THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO ANALYTI CAL -
LIBRARY No. 6
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THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO ANALYTI CAL -
LIBRARY No. 6
THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST JONES, M.D.
No. 6
GROUP PSYCHOLOGY AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE EGO SIGMUND FREUD,
MD., LL.D.
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY
JAMES STRACHEY
FIFTH IMPRESSION
LONDON THE HOGARTH PRESS, 42 WILLL\M IV STREET. W.C.2 AND THE INSTITUTE OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 1949
BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF qnriAi x^/r^oir
PUBLISHED BY
The Hogarth Press Ltd LONDON Clarke, Irwin
&
Co. Ltd
TORONTO
This Translation First published
1922
Second Impression
1
940
Third Impression
1
945
Fourth Impression 1948 Fifth Impression f.OPYRIC.HT
PRINTED
IN
1949
GREAT BRITAIN BY
LOWE AND BRYDONE PRINTERS
LTD.,
cr t.
LONDON, N.VV.IO
173
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
A
comparison of the following pages with the
German
original {^Massenpsychologie
und Ich-Analyse,
Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, Vienna, 192 i) will show that certain passages have been transferred
the English version from the text to the footnotes. This alteration has been carried out at the author's in
express desire. technical
All
terms
have
been
accordance with the Glossary to be
translated
published
as
in
a
supplement to the International Jo7irnal of PsychoAnalysis
.
J.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
s.
CONTENTS
I
II
Introduction
Le
.
.
.
.
Bon's Description of the Group
Mind
in
Other Accounts of Collective Mental Life
IV
Suggestion and Libido
V Two VI
Artificial
Further Problems and Lines of
i/VII
Identification
^YSl
Being
IX
X XI
Xn
Groups: the Church and the
in
Love and Hypnosis
The Herd
Instinct
The Group and
A
Work
the Primal
....
Differentiating
Postscript
Horde
Grade
in the
Ego
Army
GROUP PSYCHOLOGY AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE EGO I
INTRODUCTION
The
contrast between Individual Psychology and Social ^
Group Psychology, which at a first glance may seem to be full of significance, loses a great deal of its sharpness when it is examined -more closely. or
It
true
is
that
Psychology is concerned and explores the paths by
Individual
with the individual
man
which he seeks to find only rarely and under
satisfaction for his instincts;
certain
exceptional
but
conditions
Individual Psychology in a position to disregard the relations of this individual to others. In the individual's is
mental
to
life
someone
else
is
invariably
involved,
as a
* P Group' is used throughout this translation as equivalent the rather more comprehensive German Masse\ The author ^
latter word to render both McDougall's 'group', and Bon's ^foule\ which would more naturally be translated 'crowd '-in English. For the sake of uniformity, however, 'group' has been preferred in this case as well, and has been substituted
uses also
this
Le
for 'crowd'
Le Bon.
even
in
— Translator
the extracts from the English translation of ?[
2
Grotip Psychology
and
the Analysis of the
Ego
an object, as a helper, as an opponent, and so from the ver}^ first Individual Psychology is at as
model,
same time
—
Psychology as well in this extended but entirely justifiable sense of the words. The relations of an individual to his parents and
the
to his brothers
and to have
Social
and
sisters,
been
the
— physician
his
hitherto
analytic
fact
in
research — may
to the object of his love, all
chief
claim
the relations which
to
be
of
psychoconsidered as
subject
in this respect they may be with certain other contrasted processes, described b}^ in which the satisfaction of the narcissistic us as
social
phenomena; and '
'
,
instincts
is
partially
social
and
them
'autistic'
totally
withdrawn
from the
The contrast between people. Bleuler would perhaps call
other
of
influence
or
— — mental
narcissistic
acts
therefore
falls
wholly
domain of Individual Psycholog}^ and is not well calculated to differentiate it from a Social within
the
or
Group Psychology. The individual in the relations w^hich have already been mentioned to his parents and to his brothers and sisters, to the person he is in love with, to his comes under the influence friend, and to his physician of only a single person, or of a ver}^ small number of persons, each one of whom has become enormously
—
—
important
to
Group Psychology relations
Now
him. it
has
in
speaking
become
on one side and to
of Social
or
usual to leave these
isolate as the subject of
Introduction
is
may
large
of people simultaneously,
is
Psychology
man
by a
individual
people with whom connected by something, though otherwise they in many respects be strangers to him. Groups
number he
an
of
inquirv^ the influencing
3
as a
therefore concerned with the individual'
member
of a race, of a nation, of a caste,
of a profession, of an
or as a
institution,
component
>
part of a crowd of people who have been organised into a group at some particular time for some definite purpose. When once natural continuity has been severed in this w^ay, it is easy to regard the pheno-
mena
that appear
under
being expressions of further
reducible,
a
these special
special
conditions as
instinct
the social instinct
that
is
not
('herd instinct',
'group mind'), which does not come to other situations. But we may perhaps
light in
any
venture to
object that it seems difficult to attribute to the factor of number a significance so great as to make it capable by itself of arousing in our mental life a new instinct that
is
pectation
otherwise is
possibilities:
not
therefore
Our exbrought into play. directed towards two other
that the social
instinct
may
not
be a
primitive one and insusceptible of dissection, and that it may be possible to discover the beginnings of its
development
in
a narrow^er
circle,
such as that of the
family.
it
Although Group Psychology is only in its infancy, embraces an immense number of separate issues
\ ^
4
Group Psychology and
and
offers to investigators
have hitherto from
one
different forms of
a great
countless
even been
not
another.
of the mental
the Analysis of the
problems
properly
The mere
Ego which
distinguished of the
classification
group formation and the description
phenomena produced by them
expenditure
and
of observation
and have already given
rise to
a
require
exposition,
copious* literature. dimensions of this
Anyone who compares the narrow will little book with the extent of Group Psychology at once be able to guess that only a few points chosen from the whole material are to be dealt
And
will
they which the
in fact only
be
depth-psychology concerned. specially
a of
few^
with here.
questions with
psycho-analysis
is
n
LE BON'S DESCRIPTION OF THE GROUP MIND
Instead
more
of
starting
useful to
begin
from
a
with
some
seems
it
definition,
of
indication
the
range of the phenomena under review, and to select from among them a few specially striking and characteristic
attached.
facts
We
can
to
which
achieve
our
both
inquiry
of
these
can
be
aims by
means of quotation from Le Bon's deservedly famous work Psychologic des fotdcs) Let us make the matter clear once
again.
If
a
with exploring the predisPsychology, concerned the instincts, the motives and the aims of positions, tions with
man down to his those who are nearest
achieved
its
an individual
task,
these matters
with
and
actions to him,
had completely
and had cleared up the their
inter-connections,
then suddenly find itself confronted by which would lie before it unachieved. *
1
The Crowd: a Study of
2th. Impression,
1920.
the
his rela-
a It
whole of it
would
new would
task
be
Popular Mind, Fisher Unwin,
Group Psychology and the Analysis of
6
understand
different
And
thought,
had come
it
and acted
felt,
Ego
that under a
obliged to explain the surprising fact certain condition this individual whom to
the
in
quite
a
way from what would have been expected.
this
condition
insertion
his
is
a
into
collection
of people which has acquired the characteristic of a What, then, is a 'group'? ^psychological group'.
How a
does
acquire the capacity for exercising such mental life of the influence over the
it
decisive
And what
individual?
change which It
is
it
nature
the
is
upon the
forces
of
the mental
individual?
the task of a theoretical
Group Psychology
The best way of questions. start with the third. to evidently
to answ^er these
three
approaching them is Observation of the changes
in
the individual's reactions
what provides Group Psychology with its material; for every attempt at an explanation must be preceded by a description of the thing that is to be
is
explained. I
will
now
'The most
says:
Le Bon speak
let
striking ^
is
psychological group the individuals that unlike
be
character,
their
or their
peculiarity
the
following.
compose
mode
of
for
life,
it,
presented by a
Whoever be
however
like
their occupations,
intelligence,
the
He
himself.
fact
or
their
that they
group puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind which makes
have been
^
transformed
[See footnote page
i.]
into
a
Le Bon' s them
think,
feel,
from that
in
think,
feel,
7
a manner quite different individual of them would
and act
in
which each
and act were he
a state
in
and
There are certain ideas
come
Mind
Description of the Group
feelings
of isolation.
which
do not
do not transform themselves
into being, or
into
acts except in the case of individuals forming a group.
The
a provisional being formed of heterogeneous elements, which for a moment are combined, exactly as the cells which constitute a psychological group
body form by
living
displays
is
their reunion a nev/ being
characteristics
very
possessed by each of the shall take the
We
cells
different singly.'
libert\'
from (p.
which those
29.)^
of interrupting
Le
Bon's exposition with glosses of our own, and shall If accordingly insert an observation at this point. the individuals
in
the
group
are
combined
into
a
must surely be something to unite them, and this bond might be precisely the thing that is characteristic of a group. But Le Bon does not answer unity, there
question; he goes on to consider the alteration which the individual undergoes when in a group and describes it in terms w-hich harmonize well with the
this
fundamental postulates of our own depth-psychology. '
easy to prove how much the individual forming part of a group differs from the isolated individual, but it is less easy to discover the causes It
is
of this difference. ^
[References are to
the English translation.
— Translator?^
Group Psychology and
8
*
the Analysis of the
Ego
To
obtain at any rate a glimpse of them it is necessary in the first place to call to mind the truth established by modern psychology, that unconscious
phenomena play an not only in organic of the intelligence. of small scious
observer,
The in
importance
The most
life.
is
preponderating part but also in the operations
altogether life,
conscious
analyst,
than a very small number that determine his conduct.
is'
uncon-
its
the most acute
discovering more of the conscious^ motives
successful
scarcety
with
comparison
subtle
mind
of the
life
in
Our conscious
'
acts are
the outcome of an unconscious substratum created in
the
mind
substratum
handed
which
generation, Behind the lie
edly
constitute
avowed causes
secret
ignorant.^
the
still,
The
the
generation to genius of a race.
we do there
which
not
are
we
avow,
many
hidden
motives
ourselves
which
but
others
greater part of our daily actions
of
result
causes of
common
from
of our acts there undoubt-
causes that
secret
behind these secret
more
down
This
influences.
innumerable
the
of
consists
characteristics
>
main by hereditary
in the
escape
are are
our
'
observation. ^
reads
^
(p.
30.)
[The German translation of Le Bon, quoted by the author, the English translation has 'unconscious'; and
beivusster'
\
the original French text
^
inconscients\— Translator.]
—
[The English translation reads 'which we ourselves ignore' a misunderstanding of the French word 'ignorees\ Translator.] '
—
Le
Bon's Description of the Group
Le Bon
thinks
of individuals that in this
that
become
in
submerged ~that-^the
which
in
what
mental
is
what
is
shows
and
a group,
The
vanishes.
heterogeneous
is
We
may say the development of
homogeneous.
superstructure,
individuals
in
distinctiveness
unconscious emerges;
racial
9
particular acquirements
obliterated
their
way
the
Mind
such
dissimilarities,
is
removed, and that the unconscious foundations, which are similar in everyone, stand exposed to view. In this
to
individuals in a
way
show an .average
character.
that they also display
have
new
group would come\^ But Le Bon believes ^
characteristics
and
not
which they
he
previously possessed, reason for this in three different factors.
^*The
first
is
^
seeks
that the individual forming
the
part of
t.-
a group acquires, solely from numerical considerations, a sentiment of invincible power which allows him to'
had he been alone, he would He will be the perforce have kept under restraint. yield to instincts which,
less disposed to
check himself from ±he consideration
a group being anonymous, irresponsible, the sentiment of
that,
and
in
consequence responsibility which
y
always controls individuals disappears entirely.' (p. 33.) From our point of view we need not attribute so
much
importance
ditions
the
appearance
of
new
would be enough \o say a group the individual is brought under conwhich allow him to throw off the repressions
characteristics.
that in
to
For us
it
'
I
O
of
Group Psychology and
^characteristics
4
the
mamlestations
that
pFedisposition.
instincts.
of
We
th is
is
no
can find
of
wh ich
in
unconscious^
human mind
tHe
in
evil
is
Ego
Theapparently new whichhg_,tben^ displays are in fact
unconscious
his
the Analysis of the
all
contained as a
difficulty
inunder^
conscience
or of a disappearance standing ^sehse of -responsibility in these circumstances. It has tEe~*
'
long been our contention that dread of society [soziale Angsty is the essence of what is called conscience.^ "'^ ^
*The second
cause,
intervenes to determine
which
contagion, also manifestation in groups
the
is
of their special characteristics, and at the same time they are to take. Contagion is a pheno-
the trend
menon
of which
it
is
easy
to establish the presence,
not easy to explain. It must be classed those phenomena of a Jiypnotix: order, which
but that
it is
-t
among we shall
shortly study.
In a
group every sentiment
and act
is
and
contagious
*
contagious,
There
is
some
difference
to
such
a
between Le Bon's view and
ours owing to his concept of the unconscious not quite coinciding with the one adopted by psycho-analysis. Le Bon's unconscious
more racial
especially contains the most deeply buried features of the mind, which as a matter of fact lies outside the scope of
We
do not fail to recognize, indeed, that the which nucleus, comprises the 'archaic inheritance' of the ego's human mind, is unconscious; but in addition to this we
psycho-analysis.
distinguish
the
'unconscious repressed', which arose from a This concept of the repressed is not
portion of that inheritance. to be found in Le Bon.
Le
Mind
Bon's Description of the Group
1 1
degree that an individual readily sacrifices his personal interest to the collective interest. This is an aptitude very contrary to his nature, and of which a man is scarcely capable, except when he makes part of a group.' (p. 33.)
We upon *
later
shall
on base an important conjecture
this last
statement.
A
cause, and
third
most important,
the individuals of a group special chaare quite contrary at times to
determines
in
racteristics
which
those
far the
by
by the
presented
isolated
individual.
allude
I
to that suggestibility of which, moreover, the contagion
mentioned above '
To
is
only an effect.
understand
to bear in
mind
this
phenomenon
it
is
necessary
certain recent physiological discoveries.
We
know to-day
ual
may be
by various processes an
that
brought
such
into
a
individ-
condition
that,
conscious personality, he obeys having all the suggestions of the operator who has deprived him of it, and commits acts in utter contradiction entirely lost his
with
his
character
and
The
habits.
most
careful
seem to prove that an individual imsome length of time in a group in action
investigations
mersed
for
soon finds
— either
himself
in
magnetic influence given out
consequence
by some other cause of which we special
state,
fascination
in
which
of
the
the group, or from in a are ignorant
much resembles
—
the
state
of
which the hypnotised individual finds
\
1
Group Psychology and
2
himself
hands of the
the
in
the Analysis of the
hypnotiser.
Ego
.
.
.
The
will has vanished ; entirely personality discernment are lost. All feelings and thoughts
conscious
and
bent
are
the
in
determined
direction
by
the
hypnotiser. '
Such
also
is
approximately the
state
of the
individual forming part of a psychological group. is
no longer conscious of
his
acts.
In
his
case,
He as
case of the hypnotised subject, at the same time that certain faculties are destroyed, others may be brought to a high degree of exaltation. Under in
the
of a suggestion, he will undertake the accomplishment of certain acts with irresistible imthe
influence
petuosity.
the
case
from the
subject,
same
for
strength *
This impetuosity is the more irresistible in of groups than in that of the hypnotised all
by
We
conscious
fact that, the suggestion being the
the individuals of the group, reciprocity.'
see,
then,
personality,
gains in
34.)
disappearance of the predominance of the un-
that the
the
by means of sugand contagion of feelings and ideas in an
conscious personality, gestion
(p.
it
identical direction, the
the
turning
tendency to immediately trans-
form the suggested ideas
into acts; these,
we
see, are
the principal characteristics of the individual forming He is no longer himself, but has part of a group. become an automaton who has ceased to be guided
by
his will.'
(p.
35.)
Le Bon' s I
Description of the Group
have quoted
this
passage so
Mind
fully in
1
3
order to
quite clear that Le Bon explains the condition of an individual in a group as being actually hypnotic,
make
it
does not merely make a comparison between have no intention of raising any the two states.
and
We
objection at this point, but wish only to emphasize the fact that the tw^o last causes of an individual
a group (the contagion and the heightened suggestibility) are evidently not on a par, since the contagion seems actually to be a manifestation
becoming altered
in
of the suggestibility. Moreover the effects of the two factors do not seem to be sharply differentiated in the text of Le Bon's remarks. may perhaps
We
best interpret his statement if we connect the contagion with the eftects of the individual members of the
group upon one another, source
for
w^hile
those manifestations
we
point to another of suggestion in the
group which are put on a level with the phenomena But to w^hat source? hypnotic influence.
