether one agrees with Mises or not, the Fourier complex remains a powerful frame for analyzing the emotional appeal of radical egalitarian movements — both in his time and ours.

Conclusion

Mises’s Fourier complex is not a mere polemical flourish but a sustained attempt to integrate economics, psychology, and cultural criticism. In Socialism, he dismantled Fourier’s utopia as delusional; in Liberalism, he named the pathology and tied it to Freud’s notion of neurosis; in The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, he extended it to modern intellectual hostility toward capitalism.

The diagnosis remains unsettling: socialism, in Mises’s view, thrives not because of its logic but because it offers consolation to the discontented — a “saving lie” against life’s disappointments. That insight continues to spark debate about the roots of anti-capitalist thought and the psychological undercurrents of political ideology.

Sources:

• Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism: The Classical Tradition (1927), in The Psychological Roots of Antiliberalism, esp. pp. 13–17. https://cdn.mises.org/Liberalism%20In%20the%20Classical%20Tradition_3.pdf
• Ludwig von Mises, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1922, 1936 ed.), Part II, Chapter 8, “The Social Order and the Family,” on Fourier’s utopia and labor, esp. pp. 204–211.
• Ludwig von Mises, The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (1956), on the resentment of intellectuals and the psychological critique of anti-capitalism.
• Charles Fourier’s doctrines as summarized and critiqued by Mises, and Engels/Marx utopian statements.
• Raico, Ralph. “Mises on Fascism, Democracy, and Other Questions,” Journal of Libertarian Studies 12, no.1 (1996): commentary on Mises’s view of irrational anti-capitalist sentiment and Schumpeter’s agreement.
• Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951), on the psychology of the frustrated and their antipathy to free society.
• Jim Fedako, “Should We Loot the Rich? — The Fourier Complex,” The Free Market 25, no.10 (Mises Institute, Nov 2007), summarizing Mises’s Fourier complex as extreme egalitarian envy.