Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto: 1970) follows a police detective who, after killing a woman named Augusta during sexual intercourse, leaves a number of clues that may lead to his being identified. The detective – the character who should be mentally lucid, restore order and be on the side of the law – is a psychopath, who uses his power to pervert the course of justice and re-assert his position of authority in the face of evidence that proves his culpability. As a representative of the authoritarian state, the detective presents himself like the ideal father figure of the patriarchal family. During a speech in front of his colleagues at the police headquarters, he argues for the need to treat the masses like children. For him, common citizens should be protected by means of repression from their dangerous quest for freedom. As a study of how the authoritarian mentality operates, Investigation uses a typically Reichian model. According to this model, the state functions as a macro-structure of the patriarchal family, in which the leader acts as an ideal father figure and the masses are encouraged to submit to his authority like his children. Prompted to trust him completely, the people sustain his absolute power and confer on him the duty to protect them. Dispossessed of any agency that might allow them to question the ‘father's’ actions, the ‘children’ learn to feel unconditional respect for him and to fear his authority.

In the model described by Wilhelm Reich, the authoritarian type experiences a strong identification with the father, the basis for future identification with any authority. Even though Reich did not openly address the question of gender, the film makes it explicit that this is a quintessentially male experience. By using the Oedipal model of the patriarchal family to describe the structuring of the authoritarian state, Investigation follows the detective's plan to conceal any manifestation of weakness and vulnerability behind a bullish semblance of strength and self-assurance. The film illustrates the distinctive patriarchal connotations of the institutional power upon which the detective's authority rests.