Sentence:  We need not take certain events, particularly concerning his father, Max, and his mother's religiosity, quite so far as Arthur Mitzman in order to recognize Weber's <WSD>dread fascination</WSD> with the role played in some bourgeois personalities by ultimate, absolutistic values and otherwise irrational vectors. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An obsessive interest in something that evokes feelings of fear or that hurts the person with the interest.