We
.of
cannot avoid being struck with a sense of deficiency when we notice that one of the chief elements of the comparison, namely the person
who
the hypnotist in the case of the group, in
Le Bon's
tinguishes
exposition.
between
But
he
is
is to replace not mentioned
nevertheless
this influence of fascination
dis-
which
remains plunged in obscurity and the contagious effect which the individuals exercise upon one another and
by which the
original suggestion
is
strengthened.
1
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
4
Here
yet another important consideration for helping us to understand the individual in a group: Moreover, by the mere fact that he forms part of is
*
an organised group,
a
several
rungs
Isolated, he may be a a crowd, he is a barbarian
the ladder of civilisation.
in
cultivated individual; in
—
the
He possesses a creature acting by instinct. the the violence, ferocity, and also spontaneity,
the
enthusiasm
that
/
man descends
is,
and
heroism
'
of
primitive
beings.
He
then dwells especially upon the low^ering in intellectual ability which an individual experiences when (p. 36.)
he becomes merged in a group.^ Let us now leave the individual, and turn to the group mind, as it has been outlined by Le Bon. It
shows not a
would from
find its
any
difficulty
source.
Le Bon
by pointing
to
its
primitive people
A It
is
single feature
group
placing or in deriving himself shows us the way in
similarity with
and of children
is
impulsive,
led almost exclusively ^
which a psycho-analyst
the
(p.
mental
life
of
40).
changeable and
irritable.
by the unconscious.^ The
Schiller's couplet: ihn einzeln, ist leidlichklug und verstandig; Sind sie in corpore, gleich wird euch ein Dummkopf daraus.
Compare
Jeder, sieht
man
[Everyone, seen by himself,
When
is
passably shrewd and discerning; then straightway you'll find
they're in corpore,
he's
an
ass.]
Unconscious is used here correctly by Le Bon in the descriptive sense, where it does not only mean the 'repressed'. ^
'
'
Le
Bon' s Description of the Group
Mind
1
5
impulses which a group obeys may according to circumstances be generous or cruel, heroic or cowardly, but they are always so imperious that no personal
not even that of self-preservation, can
interest, itself felt
Though is
41). Nothing about
(p. it
may
never so
verance. desire
desire
It
for
long,
cannot
and the
things for
it
it
is
premeditated.
passionately, is
make
incapable
yet this of perse-
any delay between its of what it desires. It has
tolerate
fulfilment
of omnipotence; the notion of impossibility ^ disappears for the individual in a group. group is extraordinarily credulous and open
a
sense
A
to
influence,
it
has
no
critical
faculty,
and
the
improbable does not exist for it. It thinks in images, which call one another up by association (just as
w-
they arise with individuals in states of free imagination), and whose agreement with reality is never checked
by any reasonable function \Instanz\? The_jeelings__of^ a group are always very simple and very exagger-'^ ated. S o that a group knows neifheP~doubt nor "
"""
~^
uncertainty.^" ^
Compare Totem unci Tabu, III., 'Animismus, Magie, und Allmacht der Gedanken.' [Totem and Taboo. New York, Moffat, 10 18. London, Kegan Paul, 19 19.]
^
^
[See footnote p. 69.]
^
In
the
interpretation of dreams, to which, indeed, we of unconscious mental life, we follow a
owe our best knowledge
technical rule of disregarding doubt and uncertainty in the narrative
1
6
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the
goes directly to extremes;
It
Ego
a
suspicion is expressed, it is instantly changed into an incontrovertible certainty; a trace of antipathy is turned into furious
hatred
(p.
if
56).^
extremes, a group can only be excited by an excessive stimulus. Anyone who wishes to produce an effect upon it needs no Inclined
as
adjustment
logical
itself
it
in
his
is
to
all
arguments; he must paint
dream, and of treating every element of the manifest being quite certain. We attribute doubt and uncertainty to the influence of the censorship to which the dream-work is subjected, and we assume that the primary dream-thoughts are of the
dream
.
as
not acquainted with doubt and uncertainty as critical processes. They may naturally be present, like everything else, as part of of the day's residue which leads to the dream. Die TraumdeuHtng, 6. Auflage, 192 1, S. 386. \The Inter(See pretation of Dreams. Allen and Unwin, 3rd. Edition, 191 3, the
content
p. 409.]) ^
.
The same extreme
every emotion
and
it
of the
is
also
and
unmeasured
intensification
a feature of the affective
life
of
of children,
present as well in dream life. Thanks to the isolation single emotions in the unconscious, a slight annoyance
is
during the day will express
itself in
a
dream
as a wish for the
offending person's death, or a breath of temptation may give the impetus to the portrayal in the dream of a criminal action.
Hanns Sachs has made an appropriate remark on this point: 'If to discover in consciousness all that the dream has made
we try known
to us of its bearing upon the present (upon reality), we need not be surprised that what we saw as a monster under the microscope of analysis now reappears as an infusorium.' {Die
Tratmideutung,
S.
457. [Translation p. 493.])
Le the
in
and
Bon' 5 Description of the Group
most
forcible
must
he
Mind
1
7
he must exaggerate, same thing again and
colours,
the
repeat
again.
Since a group is in no doubt as to what constitutes truth or error, and is conscious, moreover, of
own
its
it
great sti-ength, obedient to authority.
be
only
regards
demands of It
as
merely its
It
influenced
slightly
a
heroes
form is
as
is
intolerant
force
respects
by kindness, weakness.
of
and can which
and
it
Fundamentally
is
it
What
wants to be ruled and oppressed and to fear
masters.
is
it
it
even violence.
or
strength,
as
entirely
its
conservative,
has a deep aversion from all innovations and advances and an unbounded respect for tradition (p.
it
62).
In order to
make a one
morals of groups, the
that
fact
group
individuals
come together in a fall away and all
their individual inhibitions
all
the cruel,
dormant
when
correct judgement upon the must take into consideration
brutal
and destructive
in individuals as relics of
are stirred
up to
find
instincts,
which
lie
a primitive epoch,
But under
free gratification.
the influence of suggestion groups are also capable of high achievements in the shape of abnegation, unselfishness,
and devotion to an
isolated
personal interest with groups it force,
only
ideal.
individuals
motive
prominent.
It is
possible to
speak
While with almost
is is
very
of an
the
rarely
individual
1
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
8
having his moral standards raised by a group (p. 65). Whereas the intellectual capacity of a group is always far
below that of an
may
rise as
below
above
high
his
ethical
its
individual,
as
may
it
conduct
sink
deep
it.
Some
other
features
Le Bon's
in
description
a clear light how well justified is the identification of the group mind with the mind of primitive
show
in
In groups the most contradictory ideas can people. exist side by side and tolerate each other, without
from
the
any conflict arising between them. But
this is also the
conscious mental
of individuals, of children and of
life
logical
contradiction
case
in
the un-
neurotics, as psycho-analysis has long pointed out.^ ^
In
young
children,
who
attitudes towards those
for instance, ambivalent emotional are nearest to them exist side by
long time, without either of them interfering with expression of the other and contrary one. If eventually a conflict breaks out between the two, it is often settled by the side for a
the
child
making a change of object and displacing one of the
ambivalent emotions on
opment
Of a neurosis
to a substitute.
in
an
adult
The
will
history of the develshow that a sup-
also
pressed emotion may frequently persist for a long time in unconscious or even in conscious phantasies, the content of which naturally runs directly counter to some predominant tendency, and yet that this antagonism does not result in any proceedings
ego against what it has repudiated. The tolerated for quite a long time, until suddenly one phantasy as a result of an increase in the affective cathexis day, usually footnote of the phantasy, a conflict breaks out [see page 48]
on the part of the is
between
it
and the ego with
all
the usual consequences.
In the
Le Bon's
Description of the Group
Mind
19
A
group, further, is subject to the truly magical power of words; they can evoke the most formidable tempests in the group mind, and are also capable of
^Reason and arguments are incapable of combating certain- words and formulas.
them
stilling
117).
(p.
with
are uttered
They
solemnity in
the
presence of
and as soon as they have been pronounced an expression of respect is visible on every coun-
groups,
tenance,
and
are considered
are bowed.
heads
all
natural
as
It
forces,
By many as
they
supernatural this con-
in
is
only necessary powers.' (p. 117.) nection to remember the taboo upon names
among
people and the magical powers which they ^ ascribe to names and words.
primitive
And,truth.
finally,
groups
They demand
have
never
thirsted
after
and cannot do without
illusions,
process of a child's development into a mature adult there is a more and more extensive integration of its personality, a coordination of the separate instinctive feelings and desires which have grown up in him independently of one another. The analogous
has long been known to us the sexual instincts into a definitive
process in the domain of sexual as
the
co-ordination of
all
life
genital organisation. {Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, 1 90 5. [Three Contributions' to the Sexual Theory. Nervous and Mental
Disease
Monograph
unification of the
of the that
of
libido is
men
ego
Series, is
No.
liable to
1910.])
same interferences
shown by numerous
of science
who have
Bible, and the like. * See Totem unci Tabu.
Moreover, that the
7,
the
familiar
as that
instances, such as
preser\^ed their faith
in
the
20
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the
Ego
them. They constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real; they are almost as strongly influenced by what is untrue as by what is true. They
have an evident tendency not to distinguish between the two (p. ^^),
We the
life
have pointed out that this predominance of of phantasy and of the illusion born of an wish
unfulfilled
We
of neuroses. are guided
is
by
is
the ruling factor in the psychology have found that what neurotics
not
ordinary
objective
reality
A
but
based
hysterical symptom psychological reality. instead of upon the repetition of real upon phantasy experience, and the sense of guilt in an obsessional
neurosis
is
based upon the
is
was never carried dreams and in hypnosis,
which
of a group
the
function
fact
of an
evil
intention
Indeed, just as in in the mental operations for testing the reality of out.
things falls into the background in comparison with the strength of wishes with their affective cathexis.^
What Le Bon groups
is
says on the subject of leaders of less exhaustive, and does, not enable us to
make out an thinks that as
underlying
soon
as
principle
so
clearly.
are
He
gathered beings whether matter no numbers, together they are a herd of animals or a collection of human beings, they place themselves instinctively under the in
^
certain
[See footnote p. 48.]
living
Le
Bon's Description of the Group
authority of a chief ient It
herd,
(p.
134).
which could never
has such a thirst
for
A
Mind
group
21
an obed-
is
without a master.
live
obedience
that
it
submits
anyone who appoints himself its master. way the needs of a group carry Although half-way to meet the leader, yet he too must fit in
instinctively to
in this
it
with
it
in his
personal qualities.
He must
heldji-iascination by a strong order to awaken the group's faith
faith j
himself
be
(in an idea) in he must possess
a strong and inipnsing will, which the group, which has no will of its own, can accept from him. Le Bon then discusses the different kinds of leaders, and the means
the whole he believes that the leaders felt
On
by which they work upon the group.
by means of the ideas
in
make themselves
which they themselves
are fanatical believers.
Moreover, he ascribes both to the ideas and to the leaders a mysterious and irresistible power, which he calls 'prestige'. Prestige is a sort of domination exercised over us by an individual, a work or an idea. It entirely paralyses our 'critical faculty, and fills us
astonishment
with
and respect.
arouse a feeling like that (p.
148).
He
distinguishes
of
would
It
fascination
in
seem
to
hypnosis
between acquired or
arti-
and personal prestige. The former is attached to persons in virtue of their name, fortune and reputation, and to opinions, works of art, etc., in virtue
ficial
of tradition.
Since
in
every
case
it
harks back to
U"'
22
Group Psychology and
the past,
it
this
cannot be of
standing attached to a
means of thing
it,
the Analysis of the
much
Ego
help to us in underPersonal prestige is
puzzling influence.
few people, who become leaders by and it has the effect of making every-
obey them as though by the operation of some
magnetic
magic.
All
dependent upon success, and failure (p.
We
however,
prestige, is
lost in
the
is
also
event of
159).
cannot
feel
that
Le Bon has brought
the
function of the leader and the importance of prestige
completely into harmony with his picture of the group mind.
brilliantly
executed
Ill
OTHER ACCOUNTS OF COLLECTIVE MENTAL LIFE
We
have
way
of introduction,
our
own Psychology
made use
of
Le
because in
upon unconscious mental
the life.
Bon's it
fits
description in
by
so well with
emphasis which it lays But we must now add
that as a matter of fact none of that
author's state-
ments bring forward anything new. Everything that he says to the detriment and depreciation of the manifestations
by others equal
group mind had already been said before him with equal distinctness and
of the
and has been repeated statesmen and writers since
hostility,
thinkers,
in
unison
the
by
earliest
periods of literature.^ The two theses which comprise the most important of Le Bon's opinions, those
touching upon the collective inhibition of intellectual functioning and the heightening of affectivity in groups, *
Die Psychologie der Kollektivitdien. B. Kraskovic jun. Translated [into German] from the Croatian by Siegmund von Posavec. Vukovar, 191 5. See the body of the work as well as :
the bibliography.
24
Group Psychology and
had been formulated
the Analysis of the
shortly before
by
Ego
Sighele.*
At
over as being peculiar to Le bottom, Bon are the two notions of the unconscious and of all
that
is
left
comparison with the mental life of primitive people, and even these had naturally often been
the
alluded to before him.
more, the description and estimate of the group mind as they have been given by Le Bon and the rest have not by any means been left
what
But,
is
undisputed. There is no doubt that all the phenomena of the group mind which have just been mentioned
have been correctly observed, but to
it
manifestations
other
is
also possible
of
the
group a in which formation, precisely opposite sense, operate and from which a much higher opinion of the group mind must necessarily follow. distinguish
Le Bon
himself was prepared to admit that in certain circumstances the morals of a group can be higher than those of the individuals that compose it, and that only collectivities are capable of a high of
degree isolated
prominent.' it
*
is
(p.
^
and devotion.
personal interest force, with groups it
individuals
motive
only that
unselfishness
is is
While with almost the
very
rarely
Other writers adduce the
65.)
only society which prescribes
any
fact
ethical
See Walter Moede *Die Massen- und Sozialpsychologie im :
Meumann and Scheibner's Zeitschrift fur pddagogische Psychologie und experimentelle Pddagogik. 191 5, XVI. kritischen Oberblick.'
Other Accounts of Collective Mental Life standards
at
all
for
the
while
individual,
25
he as a
one way or another to come up to its Or they point out that in exceptional high demands. circumstances there may arise in communities the rule fails
in
phenomenon of enthusiasm, which has made the most splendid group achievements possible. As regards intellectual work it remains a fact, that great decisions in the realm of
indeed,
thought
and momentous discoveries and solutions of problems are only possible to an individual, working in solitude. But even the group mind is capable of genius in intellectual creation, as itself,
It
as well as
by
is
shown above
by language and the like.
all
folk-song, folk-lore
how much
an open question, moreover,
remains
the individual thinker or writer owes
[to
the stimulation
of the group in which he lives, or whether he does more than perfect a mental work in which the others
have had a simultaneous share. In face of these completely contradictory accounts,
though the work of Group Psycholog}'were bound to come to an ineffectual end. But it
it
looks
as
easy to dilemma.
is
A
find
a
more hopeful escape from
number of very
different
the
formations have ^
'
probably been merged under the term group and may require to be distinguished. The assertions of Sighele,
Le Bon.
find the
short-lived character, hastily
rest relate to
which some passing
groups of a interest has
agglomerated out of various sorts of individuals.
