The purpose of this paper is to outline and examine a few basic functions which ideology performs for the individual and for society. In order to progress in this direction, it might help to agree on some basic conceptual definitions. To begin with, some effort must be made to arrive at a satisfactory definition of ideology, since that term occupies a rather central place in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This article analyzes the responses of business executives and mental hospital patients on the ideological survey. This study investigates ideological composition in institutionalized psychiatric patients characterized by vocational inadaptability and general existential failure. Empirical experience indicate that inadaptable people tend to subscribe to defensive ideologies rationalizing their failures. In particular, the Rand-Branden position postulates an ideological syndrome characteristic of "The Disabled Man" as cited in an earlier paper describing the rationale of construction of "The Ideological Survey."