Propaganda is a centuries-old term, and yet scholars and practitioners are still having a hard time defining it and pinpointing what makes propaganda unique. Many existing definitions fail to distinguish between propaganda and marketing, public relations, advertising, or even mass communications, in general. This essay proposes to define propaganda through psychoanalytical research pioneered by Erich Fromm on symbiotic relations. Symbiotic relations, when transferred from biology to psychology and sociology, describe a process of allowing a person to merge with something big and important, therefore creating meaning beyond an individual’s life. As a result, following its religious roots, propaganda acts similar to religion—asking for a sacrifice of individualism in the name of something bigger—god, country, society, or political party. In the end, people willingly engage in propaganda because, although sacrificing something, they receive unity with the bigger powers of other people, organizations, political parties, countries, and so on. As a result, such persons are not alone against the world; they are now a part of a bigger and stronger union.

中文翻译：

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定义宣传：一种心理分析的观点

宣传是一个世纪的名词，但是学者和从业人员仍然很难定义它，并查明是什么使宣传与众不同。通常，许多现有的定义无法区分宣传和市场营销，公共关系，广告乃至大众传播。本文建议通过埃里希·弗洛姆（Erich Fromm）开展的关于共生关系的心理分析研究来界定宣传。共生关系，当从生物学转移到心理学和社会学时，描述了一个过程，允许一个人与重要的事物融合，从而创造超出个人生活意义的意义。结果，宣传的根源是宗教，宗教，国家，社会或政党，它们的行为与宗教类似，要求以更大的名义牺牲个人主义。到底，人们愿意进行宣传，因为尽管他们牺牲了一些东西，但他们得到了其他人，组织，政党，国家等更大权力的团结。结果，这些人并不孤单与世界对抗。他们现在是更大更强大联盟的一部分。