26
Gro2ip Psychology
The
and
the Analysis of the
Ego
of revolutionary and groups, those of the great French Revolution, have especially influenced their descriptions. The opunmistakably characteristics
opinions owe their origin to the consideration those stable groups or associations in which
posite
of
mankind pass
their lives,
and w^hich are embodied
in
the institutions of society. Groups of the first kind stand in the same sort of relation to those of the second as a high but
choppy sea to a ground swell. McDougall, in his book on The Group Mind^ starts out from the same contradiction that has just
been mentioned,
and finds a solution
factor of organisation. '
for
it
In the simplest case,
in
the
he says,
'
group possesses no organisation at all or one He describes a group scarcely deserving the name. the
of this
crowd
kind of
without
a
as
human
groups many
at
and
of the
But he admits that a
come
can hardly
beings
possessing
an organisation,
'crowd'.
all
that
events
the
precisely
in
together rudiments of these
simple
fundamental facts of Collective
Psychology can be observ^ed with special ease (p. 22). Before the members of a random crowd of people can constitute something
the nature of a group in the psychological sense of the word, a condition has to be fulfilled; these individuals must have something in
common ^
with
in
one another, a
Cambridge University
common
Press, 1920.
interest
in
Other Accounts of Collective Mental Life an object, a similar emotional bias or
and
other,
*
interpolate)
some
situation
I should like to^ ('consequently', of reciprocal influence degree
some
'
,
The
23).
in
27
the
of
'this
mental
(p. higher degree homogeneity', the more readily do the individuals form a psychological group, and the more striking
are the manifestations of a group mind. The most remarkable and also the
'
exaltation in
formation
intensification
of
it
(p.
of
of a
group Is the emotion produced
24).
men's emotions are stirred
opinion
that
conditions;
those
or
member
every
pitch
of the
result
portant
who
'
In
McDougall's
a group to a or never attain under other
they seldom
and
most im-
in
a
pleasurable experience for are concerned to surrender themselves so is
it
unreservedly to their passions and thus to become merged in the group and to lose the sense of the limits of their individuality. The manner in which
away by a common imexplained by McDougall by means of what
individuals
pulse
he
is
calls
by way that
is,
are
thus
carried
the 'principle of direct induction of emotion of the primitive sympathetic response' (p. 25),
by means of the emotional contagion with
we
are already familiar. The fact is that the of the of an emotional state is perception signs calculated automatically to arouse the same emotion
which
in
the person
who
number of people
perceives them. The greater the whom the same emotion can
in
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
28 \y
be simultaneously observed, the
does
stronger
this
automatic compulsion grow. The individual loses his power of criticism, and lets himself slip into the
same
But
emotion.
so
in
doing
he
the
increases
people, who had produced this effect upon him, and thus the emotional charge of the individuals becomes intensified by mutual
excitement of the
interaction.
other
Something
is
work in do the same as the at
unmistakably
the nature of a
compulsion to The others, to remain in harmony with the many. coarser and simpler emotions are the more apt to spread through a group in this way (p. 39).
This mechanism for the intensification of emotion is
favoured by some other influences which emanate
A
from groups. a
group impresses the individual with sense of unlimited power and of insurmountable
peril.
For
human
society,
moment
the
which
whose punishments the
is
replaces the the wielder of
it
individual fears,
sake he has submitted to so
many
and
whole
of
authorit}^,
for
inhibitions.
whose It
is
him to put himself in opposition to it, and it will be safer to follow the example of those around him and perhaps even 'hunt with the In obedience to the new authority he may pack'. out of action, and so conscience put his former clearly perilous
for
'
surrender to the that
is
hibitions.
certainly
On
'
attraction
obtained
the
whole,
of the increased pleasure from the removal of intherefore,
it
is
not
so
Other Accounts of Collective Mental Life
we
that
remarkable
should
see
29
an individual
in
a
group doing or approving things which he would have avoided in the normal conditions of life; and in this
way we may even hope
the
mystery
which
word
enigmatic
so
is
to
often
clear
up a
little
covered
of
the
by
*
suggestion'.
does
dispute the thesis as to inhibition of intelligence in groups the collective He says that the minds of lower intelligence (p. 41).
McDougall
down The
bring level.
not
those
of a
latter
are
higher order to their own obstructed in their activity,
general an intensification of emotion creates unfavourable conditions for sound intellectual
because
work,
in
and further because the individuals are intim-
by the group and their mental activity is not free, and because there is a lowering in each idated
sense of responsibility
of his
individual
for
own
his
performances.
The judgement
which
with
up the psychological behaviour of a simple is nised' group no more friendly than
Le Bon.
Such a group
impulsive,
extreme tions
and
the
careless
incapable
is
excessively
displaying only
less
of
refined in
the
unorgathat
of
but
the
emotional,
irresolute
coarser
sentiments;
deliberation,
any
^
*
inconsistent,
fickle,
in action,
suggestible,
ment,
violent,
sums
McDougall
hasty
and
emo-
extremely in
simpler
judg-
and
imperfect forms of reasoning; easily swayed and led,
30
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the
Ego
lacking in self-consciousness, devoid of self-respect and of sense of responsibility, and apt to be carried away
by the consciousness of tends
to
learnt to expect
the
all
produce
its
own
any irresponsible and absolute behaviour is like that of an unruly
power.
an untutored passionate savage
its
situation, rather than like that of its
the worst cases
it is
McDougall
in
a strange
average member; a wild beast,
like that of
human
beings.'
contrasts
the
rather than like that of
Since
it
of
child or
in
that
we have
manifestations
Hence
and
so
force,
(p.
45.)
behaviour
of a
highly organised group with what has just been described, we shall be particularly interested to learn in
what
factors
/ ^
this is
it
^
consists,
organisation
and
The author enumerates
produced. '
conditions
principal life
what
by
for
raising
collective
five
mental
to a higher level.
The
first
should be
and fundamental condition
some degree
for
some time;
that there
of continuity of existence in be either material or formal:
This may the group. the former, if the same
group
is
individuals
and
the
persist
latter,
if
the
in
there
is
developed within the group a system of fixed positions which are occupied by a succession of individuals. The second condition is that in the individual
member formed
of the group some definite idea should be and of the nature, composition, functions
capacities of
the group,
so
that
from
this
he
may
Other Accounts of Collective Alental Life develop whole.
an
The
emotional
the
to
relation
3
a
as
group
i
group should be brought into interaction (perhaps in the form of rivalry) with other groups similar to it but differing from it in third
is
many respects. The fourth
that the
group should possess and especially such as
the
that
is
customs and habits,
traditions,
determine
the
of
relations
members
its
one
to
another.
The
fifth
is
group should have a the specialisation and
that the in
structure, expressed
entiation of the functions of
to
According are
group
these
if
McDougall,
psychological formation are removed.
differ-
constituents.
its
the
fulfilled,
definite
conditions of
disadvantages
The
the
lower-
collective
avoided by withdrawing ing the performance of intellectual tasks from the group of intellectual ability
and reserving them It seems to
McDougall
cure for
were
the
us
group
the
that
the
as
of the
his
own
of
organisation
be
those
individual
continuity,
which '
in
described
how
features
and
his
to
a in
pro-
which
which
extinguished in him by the formation of the For the individual, outside the primitive
possessed
it.
condition
consists
precisely
of
'
justification
The problem
characteristic
members
for individual
designates with more
group can another way.
is
are
group.
group,
self-consciousness,
Group Psychology and
32
the Analysis of the
Ego
and customs, his own particular funcand position, and kept apart from his rivals.
his traditions
tions
to his entry into an
^
'
unorganised group he had lost this distinctiveness for a time. If we thus recognise that the aim is to equip the group with the
Owing
attributes
of
of a valuable
the
individual,
remark of
we
shall
be reminded
Trotter's,^ to the effect that
the tendency towards the formation of groups is biologically a continuation of the multicellular character
of
the higher organisms.
all
^
Instincts
of the Herd in Peace and War. Fisher Unwin, 1916.
I
IV
SUGGESTION AND LIBIDO ^
We
started
individual in a
to
what
the
group
is
fundamental
alteration
its
influence
in his
His emotions become extraordinarily while his intellectual ability
reduced,
both
processes
an
that
fact
subjected through
often a profound
is
activity. sified,
from
mental inten-
becomes markedly
being
the
in
evidently
direction of an approximation to the other individuals in
by
the group; and this result can only be reached the removal of those inhibitions upon his instincts
which are peculiar
to
each
resigning those expressions are especially his own.
individual,
of his
We
and
by
inclinations
his
which I
have
heard
that
these
unwelcome consequences are to some extent least prevented by a higher of the organisation
often
*
at
group; fact
of
but
this
Group
does not contradict
— Psychology the
the intensification of the
intellect
'
the fundamental
two theses as to of the emotions and the inhibition
in primitive
groups.
Our
interest
is
34
Group Psychology and
now
directed to discovering the psychological explan-
the Analysis of the
of this mental change which the individual in a group. ation
It
b}'
the
in-
which has
timidation of the individual
mentioned,
experienced
that rational factors (such
clear
is
is
that
is,
Ego
as
already
been
instinct of self-
the action of his
preservation) do not cover the observable phenomena. Beyond this what we are offered as an explanation
by is
authorities
upon Sociology and Group Psychology
always the same,
names,
Tarde
and that
is '
calls
it
agreeing with
a
even though
— the
magic '
imitation
writer
;
who
but
given various
is
it
w^ord
'suggestion'.
we
protests
cannot that
help
imitation
comes under the concept of suggestion, and is in Le Bon traces back all the fact one of its results.^ factors: puzzling features of social phenomena to two the mutual suggestion of individuals and the prestige But prestige, again, is only recognizable of leaders. for
McDougall evoking suggestion. for a moment gives us an impression that his prinmight enable ciple of primitive induction of emotion
by
its
capacity
'
'
But us to do without the assumption of suggestion. on further consideration we are forced to perceive that this principle says no more than the familiar assertions
*
about
imitation'
Brugeilles: 'L'essence
Revne philosophiqne,
1913,
or
'contagion',
du phenomene
XXV.
except
social: la suggestion.'
Suggestion for
a
There which, tion
in
decided is
no
stress
doubt
that
something exists in us aware of signs of an emo-
when we become someone else, tends it,
resist
the
to
often
make do we
emotion,
Why,
opposite way?
35
emotional factor.
the
upon
same emotion; but how oppose
and Libido
us
fall
into the
and
not successfully react in quite an
do
w^e invariably give
therefore,
way to this contagion when we are in a group? Once more we should have to say that what compels us to obey this tendency is imitation, and what induces the emotion in us is the group's suggestive
Moreover, quite apart from this, McDougall does not enable us to evade suggestion; we hear
influence.
from him as well as from other writers
that
groups
are distinguished by their special suggestibility. shall therefore be prepared for the statement
We
that
suggestion
actually an
(or
more
correctly
irreducible, primitive
damental fact
in
the
mental
life
suggestibility)
is.
a fun-
phenomenon, of man. Such,
"*
too,
was the opinion of Bernheim, of whose astonishing \ arts I was a witness in the year 1889. But I can^ remember even then feeling a muffled hostility to tyranny of suggestion. showed himself unamenable
this
*
I
What said
a
patient
who
was met with the shout:
are you doing? Vous vous contresuggestionnez!\ myself that this was an evident injustice
to
and an act of violence. a right
When
to
For the
counter-suggestions
if
man
certainly
had
they were trying to
Group Psychology and
36
the Analysis of the
Later on
subdue him with suggestions.
my
Ego
resistance
took the direction of protesting against the view that suggestion, which explained everything, was itself to
be preserved
from
repeated the old conundrum
of
Thinking
explanation.
it,
I
^ :
Christoph trug Christum, Christus trug die ganze Welt,
wo
hat Christoph Damals hin den Fuss gestellt?^
Sag'
Christophorus Christum,
sed Christus
sustulit
orbem:
Constiterit pedibus die ubi Christophorus?
Now
once more
approach the riddle of suggestion after having kept away from it for some thirty years, I find there is no change in the situation.
To
this
that
I
can discover only a single exneed not mention, since it is one
statement
ception, which
I
I
which bears witness to the influence of psycho-analysis. I
notice
particular
efforts
are
being
made
to
suggestion correctly, that to fix the conventional use of the name.^ And this
formulate is,
that
*
the
concept
Konrad Richter:
1896, Acta Germanic a, V,
of
'Der deutsche
S.
Christoph.'
Berlin,
i.
*
Christopher bore Christ; Christ bore the whole did Christopher then put his foot?'] where world; Say, ' Thus, McDougall: *A Note on Suggestion.' Journal of ^[Literally:
Neurology and Fsy chop aihology, 1920, Vol.
I,
No.
i.
Suggestion and Libido
37
by no means superfluous, for the word is acquiring a more and more extended use and a looser and and will soon come to designate looser meaning,
is
any sort
where
influence
ot
'
'
as
whatever, just
and
to suggest
'
'
in
English, correspond to
suggestion our nahelegen and Anregung. But there has been no explanation of the nature of suggestion, that is, of
the conditions under which influence without adequate logical foundation takes place. I should not avoid the task of supporting this statement by an analysis of the literature of the last thirty years, if I were not aware that an exhaustive inquiry is being undertaken
hand which has
close at
very task. Instead of the
this
this
make an attempt
shall
I
of libido
concept
view the fulfilment of
in
the
for
purpose
at using of throwing
a concept which has the study of psycho-
upon Group Psychology, done us such good service in
light
neuroses.
Libido of
the
an expression taken from the theory
emotions. as
(regarded at
is
present
a
We
call
the
that
actually
name
the energy though not
magnitude, mensurable) of those
quantitative
which have to do with
under
by
word Move'.
instincts
may be comprised The nucleus of what we
all
that
(and this is what is called love, and what the poets sing of) But we in sexual love with sexual union as its aim.
mean by commonly
love
naturally consists
I
Group Psychology and
38
do not separate from share in the
and
on
friendship
*
name
the
and love
'
in
has a
self-love,
love for
Ego
— what case — on the oneany hand,
this
love
other,
the Analysis of the
for
parents in
humanity
and
children,
and
general,
also
devotion to concrete objects and to abstract ideas. Our justification lies in the fact that psycho-analytic research has taught us that all these tendencies are
an
expression
relations
way towards are
they
of the
same
instinctive
between the sexes these sexual union
from
diverted
from reaching
but
in
aim
this
though
it,
^
always
activities;
in
instincts force their
other circumstances or
are
prevented
preserving
enough
of their original nature to keep their identity recognizable such features as the longing for (as in proximity, and self-sacrifice). are of opinion, then, that language has carried out an entirely justifiable piece of unification in
We
^
'
love with its numerous uses, and creating the word that we cannot do better than take it as the basis
of our scientific to
By coming
discussions this
and expositions as
decision,
well.
psycho-analysis has
let
a storm of indignation, as though it had been Yet psychoguilty of an act of outrageous innovation. analysis has done nothing original in taking love in loose
*
this
wider
'
sense.
In
its
origin, function,
and
relation
^
sexual love, the Eros' of the philosopher Plato coincides exactly with the love force, the libido, of to
psycho-analysis,
as
has
been
shown
in
detail
by
and Libido
Suggestion
Nachmansohn and in
famous
his
above
all
'
'
wider
not
39
and when the apostle Paul,
Pfister;^
the
Corinthians, prizes love else, he certainly understands it in the same epistle
only shows that men do great thinkers seriously, even
But
sense.^
take
alw^ays
to
this
their
when they
profess most to admire them. Psycho-analysis, then, gives these love instincts the name of sexual instincts, a potiori and by reason
The majority
of their origin.
of
'
educated
'
people
insult, and regarded have taken their revenge by retorting upon ps3^cho-
have
this
nomenclature
analysis with the reproach of
who
sex as
considers
miliating
of the
human
to
as
an
^
Anyone
pan-sexualism'.
something mortifying and hu-
nature
at liberty to
is
make use
more genteel expressions 'Eros' and
*
erotic'.
might have done so myself from the first and thus have spared myself much opposition. But I did not 1
want
for
to,
I
lead one; one gives
by
being ^
avoid
One can never
heartedness.
little
to
like
way
ashamed
of
sex;
I
to
faint-
tell
where that road
may
in
words, and then
little
first
substance too.
in
concessions
cannot see any merit
the
Greek
word
in
*
Eros',
Nachmansohn: *Freuds Libidotheorie verglichen mit der
Platos'. Internationale Zeitschrift fiir Psychoanalyse, Bd. in; Pfister: 'Plato als Vorlaufer der Psychoanalyse', ibid., 192 1, Bd. VII. ['Plato: a Fore-Runner of Psycho-Analysis'. International Journal of Psycho- Analysis, 1922, Vol. III.]
Eroslehre 191 5,
^
'Though
have not love,
I
I
men and of angels, and as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.'
speak with the tongues of
am become
40
Group Psychology and
which
is
soften the affront,
to
more than a and
[love];
make no
We position
the Analysis of the
translation
finally,
is
of our
in the
Ego
end nothing
German word Liebe
he whq knows how to wait need
concessions. will
that
try
our fortune,
love
relationships
neutral expression,
emotional
essence of the group mind. the authorities
What would
with
then, (or,
to
the
sup-
use a more
also constitute the
ties)
Let us remember that
make no mention correspond
cealed behind
of any such relations. to them is evidently con-
the screen, of suggestion. support in the first instance
the shelter,
Our hypothesis
finds
from two passing thoughts.
First,
that
a group
is
clearly held together by a power of some kind: and to what power could this feat be better ascribed
than to Eros, who holds together everything in the world? Secondly, that if an individual gives up his distinctiveness in a group and lets its other members influence
him by suggestion,
it
gives
one the
im-
pression that he does it because he feels the need of being in harmony ^ith them rather than in opposition it
to
them
— so
that perhaps
after all
he does
^ihnen zu Liebe'} ^
[An idiom meaning
of them'.
— Translator.]
*for their sake'.
Literally: *for lore
V
TWO
ARTIFICIAL GROUPS: THE
CHURCH
AND THE ARMY
We
what
from
recall
may
morphology of groups that
it
is
we
know
of
possible to distinguish
very different kinds of groups and opposing their
development.
and extremely
There
are
the
lines in
very fleeting
groups
homogeneous ones, made of individuals, and unhomoge-
lasting ones;
up of the same
sorts
neous ones; natural groups, apd artificial ones, requiring an external force to keep them together; primitive groups, and highly organised ones with a definite structure.
explained a distinction given
too
leaderless
for reasons which have yet to be should like to lay particular stress upon
But
we
to
little
v/hich
the
attention;
groups
I
refer
and those with to
the
have
authorities
to
that
leaders.
between
And,
we
usual
rather
in
shall
complete opposition practice, choose a relatively simple group formation as our point of departure, but shall begin with highly
not
organised,
lasting
and
artificial
groups.
The most
Group Psychology and
42
the A^ialysis of the
Ego
—
example of such structures are churches communities of believers and armies. A church and an army are artificial groups, that
interesting
is,
a
—
certain
external
force
is
employed to prevent
them from
disintegrating and to check alterations in structure. As a rule a person is not consulted,
their
or
given no choice, as to whether he wants to such a group; any attempt at leaving it is
is
enter
met with persecution or wdth severe punishor has quite definite conditions attached to it. ment, It is quite outside our present interest to enquire
usualty
need such special safeguards. are only attracted by one circumstance, namely that certain facts, which are far more concealed in these
why
associations
We
can be observed very clearly in those highly organised groups which are protected from dissolution in the manner that has been mentioned.
other
cases,
In
a
church
(and
we may
with advantage take
Church as a type) as well as in an army, however different the two may be in other respects, the same illusion holds good of there being a head in the Catholic Church Christ, in an army its Commander-in-Chief who loves all the individuals
the
Catholic
—
in
the
—
group
with
an
equal _^ Love.
Everything
depends upon this. illusion; if it were to be dropped, then both Church and army would dissolve, so far as the external force permitted love was expressly enunciated
them
to.
This equal *
by
Christ:
Inasmuch
Two Artificial Groups: done
as ye have
my
the Church
unto one of the least of these
it
ye have done
brethren,
and the Army 43
He
unto me.'
it
stands
members
of the group of believers in the relation of a kind elder brother; he is their
to
the
individual
All the demands that are made surrogate. the individual are derived from this love of
father
upon
A
Christ's.
the
democratic
is
everyone share
a
equal,
is
family
themselves
no
It
love
doubt
in
and
that
Christ,
the
Christ
is
tie
an
good
of
father
who
reason
is,
loves
they
of his officer
it
of the
The
like
The Commander-in-Chief his soldiers equally,
each
and
tie
holds is
a
for that
comrades among themselves. The structurally from the Church in being
up of a
as
all
unites
are
differs
army built
ai'my.
them. There
cause
which unites them with one another.
call
brothers
is,
for
which the
also
believers
that
which Christ has
that
with
individual
is
invoked,
brothers
the
through is
through very reason that before Christ and that everyone' has an equal
not without a deep reason similarity between the Christian communit}'' love.
his
in
that the
and
the
for
Church,
runs
character
series
of such groups.
Ever}^ captain were, the Commander-in-Chief and the father
company, of
his
and so section.
is
It
every non-commissioned true that a similar
is
in the Church, but it hierarchy has been constructed does not play the same part in it economically; for
more knowledge and care about
individuals
may be
^
44
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the
attributed to Christ than to a
Ego
human Commander-in-
Chief/ It
is
to
be noticed that
groups each individual
An
^
of the
is
in
these two
bound by
libidinaP
artificial
ties
on
objection will justly be raised against this conception next foot-note] structure of an army on the
libidinal [see
ground that no place has been found in it for such ideas as those of one's country, of national glory, etc., which are of such in holding an army together. The answer is that a dififerent instance of a group tie, and no longer such a
importance that
is
simple one; for the examples of great generals, like Caesar, Wallenstein, or Napoleon, show that such ideas are not indisshall presently touch pensable to the existence of an army.
We
upon the possibility of a leading idea being substituted for a leader and upon the relations between the two. The neglect of this libidinal factor in
an arrny, even when it is not the Only factor not merely a theoretical omission but
operative, seems to be also a practical danger.
unpsychological
as
Prussian militarism, which was just as
German
science,
may have had
to suffer the
We
know that the war the great war. neuroses which ravaged the German army have been recognized as being a protest of the individual against the part he was ex-
consequences of this
in
pected to play in the army; and according to the communication of E. Simmel [Kriegsneurosen und Psychisches Trauma'. Munich, 191 8), the hard treatment of the men by their superiors may be considered as foremost among the motive forces of the disease. If the importance of the libido's claims on this score had been ^
better appreciated, the fantastic promises of the American President's fourteen points would probably not have been believed
so easily, and the splendid instrument would not have broken in the hands of the German leaders. ^
[Here and elsewhere the German ^hbidinos' is used simply Libido' adjectival derivative from the technical term ^
as
an
\
Two
Artificial
Groups : the Church and the
the one hand to the leader (Christ, the in-Chief)
and
on
members
of the
the
hand
other
How
group.
Army
Commanderother
the
to
two
these
45
ties
are
whether they are of the same kind and the same value, and how they are to be related to each other,
described
reserved
psychologically
— these
we
But
subsequent enquiry. ture even now upon a mild reproach
ven-
shall
against
the
appreciated psychology of
the
for not having sufficiently
authorities
importance of the group, while our investigation It
position.
must be
questions
for
leader
own
in
the
choice
of a
first
brought us into a more would appear as though we has
the
object for favourable
were
on
the right road towards an explanation of the principal phenomenon of Group Psychology the individual's
—
lack of freedom in
bound
in
we
tie,
a group. If each individual is two directions by such an intense emotional
no
shall find
difficulty
in
to that
attributing
circumstance the alteration and limitation which have
been observed
A
a group lies be found
a
studied
group
'libidinal' is
to avoid
dinous'.
same
hint to the
to
best
in his personality.
the
of
effect,
that
the
essence of
in the libidinal ties existing in in
the
in
military
that
phenomenon
kind
groups.
becomes
it,
is
also
of panic,
which
is
A
arises
if
panic
disintegrated.
Its
accordingly introduced in the translation in order highly-coloured connotation of the English 'libi-
— Translator\
46
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego are
characteristics
that
none
orders
the
of
listened
are
any longer superiors that each individual is only solicitous
by
on
given
to,
his
and
own
and without any consideration for the rest. The mutual ties have ceased to exist, and a gigantic account,
and senseless is
it
[Angst]
is
set
free.
At
this
objection will naturally be made rather the other way round; and that the
point, again,
that
dread the
dread has grown so great as to be able to disregard of consideration for others. all ties and all feelings
McDougall has even
(p.
24)
made
use of the case
of panic (though not of military panic) as a typical instance of that intensification of emotion by contagion
much
('primary induction') upon which he lays so emphasis. But nevertheless this rational method
The ver\^ inadequate. dread has the question that needs explanation is why become so gigantic. The greatness of the danger of explanation
here
is
quite
cannot be responsible, for the same army which now to panic may previously have faced falls a victim equally
great
success;
it
is
danger with complete greater the very essence of panic that it
or of
bears no relation to the often
breaks
out
upon
danger that threatens, the
most
trivial
If an individual in panic dread begins to
own
be
and
occasions. solicitous
account, he bears witness in so doing to the fact that the emotional ties, which have hitherto made the danger seem small to him, have
/only
on
his
Two
Artificial Groups: the
ceased to
exist.
Now
Church and the
that he
is
Army
by himself
47
in facing
the danger, he may surely think it greater. The fact is, therefore,, that panic dread presupposes a relaxation in it
the libidinal structure of the group and reacts to in a justifiable manner, and the contrary view
—
that the
owing
libidinal
ties
to dread in
the
the
of
face
group
of the
are
danger
destroyed can be
—
refuted.
The contention
that dread in a
group
ed to enormous proportions by means (contagion)
is
is
increas-
of induction
not in the least contradicted
by these
McDougall's view meets the case entirely when the danger is a really great one and when the remarks.
group has no strong emotional are
fulfilled, for instance,
ties
when a
— conditions
fire
which
breaks out
in
a
a place of amusement. But the really instructive case and the one which can be best emtheatre
or
ployed for our purposes is that mentioned above, in which a body of troops breaks into a panic although the danger has not increased beyond a degree that is usual and has often been It is previously faced. not to be expected that the usage of the word *
'
should be clearly
and unambiguously determined. Sometimes it is used to describe any collective dread, sometimes even dread in an individual panic
when
it
exceeds
all
seems to be reserved of
dread
is
bounds,
and often
for cases in
not warranted
the
name
which the outbreak
by the occasion.
If
we
48
Group Psychology and
take
word
the
dread,
we
Dread
in
an
'
in
panic
can
the
sense
of
Ego
collective
a
establish
individual
is
far-reaching analogy. either provoked by the
danger or by the cessation of emo-
of a
greatness
'
the Analysis of the
tional ties (libidinal cathexes^ \Libidobesetzungen\)\ the latter is the
of
case
same way panic
neurotic
arises
either
dread.^
owing
In
to
just
the
an increase
common danger
of the
of the emotional
and the
ties
latter case
or owing to the disappearance which hold the group together;
is
analogous to that
of neurotic
dread.^ from the Greek 'Katexco', 'I occupy'. The ^Besetzung' has become of fundamental importance in the exposition of psycho-analytical theory. Any attempt at a short ^
['Cathexis',
German word
is likely to be misleading, but speaking very loosely, we may say that 'cathexis' is used on the analogy of an electric charge, and that it means the concentration or
definition or description
accumulation of mental energy in some particular channel. Thus,
when we speak
of the existence in
someone of a
libidinal cathexis
shortly, of an object-cathexis, we mean that his libidinal energy is directed towards, or rather infused
of an object, or,
into,
more
the idea {Vorstellung) of some object in the outer world. to obtain a more precise knowledge of the
Readers who desire
are referred to the discussions in 'Zur Einfuhrung des Narzissmus and the essays on metapsychology in Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlekre, Vierte Folge. Translator.^
term
*
—
^
See Vorlesungen zur Einfuhrung in die Psychoanalyse. XXV, 3. Auflage, 1920. {Introductory Lectures on Psycho- Analysis. Lecture XXV. George Allen and Unwin, 1922.] ^
fantastic
v. Felszeghy's interesting though somewhat 'Panik und Pankomplex'. Imago, 1920, Bd. VI. paper
Compare Bela
Two
like
Anyone who, a
Church and the
Artificial Groups: the
one
as
panic
'
McDougall
the
of
(1.
Army
describes
c),
functions
plainest
49
of
the
'
arrives at the paradoxical position that group mind this group mind does away with itself in one of its It most striking manifestations. is impossible to doubt that panic means the disintegration of a group; ,
it
involves
the
cessation
of
members
sideration which the
all
the
feelings
of con-
of the group otherwise
show one another. is
The typical occasion of the outbreak of a panic very much as it is represented in Nestroy's parody about Judith
of Hebbel's
play cries aut
soldier
and thereupon
' :
all
and
The general has
head
lost his
mutual
ties
appear, their
leader. flask
Bologna
The
birth
outbreak of
the the
same;
between the members of the group
as a rule, at the
same time
The group when its top
dissolution of a
vanishes is
religious
the dis-
as the tie with in
broken
' !
The
the Assyrians take to flight. some sense or other, the
loss of the leader in
of misgivings about him, brings on panic, though the danger remains
A
Holofernes.
dust,
like
a
off.
group
is
not so
A
short time ago there came into my hands an English novel of Catholic origin, recommended by the Bishop of London, with the title
easy to
When
observe.
It
Was Dark,
It
gave a
clever and,
as
it
seems to me, a convincing picture of such a possiThe novel, which is bility and its consequences.
50
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the
Ego
supposed to relate to the present day, tells how a conspiracy of enemies of the figure of Christ and of faith succeed in arranging for a the Christian
be
to
sepulchre
discovered
an inscription,
sepulchre
is
mathaea
confesses
that
in
which Joseph
in
for
In
Jerusalem.
reasons
of
this
of Ari-
piety
he
removed the body of Christ from its ^rave day after its entombment and buried it The resurrection of Christ and his in this spot. divine nature are by this means disposed of, and the
secretly
on the
third
of this archaeological discovery
result
is
a convulsion
and an extraordinary increase in all crimes and acts of violence, which only ceases when the forgers' plot has been revealed. The phenomenon which accompanies the dissoin
European
lution that
civilisation
is
here supposed
to
overtake
a religious
not dread, for which the occasion is wanting. Instead of it ruthless and hostile impulses towards
group
is
other people make their appearance, which, owing to the equal love of Christ, they had previously been But even during the kingdom of unable to do.^ Christ those people
who do who do
munity of believers, he does not love, stand *
not belong to the comnot love him, and whom
outside this
tie.
Therefore
the explanation of similar phenomena after the of the paternal authority of the sovereign given in P. Federn's Die vaterlose Vienna, AnzengruberGesellschaft.
Compare
abolition
Verlag, 1919.
Two a
Groups : the Church and the
Artificial
even
religion,
if
it
calls
itself
the
Army
religion
5
I
of love,
must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it. Fundamentally indeed every religion is in this same way a religion of love for all those
whom it embraces; while cruelty and intolerance towards those who do not belong to it are natural to every religion.
However
we ought
personally,
not
difficult
to
we may
find
it
reproach believers too
account; people who are unbelieving or indifferent are so much better off psychologically severely on
this
in this respect.
shows turies,
itself
If
to-day that
so violent and
we can
intolerance
cruel
as
no longer
former cen-
in
scarcely conclude that there has been human manners. The cause is rather \
a softening in to be found in the undeniable weakening of religious / feelings and the libidinal ties which depend upon
them.
If
/religious
another group
one — and
the
tie
takes
socialistic
so —
of the
the
place
tie
seems to be
then there will be the doing same intolerance towards outsiders as in the age of the Wars of Religion; and if differences between
succeeding
in
scientific opinions
cance
for groups,
repeated with
this
could the
new
,
ever attain a
same
result
similsir
motivation.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK LIBRARY
signifi-
would again be
VI
FURTHER PROBLEMS AND LINES OF WORK
We
have
hitherto
and
have
found
emotional
considered
that
One
ties.
they
are
two
artificial
groups dominated by two
of these, the tie with the leader,
events for these cases) to be more of a ruling factor than the other, which holds between the members of the group.
seems
(at
all
Now much
remains to be
else
examined and
We
should the morphology of groups. described have to start from the ascertained fact that a mere in
collection of people ties
have not been
have to admit that
in
any collection of people the
form a psychological group may very should have to give become prominent.
tendency easily
not a group, so long as these established in it; but we should
is
to
We
our attention to the different kinds of groups, more or less stable,
that arise spontaneously,
and
to study
the conditions of their origin and of their dissolution. should above all be concerned with the distinction
We
and Lines of Work
Fu7'ther Problems
53
between groups which have a leader and leaderless We should consider whether groups with groups. leaders
not be the
may
whether
the
in
more
an idea,
others
not be substituted for the to
and complete,
primitive
an abstraction,
leader
which religious groups, with
may
(a state of things
their
invisible
head,
form a transition stage), and whether a common tendency, a wish in which a number of people can have a share, may not in the same way serve as a This
substitute.
or
less
abstraction,
completely embodied
we might
might be more
again, in
the
figure
of what
secondary leader, and interesting varieties w^ould arise from the relation between the call
a
idea and the leader.
The
leader or the leading idea might also, so to speak, be negative; hatred against a particular person or institution might operate in just the same unifying way, and might call up the
same kind of emotional Then the question would
ties
really
But have
these
all
been
dealt
Group Psychology, interest
will
in
whether a leader
essence of a group
—
which may, moreover,
part
in
not succeed
the in
literature
of
diverting our
from the fundamental psychological problems
confront
us
our attention
will
that
questions, w^ith
positive attachment.
also arise
indispensable to the and other questions besides. is
as
And the structure of a group. first be attracted by a consideration in
which promises to bring us
in the
most direct way
Group Psychology and the Analysis of
54 ^to /
j
/
a proof that
libidinal
ties
are
the
Ego
what characterize
a group.
Let us keep before our eyes the nature of the emotional relations which hold between men in general. According to Schopenhauer's famous simile of the freezing porcupines no one can tolerate a too intimate approach to his neighbour.^ The evidence of psycho-analysis shows that almost every intimate emotional relation bets^^een two people which lasts for some time marriage, friendship, the
—
—
leaves a parents and children^ sediment of feelings of aversion and hostility, which
relations
have
first
between to
be eliminated by
repression.
This
is
less disguised in the common wrangles business partners or in the grumbles of a subordinate
between
*A company of porcu'^ines crowded themselves very together one cold winter's day so as to profit by one another's warmth and so save themselves from being frozen to *
close
But scon they
death.
felt
one another's
And now, when
quills,
which induced
warmth separate again. once evil arose the second them nearer brought together again, more. So that they were driven backwards and forwards from one trouble to the other, until they had discovered a mean distance at which they could most tolerably exist' {Parerga und Paralipomena, II. Teil, XXXI., 'Gleichnisse und Parabeln'.) them
to
the need for.
^
Perhaps with the solitary exception of the relation of a to her son, which is based upon narcissism, is not disturbed by subsequent rivalry, and is reinforced by a rudimentary
mother
attempt at sexual object-choice.
j
Further Problems and Lines of Work at his superior.
The same
thing happens
come
in
units.
together thinks
than is
the
the
time
Every
two
the South
superior
most jealous
races
to
or
of
better
of
birth
Of two neighbouring towns each
other.
other's
related
the
itself
down upon
looks
when men
become connected by a marriage, each
families
them
larger
55
rival;
every
little
the others with contempt.
one
keep
another
at
canton Closely
arm's
length; the North German, every kind of aspersion upon
German cannot endure
Englishman casts
the Scotchman, the Spaniard despises the Portuguese. are no longer astonished that greater differences should lead to an almost insuperable repugnance,
We
such as the
Aryan
for
feel for the German, the and the white races for the Semite,
Gallic
the
people
coloured.
When who of
this
hostility
are otherwise loved feeling;
we
and
directed
is
we
describe
explain
the
it
against people as ambivalence/
1
fact,
in
what
is
probably far too rational a manner, by means of the numerous occasions for conflicts of interest which arise
precisely
undisguised feel
in
such
antipathies
intimate
and
aversions
In
the
which
people they have to do expression of self-love— of
towards strangers with
we may
relations.
whom
recognize the narcissism. This self-love works for the self-assertion of the
rence
and behaves as though the occurdivergence from his own particular
individual,
of
any
f
s
Group Psychology mid
56
of
lines
development
and a demand
why such just
details
that
a
involved
We
in
them
do not know
should have been directed to
of differentiation; this
Ego of
criticism
for their alteration.
sensitiveness
these
takable
the Analysis of the
whole
but
connection
is
it
unmis-
men
give
evidence of a readiness for hatred, an aggressiveness, the source of which is unknown, and to which one is
tempted to ascribe an elementary character.^ But the whole of this intolerance vanishes, tem-
porarily or permanently, as the result of the formation
group, and in a group. formation persists or so far as
So long
of a
it
as a group
extends, individuals
tliey were uniform, tolerate other people's peculiarities, put themselves on an equal level with them, and have no feeling of aversion towards
behave as though
Such a limitation of narcissism can, according our theoretical views, only be produced by one Love for factor, a libidinal tie with other people.
them. to
oneself for
knows only one
objects.^
The
barrier
question
— love
will
at
for others, love
once be raised
*
In a recently published study, Jenseits des Lustprinzips International Psycho(1920) [Beyond the Pie astire Principle, I No. have attempted to connect the Analytical Library, 4],
polarity of love instincts of life as the purest
and hatred with a hypothetical opposition between and death, and to establish the sexual instincts
examples of the former, the
instincts of
life.
^See *Zur Einfuhrung des Narzissmus', 19 14. Kleine Schriften znr Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 191 8.
Further Problems and Lines of Work
57
whether community of interest in itself, without any addition of libido, must not necessarily lead to the
\
of other people and to considerateness for This objection may be met by the reply that
toleration
them.
no
nevertheless effected
in
this
lasting
limitation
since
way,
of
narcissism
is
does not
tolerance
this
longer than the immediate advantage gained from the other people's collaboration. But the practical
persist
less than might be has shown that in cases of experience libidinal ties are regularly formed be-
importance of the supposed,
for
collaboration
discussion
is
tween the fellow-workers which prolong and solidify the relation between them to a point beyond what is
merely profitable.
social
relations
analytic
as
The same thing occurs in men's has become familiar to psycho-
research in the
course of the
The
of the individual libido.
libido
development
props
itself
upon
the satisfaction of the great vital needs, and chooses as its first objects the people who have a share in that process.
And
whole, just the civilizing
the
in
as
in
factor
from
development of mankind as
individuals, in
to
the
love
sense
altruism.
change egoism both of the sexual love
for
alone
that
And
it
acts
a'l
as
brings ry is true
this
women, with
all
the
obligations which it involves of sparing what wornen are fond of, and also of the desexualised, sublimated homosexual love for other men, which springs from
Avork in
common.
I
5
Group Psychology and
8
therefore
If
to
subject
Ego
groups narcissistic self-love is which do not operate outside
limitations
cogent evidence that the essence of a formation consists in a new kind of libidinal
that
them,
group ties
in
the Analysis of the
among
is
the
But our question as
which
exist
of neuroses
members of the group. now leads us on to
interest
to in
what may
the
In
groups.
we have
the pressing be the nature of these ties
hitherto
psycho-analytic study
been occupied almost
exclusively with ties that unite with their objects those love instincts which still pursue directly sexual aims. In
groups there can evidently be no question of sexual aims of that kind. are concerned here with love
We
instincts
which have been diverted from
their original
though they do not operate w^ith less energy on that account. Now we have already observed aims,
range of the usual sexual object-cathexis [Objektbesetzung] phenomena w^hich represent a di-
within
the
of
version
have
and
the
described
have
from
instinct
them
as
degrees
that
recognized
encroachment
the
our
closely
upon attention more
its
they
ego. to
sexual
aim.
We
of being in love, involve a certain
We
shall
these
now
turn
phenomena of
expectation of finding in them conditions which can be transferred to the ties
being that
know know
in
love,
in
the
firm
But we should also like groups. whether this kind of object-cathexis, as
exist
it
in
in
sexual
life,
represents
the
to
we
only manner
Further Problems and Lines of Work
59
people, or whether we must take other mechanisms of the sort into account. of emotional
As
tie
with
other
we
from psycho-analysis that there do exist other mechanisms for emotional ties,
a matter of fact
learn
the so-called identifications^
insufficiently-known
processes and hard to describe, the investigation of which will for some time keep us away from the subject of
Group Psychology.
VII
IDENTIFICATION
Identification
known
is
to
psycho-analysis emotional tie with
as
the
another expression of an It a in the early history of the person. plays part little boy will exhibit a special Oedipus complex. earliest
A
interest
in his father;
he would
like to
grow
like
him
We
him, and take his place everywhere. may say simply that he takes his father as his ideal. This behaviour has nothing to do with a passive or
and be
like
feminine
males
in
it
general);
masculine.
complex,
towards
attitude
It
for
in
fits
which
At the same
is
father
his
on
very
the well
(and
towards
contrary typically with the Oedipus
helps to prepare the way. time as this identification with his it
boy has begun to develop a true object-cathexis towards his mother according He then to the anaclitic type \Anlehnungstypus\} father, or a little later, the
*
'
[Literally, leaning-up-against type *I
lean
up
against'.
In
the
first
';
from the Greek* dvaicXCva'
'
phase of their development the
61
Identi/ication exhibits,
two psychologically
therefore,
distinct
ties:
a straightforward sexual object-cathexis towards his mother and a typical identification towards his father. The two subsist side by side for a time without any mutual influence or interference. In consequence ol the irresistible advance towards a unification of mental life
come
they
complex
Oedipus
The
little
way
with
on a
father then takes identical
to
his
that
mother.
and
last;
from
originates
boy notices his
at
together
his
His
normal
the
confluence^
their
stands
father
identification
hostile colourincr
in
his
with
his
and becomes
with the wish to replace his father in regard
mother
as
well.
ambivcdent from the
in
Identification,
very
first;
it
can
turn
fact,
is
into
an
expression of tenderness as easily as into a wish for someone's removal. It behaves like a derivative the in
first oral phase of the organisation of the libido, which the object that w^e long for and prize is
by eating and
assimilated as such.
The
cannibal, as
is
in that
we know,
way
annihilated
has remained at
sexual instincts have no independent means of finding satisfaction; they do so by propping themselves upon or Meaning up against' the
self-preser\'ative
sexual object this
path;
is
that
is,
discussion
The
be of the
of the
individual's first choice of a
'anaclitic type'
when he choses
same person who has full
instincts.
said to
satisfied his early
anaclitic
and
when
it
follows
as his first sexual object the
non-sexual needs. For a
narcissistic
choice compare 'Zur Einfuhrung des Narzissmus'.
of
object—types Translator.']
62
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
this
standpoint;
he has a devouring affection only devours people of whom
and
enemies
for his
he
is
fond.^
The subsequent the father
the
easily
It
may happen
inverted,
and
taken as the object of a feminine object from which the directly sexual
father
an
attitude,
lost sight of.
Oedipus complex becomes
the
that that
may
history of this identification with
be
is
look for satisfaction; in that event the identification with the father has become the precursor of an object tie with the father. The same holds good, instincts
with the necessary substitutions, of the baby daughter as well. It
easy to state
is
between
an
identification
in
a formula the distinction with
the
choice of the father as an object.
father
one's father
second
he to
what one would
is
what one would
that
distinction,
taches
is
the
The former
is
is,
In the first case
like to be^
to
like
and
in the
have.
The
depends upon whether the
tie
at-
subject or to the object of the ego. therefore already possible before any
sexual object-choice has been made.
*
and the
It is
much more
See Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, and Abraham's
*
iiber die friiheste pragenitale Entwicklungsder Libido', Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse, 1916, Bd, rV; also included in his Klinische Beitrdge zur Psycho-
Untersuchungen
stufe
analyse 1921).
(Internationale
psychoanalytische
Bibliothek.
Nr.
10,
63
Identification difficult
of
tion
to give a clear metapsychological representathe distinction. can only see that
We
identification
mould a person's own of the one that has been taken
endeavours
after the fashion
ego
to
as a 'model'.
Let us disentangle the
structure
identification
as
occurs
it
symptom from
of a neurotic
its
complicated connections. Supposing that a (and we will keep to her for the present)
in
rather
little^ girl
—
develops
identification
may come
same painful symptom as her mother for instance, the same tormenting cough. Now this may come
the
about
from a
various ways.
in
the
hostile
mother's
Oedipus complex; in that case desire on the part to girl's
and
place,
object love tow^ards a realisation, under ^
her
of
guilt,
desire
You wanted
are the
The
— anyhow
father,
influence
to
take
far
as
her
mother,
the
of
signifies
take
her
expresses
her
and brings
her the
mechanism
complete
symptom
be your
to
as
the
it
pain the
of
a
mother's
and
about
sense
of
place:
now you
This goes'. structure of
is
a
symptom. Or, on the other hand, the symptom may be the same as that of the person who is loved (so, for instance, Dora in the
hysterical
—
'
Bruchstiick
father's
*
einer
cough);
in
her imitated Hysterieanalyse'^ that case we can only describe
\Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre. Zweite Folge.]
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
64
<^
of things by saying that identification has instead of object-choice, and that object-
state
^.the
appeared 'hoice has regressed
is
it
tie;
have heard
the earliest and original form of often happens that under the con-
that identification
emotional
We
to identification.
ditions in which symptoms are constructed, that is, where there is repression and where the mechanisms
of
unconscious
the
are
dominant,
turned back into identification
object-choice
— the
is
ego, that is, assumes the characteristics of the object. It is noticeable
ego sometimes copies not loved and sometimes the one
that in these identifications the
the person
who
loved.
is
cases
who
the
who
There portant
must
It
identification
limited one
person
is
is
is
us that in both
strike
a
and
extremely and only borrows a single trait from the
is
its
is
a
case
of
partial
object. third
particularly
symptom
identification leaves
who
also
frequent
formation,
in
and im-
which
the
any object relation to the person
being copied
entirely out of account.
Sup-
a boarding school has had a letter from someone with whom she
posing, for instance, that
is
secretly
she
that
some the
in
love
reacts
to
of her friends
fit,
as
we
The mechanism
say, is
one of the
girls in
which arouses her jealousy, and it
with
a
who know
of hysterics; then about it will contract
fit
by means of mental that
infection.
of identification based
the possibility or desire of putting oneself in the
upon same
65
Identification
The
situation.
other
girls
would
like to
have a secret
love affair too, and under the influence of a sense of also
they
guilt
the
accept
involved
pain
in
it.
It
would be wrong to suppose that they take on the out
symptom sympathy this
is
of
only
On the contrary, the\ sympathy. out of the identification, and
arises
proved by the
fact
that infection or imitation
of this kind takes place in circumstances where even less pre-existing sympathy is to be assumed than usually exists
between
friends in a girls' school.
One
ego has perceived a significant analogy with another upon one point in our example upon a similar
—
readiness
for
an identification
is thereupon under the influence point, and, of the pathogenic situation, is displaced on to the symptom which the one ego has produced. The
constructed
emotion;
on
this
by means of the symptom has thus mark of a point of coincidence between egos which has to be kept repressed.
identification
become the
tv\^o
the
What we have
learned from these three sources
may be summarised
as
follows.
First,
identification
the original form of emotional tie with an object; secondly, in a regressive way it- becomes a substitute for a libidinal object tie, as it were by means of the
is
introjection it
may
of the object
arise with every
quality shared with
object
of the
some
sexual
into
the
ego;
and
thirdly,
perception of a common other person who is not an
new
instinct.
The more important
66 this
Group Psychology
common
quality
is,
more
the
new
sent the beginning of a
Ego
successful
become, and
identification
partial
a7td the Analysis of the
it
this
may
thus repre-
may
tie.
We
already begin to divine that the mutual tie between members of a group is in the nature of an
based upon an important quality; and we may suspect that
of this kind,
identification
common common quality
emotional this
in
lies
the nature of the
tie
with
Another suspicion may tell us that we the leader. are far from having exhausted the problem of identification, and that we are faced by the process which ^
calls
psychology
'
and which
empathy \Einfuhlung\ our
plays the largest part in
understanding of what
inherently foreign to our ego in other people. But we shall here limit ourselves to the immediate emo-
is
tional
side
effects of identification,
significance for
its
and
psychoses, has to us in
tification
immediately these
cases
already problems of
detail
as
I
shall
material
iden-
exhibit
to
some other cases which
comprehensible. in
has
difficult
been able
also
on one
life.
which
research, Psycho-analytic attacked the more occasionally
the
shall leave
our intellectual
treat for
our
are not
two
of
further
consideration.
The genesis class
been
of
cases
of male is
as
homosexuality
follows.
A
in
a
young man
large
has
unusually long and intensely fixated upon his mother in the sense of the Oedipus complex. But ~
67
Identification at last, for
end of
after the
exchanging
his
his puberty,
mother
for
the time
comes
some other sexual
Things take a sudden turn: the young man does not abandon his mother, but identifies himself with her; he transforms himself into her, and now object.
about
for objects which can replace his ego and for him, on which he can bestow such love and care as he has experienced from his mother. This is
looks
a frequent process, which can be confirmed as often as one likes, and which is naturally quite independent of any hypothesis that may be made as to ganic driving force and the motives of the transformation. ation
of
is
its
A
ample
striking thing
scale;
features
it
—
about ^
the or-
sudden
this identific- \
remoulds the ego sexual
one
in
character
—
j
/ important upon the model of w^hat has hitherto been the object. In this process the object itself is renounced whether its
in
its
—
»
entirely
the
or in the sense
unconscious
is
a
of being preserved question outside the
discussion.
Identification
nounced or
lost as
a substitute for
this object into the ego,
to
us.
A
process
with an object
is
of the
it,
only
in
present
that
is
re-
introjection of
indeed no longer a novelty kind may sometimes be
A short time directly observed in small children. ago an observation of this sort was published in the
A
Internationale Zeitschrift fiir Psychoanalyse. child \vho was unhappy over the loss of a kitten declared straight out that now he himself was the kitten, and
Group Psychology and
68
the Analysis of the
accordingly crawled about on
all
fours,
Ego
would not eat
at table, etc.^
Another
/
such
instance
object has been provided
an
cholia,
introjection
by the
which
affection
of
of melan-
analysis
counts
the
of
among
most
the
exciting causes the real or emotional loss of a loved object. leading characteristic
remarkable of
its
A
of these cases
a cruel self-depreciation
is
combined with
and
relentless self-criticism
of the ego bitter self-
reproaches. Analyses have shown that this disparagement and these reproaches apply at bottom to the object and represent the ego's revenge upon it. The shadow of the object has fallen upon the ego, as I have said elsewhere.^
The
introjection of the object
unmistakably clear. But these melancholias else,
which
may be
here
show us something
also
of importance
They show us the ego
cussions.
is
for
our later
dis-
fallen
into
divided,
two pieces, one of which rages against the second. This second piece is the one which has been altered
by
introjection
and which contains
the
But the piece which behaves so cruelly
known *
to
us
either.
Marcuszewicz
Kindern.'
It
Internationale
is
object.
not un-
comprises the conscience,
' :
lost
Beitrag
zum
Zeiischrift
autistischen
Denken
fur Psychoanalyse,
a bei
1920,
Bd. VI. ^
['Trauer und Melancholic' Kleine Schrifien zur NeurosenVierte lekre, Folge, 191 8.]
69
Identification
faculty \histanzY vi\\}c{\x\ the ego, which even normal times takes up a critical attitude towards the ego, though never so relentlessly and so unjusticritical
in
fiably. On previous occasions we have been driven to the hypothesis^ that some such faculty develops in our ego which may cut itself off from the rest of
the
ego and come
called
the
it
we have
into '
ego ideal
ascribed
to
with
conflict
'
it
We
it.
and by way of functions
,
moral
the
self-observation,
conscience, the censorship of dreams, and the influence in repression. have said that it
We
heir
to
the
original
have
narcissism
which the
in
chief is
the
childish
ego found its self-sufficiency; it gradually gathers up from the influences of the environment the demands which
that
environment makes
which the ego cannot always rise when he cannot be satisfied with
be able which has been
nevertheless ideal
to
find
upon the his
ego
satisfaction
differentiated
In delusions of observation, as
ego and
to; so that a man,
out
we have
itself,
may
the ego of the ego. in
further shown,
the disintegration of this faculty has become patent, and has thus revealed its origin in the influence of
*
—
*
like instance' in the phrase 'court of first \^Instanz* was originally a legal term. It is now used in the sense instance' of one of a hierarchy of authorities or functions. Translator.]
—
—
^
cholic'.
'Zur Einfiihrung
des
Narzissmus',
'Trauer und Melan-
1
/O
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the
Ego
superior powers, and above all of parents/ But we have not forgotten to add that the amount of distance
between
and the
this
ego
ideal
many people
this
differentiation
real
ego is very variable from one individual to another, and that with within
not go further than with children. But before we can employ
the
this
ego does
material
for
understanding the libidinal organisation of groups, we must take into account some other examples of the
mutual relations between the object and the ego.^ *
*Zur Einfiihrung des Narzissmus.'
^
We
?ire very well aware that we have not exhausted the nature of identification with these examples taken from pathology,
that we have consequently left part of the riddle of group formations untouched. A far more fundamental and comprehen-
and
sive psychological analysis
would have
to intervene
at this point.
A /
path leads from identification by way of imitation to empathy, that is, to the comprehension of the mechanism by means of
which we are enabled to take up any attitude at all towards another mental life. Moreover there is still much to be explained in the manifestations of existing identifications. These result among other things in a person limiting his aggressiveness towards those with whom he has identified himself, and in his sparing them and giving them help. The study of such identifications, like those, for instance,
Robertson Smith
which
lie
at
the root
to the surprising result
of clan feeling,
that they rest
upon
led
the
substance {Kinship and Marriage, 1885), and may even therefore be brought about by a meal eaten in common. This feature makes it possible to connect this kind of recognition of a
common
identification with the early history of the
constructed in Totem iind Tabu.
human
family which
I
VIII
BEING IN LOVE AND HYPNOSIS
Even true
in its
to
name
some *
usage of language remains
the
caprices
kind
of
realit3'\
Thus
it
the
gives
'
a great many kinds of emotional relationship which we too group together theoretically as love; but then again it feels a doubt whether this
of
love
love
is
to
real,
true,
actual
love,
and so
hints
at
a whole scale of possibilities within the range of the shall have no difficulty in phenomena of love.
We
making the same discovery empirically. In one class of cases being in love is nothing more than object-cathexis on the part of the sexual with a view to directly sexual satisfaction, a cathexis which expires, moreover, when this aim has
instincts
been reached; love.
But,
as
this is
what
is
called
common,
sensual
we know,
remains so simple.
It
the libidinal situation rarely was possible to calculate with
upon the revival of the need which had expired; and this must no doubt have been the certainty
just first
'J2
Group Psychology and the Analysis of
the
Ego
motive for directing a lasting cathexis upon the sexual object and for
*
'
loving
it
in the passionless intervals
as well.
To
this
must be added another
factor
derived
from the astonishing course of development which is pursued by the erotic life of man. In his first phase, which has usually come to an end by the time he is years old, a child has found the first object for his love in one or other of his parents, and all of five
his
sexual instincts with their
demand
for satisfaction
have been united upon this object. The repression which then sets in compels him to renounce the greater number of these infantile sexual aims, and leaves behind a profound modification in his relation to
his
parents.
The
child
still
remains
tied
to
parents, but by instincts which must be described as being 'inhibited in their aim \zielgehemmte\\
his
The emotions which he
feels
henceforward towards
these objects of his love are characterized as 'tender'. It is well known that the earlier sensual tendencies '
remain more or
'
strongly preserved in the unconscious, so that in a certain sense the whole of the less
original current continues to exist.
At puberty,
as
we know,
^
there set in
new and
In very strong tendencies with directly sexual aims. unfavourable cases they remain separate, in the form
*
Cf.
Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie,
I.e.
Being in Love and Hypnosis of
a sensual
trends which persist. the two aspects of
kind
this
tender*
emotional
are then faced
which
certain
by a picture movements in
A
will
women whom he
deeply respects but
him to sexual
excite
We
*
such delight in idealising. man of show a sentimental enthusiasm for
take
literature
from the
current,
73
activities,
and he
who do
not
only be he does not love
potent with other women whom but thinks little of or even despises.^
will
*
'
More
often,
adolescent succeeds in bringing about a certain degree of synthesis between the unsensual, heavenly love and the sensual, earthly love, and his the
however,
to
relation
inhibited
his
of
interaction in
sexual object is characterised by the uninhibited instincts and of instincts
their
aim.
The depth
contrasted
as
with
to which anyone
purely sensual desire, may be measured by the size of the share taken by the inhibited instincts of tendem*ess. is
in
love,
his
In connection with this question of being in love
we
have always been struck by the phenomenon of sexual over-estimation
—the
fact that the loved
object enjoys
a certain amount of freedom from criticism, and that all its characteristics are valued more highly than those of people at a time
*
who when
are not loved, or than it
itself
was not loved.
its
If
own were the sensual
*Uber die allgemeinste Emiedrigung des Liebeslebens.
Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 19 1 8.
F
'
Group Psychology and
74
somewhat more
are
tendencies
the Autolysis of the
Ego repressed
effectively
produced that the object has come to be sensually loved on account of its spiritual merits, whereas on the contrary these merits or set aside, the illusion
may
really only
is
have been
lent
to
it
by
sensual
its
charm.
The tendency which respect easier
the
that
is
for
of idealisation.
us to find our is
object
way
being treated
when we
own
falsifies
in
are
judgement in this But this makes it
about.
the
We
see that
same way
in love a
as our
considerable
ego, so that 'amount of narcissistic libido overflows on to the object. It is even obvious, in many forms of love choice, that the object serves as a substitute for some unattained love it on account of the ego ideal of our own.
We
which we have striven to reach
perfections
own in
our
like to
procure roundabout way as a means of satisfying our
ego,
this
and which we should now
for
narcissism. If
love
the
sexual
increase even
over-estimation
and the being
further, then the
in
interpretation of
The becomes still more unmistakable. tendencies whose trend is tovv-ards directly sexual satisfaction may now be pushed back entirely, as the
picture
man's regularly happens, for instance, with the young more and more sentimental passion; the ego becomes unassuming and modest, and the object more and more sublime and precious, until at last it gets possession
Being
in
Love and Hypnosis
of the entire self-love of the ego, whose self-sacrifice thus follows as a natural consequence. The object has, so to speak, consumed the ego. Traits of humility, of the
limitation
injury occur extreme case
every case
result
remain
in
of narcissism,
they are of the withdrawal of the in
and of
self-
of being in love; in the only intensified, and as a
solitary
sensual
claims they
supremacy.
This happens especially easily with love that is unhappy and cannot be satisfied; for in spite of ever}^thing each sexual satisfaction ahvays involves a reduction in sexual over-estimation. Contemporaneously with this 'devotion' of the ego to the object, w^hich
no longer to be distinguished from a sublimated devotion to an abstract idea, the functions allotted to
is
The criticism the ego ideal entirely cease to operate. exercised by that faculty is silent; everything that the object does and asks for is right and blameless. Conscience has no application to anything that is done for the sake of the object; in the blindness of love remorselessness
is
carried to the pitch of crime.
The
whole situation can be completely summarised in a formula: The object has taken the place of the ego ideal, It
/ J'
is
now easy
to define the distinction
between
identification and such extreme developments of being in love as may be described as fascination or infatuation.
\i
In the former case
the ego has enriched
itself
Group Psychology and
'j^
the Analysis of the
Ego
*
'
with the properties of the object, it has introjected the object into itself, as Ferenczi expresses it. In the second case it is impoverished, it has surrendered itself to the object, it has substituted the object for its most important constituent. Closer consideration soon makes it
plain,
an
that
however, of
illusion
this
kind of account creates
existence.
Economically there
erishment
or
is
have
that
contradistinctions
no
real
no question of impovis even possible to
enrichment; it describe an extreme case of being
in
love as a state
which the ego has introjected the object into itself. Another distinction is perhaps better calculated to in
meet the essence
the
matter.
In
the
case
of
object has been lost or given up; up again inside the ego, and the ego a partial alteration in itself after the model of
identification it
of
the
then set
is
makes
other case the object is a retained, and there is hyper-cathexis of it by the ego and at the ego's expense. But here again a
the
lost
difficulty
object.
presents
tification
given
up?
In
Is
itself.
presupposes
Can
the
there
that
it
quite certain that iden-
object-cathexis
be no
identification
has been with the
object retained? And before we embark upon a discussion of this delicate question, the perception may already be beginning to dawn on us that yet another alternative
embraces the
real
namely, whether the object ego or of the ego ideal.
is
essence of the matter,
put
in the place of the
Being in Love a7id Hypnosis
From
being
love
in
to
The
only a short
hypnosis in
yy is
evidently
which the two
step. respects is the same humble subare obvious. There agree same the compliance, the same absence of jection, criticism, towards the hypnotist just as towards the
loved object.
There
is
the
same absorption of one*s
own initiative; no one can doubt that the hypnotist It is has stepped into the place of the ego ideal. only that everything in hypnosis, so that to
explain being in the other way round.
is
even clearer and more intense
would be more to the point love by means of hypnosis than it
The
the sole object, and no attention is paid to any but him. The fact that the ego experiences in a dream-like way whatever he may request- or assert reminds us that we omitted to
hypnotist
is
mention among the functions of the ego ideal the
business of testing the reality of things.^ No wonder that the ego takes a perception for real if its reality is vouched for by the mental faculty which ordinarily
discharges the
duty of testing the reality of things. The complete absence of tendencies which are uninhibited in their sexual aims contributes further towards the extreme purity of the phenomena. The hypnotic relation is the devotion of someone in love to an unlimited degree but with sexual satisfaction excluded;
*
*Metapsychologische Erganzung zur Traumlehre. Kleine Schrifien zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 191 8. Cf.
'
Group Psychology and
78
whereas
case
the
in
the Analysis of the
of being
love
in
Ego kind of
this
only temporarily kept back, and remains in the background as a possible aim at some later time.
satisfaction
is
But on the other hand we may
the hypnotic relation is (if the expression sible) a group formation with two members.
not a good
is
object
formation, because
with
cal
group
comparison
one element the
of the individual to
for us
leader.
a group is
it
—the
identi-
of the
fabric
behaviour is
distin-
this limitation
distinguished from being directly sexual tendencies.
number, just as it by the absence of It
permis-
Hypnosis
Hypnosis
guished from a group formation by
respect
is
with
truer to say that
is
Out of the complicated
it.
isolates
it
it
for
say that
also
is
of
in love
In this
occupies a middle position between the two. interesting to see that it is precisely those
it
is
sexual tendencies that are inhibited in their aims which
achieve such lasting easily
ties
between men.
be understood from the
fact
But
this
can
that they are not
capable of complete satisfaction, while sexual tendencies which are uninhibited in their aims suffer an .
through the discharge of It is energy every time the sexual aim is attained.
extraordinary
reduction
the fate of sensual love to it
is
the
satisfied; first
must
it
to
be able
to last,
it
must from
— aims — or
be mixed with purely tender components
with such, it
for
become extinguished when
that
itself
is,
as are inhibited in their
undergo a transformation of
this kind.
Being in Love and Hypnosis
79
Hypnosis would solve the riddle of the not
that
libidinal
of groups for us straight away, if it were itself exhibits some features which are
constitution it
not met by the rational explanation we have hitherto given of it as a state of being in love with the There is still a directly sexual tendencies excluded. deal
great
in
it
we must
which
recognise as unex-
plained and mystical. It contains an additional element of paralysis derived from the relation between someone
with
power and someone who
superior
— which
powder and helpless to the hypnosis of terror
The manner
may which
afford
occurs
without
is
a
transition
animals.
in
produced and its relationship to sleep are not clear; and the puzzling way in which some people are subject to it, while others
resist
it
which
in
completely,
known which is makes possible libido
when
which
it
is
it
points
realised in
the
it
purity^
exhibits.
It
some
to
factor
still
un-
and which perhaps alone of the
attitudes
of the
noticeable that, even
is
there
is complete suggestive compliance in other the moral conscience of the person hypnotized respects,
may show fact
resistance.
that in hypnosis
But as
it
this is
may be due
to
usually practised
the
some
knowledge may be retained that what is happening is only a game, an untrue reproduction of another situation of far
But in
more importance
life.
preceding discussions we are quite to give the formula for the libidinal
after the
a position
to
8o
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the
Ego
constitution of groups: or at least of such groups as we have hitherto considered, namely, those that have
a leader and have not been able by '
means of too much
'
organisation to acquire secondarily the characteristics of an individual. primary group of this kind is
A
a number of individuals who have substituted 07ie and the same object for their ego ideal and have consequently identified themselves with one another in their ego. This condition admits of graphic representation:
Ego
Ideal
Object
Outer Object
:-x
IX
THE HERD INSTINCT
We
cannot for long enjoy the illusion that we have solved the riddle of the group with this formula. It
is
impossible to escape the immediate and disturbing all we have really done has been to
recollection that
the question on to the riddle of hypnosis, about which so many points have yet to be cleared up. And shift
now
another objection shows us our further path. might be said that the intense emotional
It
which
we
observe
in
groups
are
explain one of their characteristics
pendence and in
initiative in their
the reactions of
all
sufficient
—quite the lack
members, the
ties
to
of indesimilarity
of them, their reduction, so to
speak, to the level of group individuals. But if we look at it as a whole, a group shows us more than this.
Some
ability,
for
of
its
features
—the weakness of
the lack of emotional restraint,
intellectual
the incapadty
moderation and del ay, the inclination to exceed
every limit
in the
expression of emotion and to work
\
82 it
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
off completely in the
i
—these and
similar
so impressively described in Le Bon, show an unmistakable picture of a recession of mental activity to an earlier jtage such as we are not
which
features^
,
we
form of action
find
or children.
A regression
surprised to find
among savages
of this sort
particular an essential characteristic of
common and
is in
groups, while, as
we have
heard, in organized can to a large extent be checked.
groups it thus have an impression of a state in which an individual's separate emotion and personal intelartifiqial
We
act
too
are
weak
to
come
to
anything by themselves and are absolutely obliged to wait till they are reinforced through being repeated in a similar are way in the other members of the group. lectucd
We
reminded of how many of these phenomena of dependence are part of the normal constitution of human society, of how little originality and personal courage are to
be found
in
it,
of
how much every
individual
which ruled_ by th ose attitu des of the group mind exhibit themselves in such forms as racial character-
is
prejudices, public opinion, etc. ot__suggestion becomes a greater riddle
istics, class
we admit j
\
The
influence
for us
when
not exercised only by the leader, but by every individual upon every other individual; and we must reproach ourselves with having unfairly that
it
is
emphasized the relation to the leader and with having kept the other factor of mutual suggestion too much in the
background.
The Herd
be
Instinct
83
After this encouragement to modesty, we shall inclined to listen to another voice, which promises
us an explanation based upon simpler grounds.
a one
to
is
upon the herd is
that
were
it
be found
in Trotter's
Such book thoughtful
concerning which
instinct,
my
only regret
does not entirely escape the antipathies that
set loose by the recent great war.' Trotter derives the mental phenomena that are
described as occurring
groups from a herd
in
which
human
innate in
is
instinct
beings just as in other species of animals. Biologically this gregariousness is an analogy to multicellularity and as
{'gregariousness'))
it
were a continuation of
From
the standpoint of a further manifestation of the it.
the libido
theory
inclination,
which proceeds from the
it
is
libido,
and which
by all living beings of the same kind, to combine ^ in more and more comprehensive units. The individual if he is alone. The dread shown feels incomplete would seem small children already to be an exby
is
felt
*
'
pression of this herd instinct. Opposition to the herd is as good as separation from it, and is therefore aii^ously avoided. But the herd turns away from
anything
^
W.
that
is
Trotter:
new
or unusual.
Instincts
of
the
The herd
Herd
in Peace
Fisher Unwin, 1916.
See
my
essay yenseits des Lustprinzipt
instinct
and War.
Group Psychology and
84
the Analysis of the
would appear to be something Svhich cannot be split up'. Trotter gives as considers as primary nutrition,
the
of instincts
list
those
primary,
of
something
which he
self-preservation,
and of the herd. The
of sex,
Ego
last
of
often
comes into opposition with the others. The feelings of guilt and of duty are the peculiar possessions of a gregarious animal. Trotter also derives from the herd forces which psycho-analysis instinct the repressive exist in the has shown to ego, and from the same
source accordingly the resistances which the physician comes up against in psycho-analytic treatment.
Speech owes
its
importance to
its
aptitude for mutual
and upon it the identiunderstanding fication of the individuals with one another largely in
the herd,
rests.
While Le Bon
is
principally
concerned with typical
group formations, and McDougall with stable associations, Trotter has chosen as the centre of his
transient
interest
the most generalised
which man, that C^cbov
form of assemblage in jtoXitikov, passes his life, and he
psychological basis. But Trotter is under no necessity of tracing back the herd instinct, for he characterizes it as primary and not further reducible. gives us
its
Boris Sidis's attempt, to which he refers, at tracing
the herd
instinct
back to
suggestibility
is
fortunately
superfluous as far as he is concerned; it is an explanation of a familiar and unsatisfactory type, and the
The Herd
Instinct
85
— —
converse proposition that suggestibility of the herd instinct would seem to far
more
light
is
a derivative
me
to
throw-
on the subject.
But Trotter's exposition, with even more justice than the others', is open to the objection that it takes too little account of the leader's part in a group, while we incline rather to the opposite judgement, the leader
impossible to grasp the nature of a group if is disregarded. The herd instinct leaves no
room
at
all
along
with
that
is
it
that
too,
need
for
the
no
leader;
herd,
path
a God;
But -besides
is
merely thrown
almost by chance;
leads
the
he
from
herd
is
this
this
it
instinct
in
follows,
to
the
without a herdsman.
Trotter's exposition can that is to say, psychologically;
mined
made
the
for
be underit can be
events probable that the herd instinct is not irreducible, that it is not primary in the same at
all
sense as the instinct of self-preservation and the sexual instinct.
no easy matter to trace the ontoThe dread w^hich is genesis of the herd instinct. shown by small children when they are left alone, and It
is
naturally
which Trotter claims as being akeady a manifestation of the instinct, nevertheless suggests more readily another interpretation. The dread relates to the child's
mother, and later to other familiar persons, and it is the expression of an unfulfilled desire, which the child does not yet know how to deal with in any way
86
Group Psychology and the Analysis of
except by turning
when
it
into dread.^
Nor
is
the
Ego
the child's dread
alone pacified by the sight of any haphazard member of the herd but on the contrary it is only brought into existence by the approach of a stranger is
it
*
'
,
^
of this sort.
Then
for a long time nothing in the nature
of herd instinct or group feeling children.
'
Something
like
it
is
to
grows up
be observed
first
of
all,
in
in
a
nursery containing many children, out of the children's relation to their parents, and it does so as a reaction to the initial envy with which the elder child receives the
younger
like
to
The
one. its
elder
child
would
successor
certainly
to
put jealously aside, from the away parents, and to rob it of privileges; but in face of the fact that this it
(like
all
just the
that
come
same
w^ay,
and
in
its
child
loved by the parents
is
later)
keep all
in
consequence of the impos-
of
maintaining its hostile attitude without damaging itself, it is forced into identifying itself with the other children. So there grows up in the troop of sibility
communal or group feeling, which is then developed at school. The first demand made
children a further
by
this
reaction-formation
treatment for
all.
We
all
is
for
ably this claim is put forward at be the favourite oneself, at all
^
See the
fnhrung
remarks
upon Dread
in die Psychoanalyse.
justice,
for
equal
know how
XXV.
loudly and implacschool. If one cannot
events nobody else
in
Vorlesungen zur Ein-
The Herd be the
shall
87
favourite. This transformation
a
of jealousy
by classroom — might
ing
Instinct
group feeling
—the replacthe
in
nursery
be considered improbable, if the same process could not later on be observed and
We
have only to think
again in other circumstances. of the troop of women and girls,
all
them
of
love
in
in an enthusiastically sentimental way, who crowd round a singer or pianist after his performance. It would certainly be easy for each of them to be jealous
of the rest; but,
in
face
of their numbers and the
consequent impossibility of their reaching the aim of their love, they renounce it, and, instead of pulling out one another's hair, they act as a united group, do homage to the hero of the occasion with their
common
actions,
a share
of his
have
.
and would probably be glad to have flowing
succeeded
When,
the instincts
is
as
is
Originally
usual,
they
rivals,
themselves with
identifying
by means of a
another object.
in
locks.
love
similar
for
the
one
same
a situation in the field of
capable of various outcomes,
we need
not be surprised if the actual outcome is one which involves the possibility of a certain amount of satisfaction,
obvious, life
even though in itself more passed over because the circumstances of
while is
prevent
its
another,
attaining this aim.
What
of
appears later on in society group Gemeingeist^ esprit de corps
does not belie
in the
shape
*
^
its
derivation from what
spirit',
was
etc.,
originally
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
88
No one must want to put himself forward, one must be the same and have the same. every envy.
Social justice things so that
ask
root of social reveals
is
them.
for
itself
that
others
what
as well, or, to
means
may
we deny
may
thing,
demand
This
many
have to do without them
same
the
ourselves
for
not be able
equality
is
the 4
It conscience and the sense of duty. unexpectedly in the syphilitic 's dread
of infecting other people, taught us to understand.
which psycho-analysis has ^ The dread exhibited by
wretches
corresponds to their violent ' struggles against the unconscious wish to spread their
these
poor
on
infection
other
to
be infected
alone
people; for why -should they and cut off from so much? why I
not other people as well? And the same germ is to | be found in the pretty anecdote of the judgement of
Solomon. not
shall
woman
is
Thus what was tie
one woman's child
If
have
a
live
one
dead, the other
either.
The bereaved
-I
this wish.
recognized by social feeling
is
is
based upon the reversal of
a hostile feeling into a positively-toned i So far as we of the nature of an identification. first
-
have hitherto been able to follow the course of events, this reversal appears to be effected under the influence of a
common
group.
We
identification
with a person outside the do not ourselves regard our analysis of
tender
tie
as exhaustive, but
present purpose
that
we
it
is
enough
for
our
should revert to this one
The Herd feature
—
its
demand
that
sistently carried through. the discussion of the two
Instinct
89
equalization
We
shall
be con-
have already heard in groups, church and
artificial
army, that their preliminary condition is that all their members should be loved in the same way by one person, the leader. Do not let us forget, however, that
demand for equality in a group members and not to the leader.
the
applies only to its All the members
must be equal to one another, but they all want to be ruled by one person. Many equals, who can identify themselves with one another, and a single person superior to them all that is the situation
—
that
we
find realised in groups
which are capable of
Let us venture, then, to correct Trotter's pronouncement that man is a herd animal and assert subsisting.
that he in
is
rather a horde animal, an individual creature
a horde led by a
chief.
X
THE GROUP AND THE PRIMAL HORDE
took up a conjecture of Darwin's to the effect that the primitive form of human society was that of a horde ruled over despotically by a In
19 1 2
I
powerful male. I attempted to show that the fortunes of this horde have left indestructible traces upon the history
of
human
development
descent; and, especially, that the of totemism, which comprises in itself
the beginnings of religion, morality% and social organisation, is connected with the killing of the chief by
violence and the transformation of the paternal horde into a community of brothers.^ To be sure, this is
a
only
like
hypothesis,
so
others
many
with which
archaeologists endeavour to lighten the darkness of a Just-So Story as it was amusingly prehistoric times
—
*
'
,
by a not unkind critic (Kroeger); but I think it creditable to such a hypothesis if it proves able to
called is
^
Totem und Tabu.
1
The Group and the Primal Horde and
coherence
bring
more new
into
understanding
91
nk)re
and
regions.
Human
once again the familiar picture of an individual of superior strength among a troop of similar companions, a picture which is also contained
exhibit
groups
our
in
idea
of
the
horde.
primal
The
psychology of such a group, as w^e know it from the the descriptions to Vv^hich we have so often referred
—
dwindling of the conscious individual personality, the focussing of thoughts and feelings into a common the
direction,
predominance of the emotions and of
the [unconscious mental life, the tendency to the immediate carrying out of intentions as they emerge
—
corresponds to a state of regression to a primitive mental activity, of just such a sort as we should be inclined to ascribe to the primal horde/ this
all
What we have
*
just described in our general characterisa-
mankind must apply especially to the primal horde. The will of the individual was too weak; he did not venture upon action. No impulses whatever came into play except collective ones; there was only a common will, there were no single of
tion
An
ones. it
idea did not dare to turn itself into a volition unless
itself
felt
reinforced
by a perception of
This weakness of the idea the
emotional
tie
which
to
is
is
general diffusion.
its
be explained by the strength of
shared by
all
the
members
of the
but the similarity in the circumstances of their life and the absence of any private property assist in determining the uniformity
horde
;
of their individual mental acts.
and
soldiers,
common
cremental functions.
activity
The one
As we may observe with children is
not excluded even in the ex-
great exception
is
provided by the
\
92
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of the
Thus the group appears
to
Ego
us as a revival of
primal horde. Just as primitive man virtually survives in every individual, so the primal horde may arise once more out of any randorn crowd; in so far
the
men are habitually under the sway of group formation we recognise in it the survival of the primal
as
We
horde.
group
is
must conclude that the psychology of the human psychology; what we have
the oldest as
isolated
individual
by neglecting psychology, group, has only since come into prominence out of the old group psychology, by a gradual process which may still, perhaps, be described as an shall later venture upon incomplete. all
traces
of the
We
attempt at specifying the point of departure of development. Further reflection spect
this
will
show
us
in
what
this
re-
statement
psychology must,
group psychology,
requires correction. Individual on the contrary, be just as old as for
from the
first
there were two
kinds of psychologies, that of the individual members of the group and that of the father, chief, or leader.
The members of the group were subject to ties just as we see them to-day, but the father of the primal horde was
free.
His intellectual acts were strong and
sexual act, in which a third person is at the best superfluous and in the extreme case is condemned to a state of painful expectancy.
As
to the
reaction of the sexual need (for genital gratification)
towards gregariousness, see below.
The Group and
Primal Horde
the
93
independent even in isolation, and his will needed no reinforcement from others. Consistency leads us to
assume that
ego had few
his
libidinal ties;
no one but himself, or other people only
in
he loved so far as
they served his needs. To objects his ego gave away no more than was barely necessary. He, at the very beginning of the history of mankind, was the Superman whom Nietzsche only
expected from the future. Even to-day the members of a group stand in need of the illusion that they are equally and justly loved by their leader; but the leader
may be of a masterly but self-confident and
himself need love no one else, he nature,
absolutely
independent.
We
narcissism, and
it
in
by operating
narcissistic,
know
that love puts a check
upon would be possible to show how,
this
way,
it
became a
factor
of
civilisation.
The primal immortal,
as
he
horde was not yet became by deification. If he
father later
of
the
to be replaced; his place was probably a taken by youngest son, who had up to then been a member of the group like any other. There must died, he
therefore
had
be a
possibility of transforming
group psychology into individual psychology; a condition must be discovered under which such a transformation is easily accomplished, just as it is possible for bees in case of necessity to turn a larva into a queen instead of into a worker.
One can
imagine only one possibility:
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
94
the primal father had prevented Jiis_ sons from satisfying their directly sexual tendencies; he forced them into ties
and consequently into the emotional with him and with one another which could arise abstinence
out of those of their tendencies that were inhibited their
in
sexual
aim.
He
forced them,
so to
speak,
group psychology. His sexuaF jealousy and intolerance became in the last resort the causes of group into
psycholog}^^
Whoever became
.
his
successor was also given
the possibility of sexual satisfaction, and w^as by that means offered a way out of the conditions of group
psychology. The fixation of the libido to woman and the possibility of satisfaction without any need for delay
made an end
or accumulation
of the importance of
those of his sexual tendencies that were inhibited in their
to
its
this
and allowed
aim, full
height.
We
his
narcissism always to rise in a postscript to
shall return
connection between love and character formation.
We
instructive,
further
emphasize, as being specially the relation that holds between the con-
may
by means of which an artificial group is held together and the constitution of the primal horde. We have seen that with an army and a church this trivance
^
It may perhaps also be assumed that the sons, when they were driven out and separated from their father, advanced from identification with orje another to homosexual object love, and in this way won freedom to kill their father.
The Group and the Primal Horde contrivance
is
95
the illusion that the leader loves
all
of
But this is simply the individuals equally and justly. an idealistic remodelling of the state of affairs in the primal horde,
where
all
of the sons
knew
that theyV
persecuted by primal father, and This same recasting upon which" feared him equally.
were all
the
equally
social
duties
are built up
next form of
by the
The
human
is
already presupposed society, the totemistic
of the family as a natural group formation rests upon the fact that this necessar}^ presupposition of the father's equal love clan.
indestructible strength
can have a real application in the family. But we expect even more of this derivation of
group from the primal horde. It ought also to help us to understand what is still incomprehensible and mysterious in group formations all that lies the
—
hidden behind the enigmatic words hypnosis and suggestion. And I think it can succeed in this too. Let us recall that hypnosis has something positively uncanny about it; but the characteristic of uncanniness suggests something old and familiar that has undergone repression.^ Let us consider how hypnosis is induced.
The
hypnotist
asserts
that
he
is
in
possrjssion
of a
mysterious power which robs the subject of his own will, or, which is the same thing, the subject believes it
of him. This mysterious
1
<
power (which
Das Unheimliche.' Imago, 1919, Bd. V.
is
^
even now
'
Group Psychology and
g6
the Analysis of the
Ego
described popularly as animal magnetism) must is looked upon by primitiv^e people
often
be the same that
same that emanates from kings and chieftains and makes it dangerous to approach them (mana). The hypnotist, then, is supposed to be in possession of this power; and how as the source of taboo, the
does he manifest
the subject to look him in the eyes; his most typical method of hypnotising is by his look. But it is precisely the sight of the chieftain that
is
it?
By
telling
dangerous and unbearable for primitive
people, just as later that of the Godhead is for mortals. Even Moses had to act as an intermediary
and Jehovah, since the people the support sight of God; and when he returned from the presence of God his face shone
betw^een
his
people
could not
—
some of the mana had been
transferred on to him,
happens with the intermediary among primitive
just as
people.^
true that hypnosis can also be evoked in other ways, for instance by fixing the 'eyes upon a bright object or by listening to a monotonous sound. This is misleading and has given occasion to inad-
Jt
is
equate physiological these
As
a matter
of fact
merely serve to divert conscious and to hold it riveted. The situation is
procedures
attention
the
theories.
same ^
as
if
the hypnotist had said to the subject:
See Totem und Tabu and the sources there quoted.
The Group and *
the
Primal Horde
97
Now
concern yourself exclusively with my person; It would the rest of the world is quite uninteresting. '
of course be technically inexpedient for a hypnotist to make such a speech; it would tear the subject away from his unconscious attitude and stimulate him to conscious opposition.
The
hypnotist avoids directing
thoughts towards his own intentions, and makes the person upon whom he is experimenting sink into an activity in which the the
world the
conscious
subject's
bound
is
to
seem
uninteresting to him; but at
same time the subject
is
in reality
unconsciously
whole attention upon the hypnotist, concentrating and is getting into an attitude of rapport^ of transThus the indirect methods of ference on to him. his
of the technical procedures have the effect of checking making jokes, distributions of mental energy which would
hypnotising,
used
in
certain
like
many
interfere with the course of events in the unconscious,
and they lead eventually to the same result as the direct methods of influence by means of staring or stroking.^ ^
This situation, in which the subject's attitude is unconthe hypnotist, while he is consciously
sciously directed towards
occupied with monotonous and uninteresting perceptions, finds a among the events of psycho-analytic treatment, which
parallel
deserves
to
be mentioned here. At
least
once
in the course of
every analysis a moment comes when the patient obstinately maintains that just now positively nothing whatever occurs to his mind. His free associations come to a stop and the usual
98
Group Psychology and the Ayialysis of the Ego Ferenczi has
made
the true discovery that when command to sleep, which is
gives the often done at the beginning of hypnosis, he is putting He himself in the place of the subject's parents.
a hypnotist
two sorts of hypnosis are to be distinone coaxing and soothing, which he conmodelled upon the mother, and another
thinks that
guished siders
:
is
threatening,
the
which
command
more nor
to
less
derived from the father.^
is
sleep
in
hypnosis
than an order to withdraw
from the world and to concentrate of the
hypnotist. for
subject;
in
world
outer
means
And
this
lies
it
is
so
withdrawal
the
nothing
all
interest
upon the person understood by the it
of interest from the
psychological
characteristic
and the kinship between sleep and the hypnosis is based upon it. sleep,
incentives for putting them in motion of pressure the patient is at last
Now
fail in
their effect.
of
state of
As a
result
induced to admit that he
is
thinking of the view from the consulting-room window, of the wall-paper that he sees before him, or of the gas-lamp hanging
from the into
ceiling.
Then one knows
the transference
and that he
is
once that he has gone off engaged upon what are still
at
unconscious thoughts relating to the physician; and one sees the stoppage in the patient's associations disappear, as soon as he has
been given ^
this explanation.
Ferenczi:
Psycho analyse^
*
Introjektion
1909,
Bd.
I.
Boston, Badger, 1916, Chapter
und Ubertragung.' [Contridjitions II.]
to
Jahrbuch der
Psycho- Analysis.
The Group and
the measures that
By notist
awakens
had
had
which
re-animation in his
individual
the
takes, then,
hyp-
made him compliant
also
parents and
his
he
99
the subject a portion of his archaic
in
inheritance which
wards
Primal Horde
the
experienced
relation
to
his
to-
an
father;
what is thus awakened is the idea of a paramount and dangerous personality, towards whom only a '
passive-masochistic attitude will has to be surrendered,
him, 'to look him It
enterprise.
is
the
in
in
only
possible, to
is
— while
face',
to
whom
be alone with
appears a hazardous
some such way
as this
we
know from variable
other reactions, individuals have preserved degree of personal aptitude for reviving
old situations of this kind. spite of everything hypnosis tive renewal of these
Some knowledge is
old impressions,
may however is
ance
against any too serious consequences suspension of the will in hypnosis.
The uncanny and which
formations,
a
resist-
of the
coercive characteristics of group
shown
are
therefore
phenomena, may back to the fact of
The
that in
only a game, a decep-
remain behind and take care that there
horde.
that
member As we
can picture the relation of the individual of the primal horde to the primal father.
a
one's
lea der of
their t
their
suggestion
justice
be traced
in
with origin
he group
is
from
the
still J:h_e,
primal
dreaded
primal father; the group still wishes to be governed force: it has an extreme passion for by unrestricted —nil
.—
mil ^11
1
.
/
^-_^—^^^,^
lOO Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego in
authority;
obedience.
Le Bon's The primal
which governs the ego
phrase, father
—a
is
has
a
the
group
It
seems
conviction
to
me
for
ideal,
place of the ego ideal. to being described as a
which
as is
a
definition
not
perception and reasoning but upon an *
thirst
in the
Hypnosis has a good claim group of two; there remains suggestion
it
based
erotic
for
upon
tie.^
worth emphasizing the fact that the
dis-
cussions in this section have induced us to give up Bernheim's conception of hypnosis and go back to the ndif earlier one.
According
to
Bernheim
all
to the factor of suggestion,
hypnotic phenomena are to be traced which is not itself capable of further
We
have come to the conclusion that suggestion is explanation. a partial manifestation of the state of hypnosis, and that hypnosis is solidly founded upon a predisposition which has survived in the unconscious from the early history of the
human
family.
XI
A DIFFERENTIATING GRADE
If
we
the
survey
life
of
an
IN
THE EGO
individual
man
of
to-day, bearing in mind the mutually complementary accoimts of group psychology given by the authorities, we may lose the courage, in face of the complications
are
that
position.
attempt a comprehensive exindividual is a component part of
revealed,
Each
to
numerous groups, he is bound by ties of identification in many directions, and he has built up his ego ideal
upon the most various models. Each individual therefore has a share in numerous group minds — those of his race, of his class, of his creed, of his nationality, etc.— and he can also raise himself above them to the extent of
having
a
scrap
of independence
and
originality.
and
lasting group formations, with their uniform and constant effects, are less striking to an
Such
stable
observer than the rapidly formed and transient groups from which Le Bon has made his brilliant psychomind. And it is logical character sketch of the group just in these noisy
ephemeral groups, which are as
it
/
/
1
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
02
were superimposed upon the others, that we are met by the prodigy of the complete,, even though only temporary, disappearance of exactly what we have recognized as individual acquirements.
We
have interpreted
that the individual gives tutes
for
leader.
/ (
the
it
this
up
his
ideal
ego
meaning and substi-
ideal
embodied
as
group we must add by
And
as
prodigy
way
of
in
the
correction
that the prodigy is not equally great in every case. In many individuals the separation between the ego
not very far advanced; the two the ego has often preserved its still coincide readily; The selection of the leader earlier self-complacency.
and the ego
is
very
ideal
much
is
facilitated
by
this
circumstance.
He
need only possess the typical qualities of the individuals concerned in a particularly clearly marked and form, and need only give an impression of greater force and of more freedom of libido; and in that case the need for a strong chief will often meet
pure
\
him half-way and invest him with a predominance to which he would otherwise perhaps have had no claim. The other members of the group, whose ego ideal would not, apart from this, have become embodied in
his
I
person
without
some
correction,
away with the rest by ^suggestion', say, by means of identification. We are aware that what we have been
carried to
are
contribute
towards
the
explanation
of
the
then that
is
able to libidinal
A
Differentiating Grade in the
Ego
103
groups leads back to the distinction between the ego and the ego ideal and to the double kind of tie which this makes possible identistructure
of
—
and substitution of the object
fication, ideal.
The assumption of
grade
\Stufe\
in
the
for
the
ego
kind of differentiating as a first step in an
this
ego
analysis of the ego must gradually establish its justification in the most various regions of psychology. In my paper Zur Einfiihrung des Narzissmus I have put *
together
moment
'
the pathological material that could at the be used in support of this separation. But it all
that when we penetrate deeper the psycholog}^ of the psychoses its significance be discovered to be far greater. Let us reflect
may be expected into will
ego now appears in the relation of an object to the ego ideal which has been developed out of that the
and that
the interplay between an outer object and the ego as a whole, with which our study of the neuroses has made us acquainted, may possibly be repeated upon this new scene of action inside the ego. it,
In
this
all
place
I
shall
consequences which seem view,
thus
which
I
resuming
only follow up one of the possible from this point of
the
discussion
was obliged to leave
of
unsolved
a
problem
elsewhere.*
Each of the mental differentiations that we have become acquainted with represents a fresh aggravation of the *
difficulties
of mental functioning,
*Trauer und MelanchoUe.*
increases
its
1
04 Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
instability,
and may become the starting-point
breakdown, that
by being
is,
bom we
for
its
for the onset of a disease. Thus, have made the step from an ab-
solutely self-sufficient narcissism to the perception of a changing outer world and to the beginnings of the
And
discovery of objects. fact that
we
cannot endure the
we
for long, that
to
sleep,
with this
new
periodically revert
associated the
of things
state
from
it,
in
our
our former condition of absence of stimul-
and avoidance of objects.
ation
is
It
is
true,
however,
we
are following a hint from the outer world, which, by means of the periodical change of day and night, temporarily withdraws the greater part that in
this
The second example, more important, is not subject
of the stimuli that affect us.
which to
is
any
pathologically
such
In
qualification.
the
course
of
our
development we have effected a separation of our mental existence into a coherent ego and into an unconscious and repressed portion which is left outside it; and we know that the stability of this new acquisition is
exposed to constant shocks. In dreams and is thus excluded knocks for admission
/in neuroses what at the gates,
and
in
artifices
guarded though they are by resistances;
our waking health for allowing
the resistances
our ego to the
and
what
we make is
use of special repressed to circumvent
for
receiving it temporarily into increase of our pleasure. Wit and
humour, and to some extent the comic
in
general,
A
Differentiating
may be regarded the
with
in
examples of
similar
this light.
of
psychology
to the application
the
in the
Ego
have
105
Everyone acquainted neuroses
think
will
importance; but
less
I
Grade
I
of
hasten on
in view.
quite conceivable that the separation of the ideal from the ego cannot be borne for long
It
ego
either,
is
and
has
and
renunciations
be temporarily undone.
to
In
all
limitations
imposed upon the ego a periodical infringement of the prohibition is the rule; this indeed is shown by the institution of festivals, nothing more nor less than excesses provided by law and which owe their cheerful character to the release which they bring.^ The
which
in
Saturnalia
agree
in
origin
are
of the
Romans and our modern
this
essential
feature
with
the
carnival
festivals
of
people, which usually end in debaucheries of every kind and the transgression of what are at other times the most sacred commandments. But the
primitive
ego ideal comprises the sum of all the limitations in which the ego has to acquiesce, and for that reason the abrogation of the ideal would necessarily be a once again *
the
for
festival
magnificent
feel satisfied
with
ego,
which might then
itself.^
Totem und Tabu.
^
Trotter traces repression back to the herd instinct. It is a translation of this into another form of expression rather than
a contradiction that
when
I
say in
my
'Einfiihrung des Narzissmus' ideal is the
on the part of the ego the construction of an
condition of repression.
H
1
06 Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego There
is
something
And
sense
the
a
always the
in
ego of
of
feeling
coincides
well
(as
guilt
with
triumph
when
the
ideal.
ego
sense
the
as
ot
can also be understood as an expression of tension between the ego and the ego ideal. It is well known that there are people the general
inferiority)
mood
colour of whose
oscillates periodically
from an
excessive depression through some kind of intermediate | state to an exalted sense of well-being. These oscill-
very different degrees of amplitude, from what is just noticeable to those extreme instances which, in the shape of melancholia and mania, make ations
the
of
most the
cyclical
to
appear
in
painful
person
or
disturbing In concerned.
inroads t}^pical
upon the cases
life
of this
depression outer exciting causes do not seem
play any decisive part;
nothing more
as
regards inner motives,
(or nothing different)
is
to
be found
in
these patients than in all others. It has consequently become the custom to consider these cases as not
We
shall refer later on to those being psychogenic. j other exactly similar cases of cyclical depression which
can
nevertheless
easily
be
traced
back
to
mental
traumata.
Thus the foundation of these spontaneous oscillations of mood is unknown; we are without insight into the mechanism of the displacement of a melancholia by a mania. So we are free to suppose that, these
patients
are
people
in
whom
our
conjecture
A
Differentiating
Grade
—
might find an actual application
be temporarily resolved
in the their
their
into
Ego
ego
ego
107
\ might
ideal
after
having
with especial strictness. previously ruled Let us keep to what is clear On the basis of it
:
analysis of the
of
mania
the
ego
it
ego
cannot be doubted that
and
the
ideal
ego
in
have
,
)
our^
cases
fused
together, so that the person, in a mood of triumph and self-satisfaction, disturbed by no self-criticism, can enjoy the abolition of his inhibitions, his feelings of
consideration for
others,
and
his
self-reproaches.
It
not so obvious, but nevertheless very probable, that the misery of the melancholiac is the expression of a
is
sharp conflict between the two faculties of his ego, a conflict in which the ideal, in an excess of sensitiveness, relentlessly exhibits its
ego
The
condemnation of the
delusions of inferiority and in self-depreciation. only question is whether we are to look for the
in
causes of these altered relations between the ego and the ego ideal in the periodic rebellions, which we
have postulated above, against the new institution, or whether we are to make other circumstances responsible for
A
them.
change
into
mania
is
not
an
indispensable
feature of the symptomatology of melancholic depresThere are simple melancholias, some in single
sion.
and some
in recurring attacks,
which never show
this
development. On the other hand there are melancholias in which the exciting cause clearly plays an aetiological
| ^
1
08 Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
They
part.
are those which occur after the loss of
a loved object, whether by death or as a result of circumstances which have necessitated the withdrawal
A
of the libido from the object. psychogenic melancholia of this sort can end in mania, and this cycle can be repeated several times, just as easily as in a
be spontaneous. Thus the state of things is somewhat obscure, especially as only a few forms and cases of melancholia have been submitted to psycho-analytical investigation.^ So far which
case
we is
appears
to
only understand those cases in which the object given up because it has shown itself unworthy of
up again inside the ego, by means of identification, and severely condemned by the ego ideal. The reproaches and attacks directed love.
It
is
then
set
towards the object come to
light
melancholic self-reproaches.^ melancholia of this kind
A
in
may
the
also
shape of
end
in
a
change to mania; so that the possibility of this happening represents a feature which is independent of the other characteristics in the symptomatology.
*
Cf. Abraham: 'Ansatze zur psychoanalytischen Erforschung und Behandliing des manisch-depressiven Irreseins', 191 2, in
Klinische Beitrdge zur Psychoanalyse, 192 1.
To speak more accurately, they conceal themselves behind the reproaches directed towards the person's own ego, and lend them the fixity, tenacity, and imperativeness which characterize ^
the self-reproaches oi a melancholiac.
A
Differentiating Grade in the
Nevertheless the
factor
of
I
the
see no
difficulty
periodical
Ego
in
rebellion
109
assigning to of the ego
against the ego ideal a share in both kinds of melancholia, the psychogenic as well as the spontaneous. In
the
spontaneous
the ego ideal
which
then
is
kind
it
may be supposed
that
inclined to display a peculiar strictness,
results
automatically in its temporary In the suspension. psychogenic kind the ego would 7 be incited to rebellion by ill-treatment on the part of / an ill-treatment which it encounters when \ its ideal
—
there has been identification with a rejected object.
j
XII
POSTSCRIPT
In
course
the
of the
enquiry
which has just been
brought to a provisional end we came across a number of side-paths w^hich we avoided pursuing in the first instance but
in
which there was much that offered
We
us promises of insight. propose a few of the points that have been in this
now left
to take
up
on one side
way.
A.
The
distinction
between
identification of the
ego with an object and replacement of the ego
ideal
by an object finds an interesting illustration in the two great artificial groups which we began by studying, the army and the Christian church. It
that
is,
is
obvious that a soldier takes
really,
his
superior,
the leader of the army, as his ideal,
while he identifies himself with his equals, and derives from this community of their egos the obligations for giving mutual help and for sharing possessions which comradeship implies. But he becomes ridiculous if
he
tries
to
identify
himself with
the
general.
The
I
III
Postscript soldier
Wallensteins Lager laughs at the sergeant
in
for this very reason:
Wie
Das habt It
und wie
er rauspert ihr
Christian loves
united with
all
^
ihm
otherwise
is
gliicklich
abgeguckt
!
the Catholic Church.
in
Christ
er spuckt,
as
his
other Christians
and
ideal
by the
tie
Every himself
feels
of identific-
But the Church requires more of him. has also to identify himself with Christ and love ation.
other Christians as Christ loved them.
At both
He all
points,
Church requires that the position of the libido which is given by a group formation should be supplemented. Identification has to be added where object-choice has taken place, and object love therefore,
the
where there
is-
identification.
This addition evidently
goes beyond the constitution of the group. be a good Christian and yet be far from
One can the idea
of putting oneself in Christ's place and of having like him an all-embracing love for mankind. One need
not think oneself capable, weak mortal that one of
the
Saviour's
But
love.
of libido
this
largeness
further
development
the group which Christianity bases in
is
its
is,
and strength of
of soul in
probably
the distribution
the
factor
upon
claim to have reached a
higher ethical level. [Literally: *How he clears his throat and how he you have cleverly copied from him,'] ^
that
spits,
1
1
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
2
We
would be possible to specify the point in the mental development of man at which the advance from group to individual psychoB.
have said that
logy was also of the group/
For the
to
this
scientific
the world, the sons
myth of the justice,
who composed one
each
of
members
return for a
moment
father
on exalted
later
and with
individual
the
we must
purpose
He was
horde.
ideal
achieved by
it
the
of
for first
primal
he had produced all He was the group. at
them,
of the
into the creator of
once
and
feared
honoured, a fact which led later to the idea of taboo. These many individuals eventually banded themselves together, killed him and of the group of victors if
one of them
they
father's
heritage.
community united by
of
the
him
could
in
take
pieces. his
None
place,
the battles began afresh,
did,
understood
cut
or, until
they must all renounce their They then formed the totemistic
that
brothers,
totem
all
with
prohibitions
equal
which
rights
were
and to
preserve and to expiate the memory of the murder. But the dissatisfaction with what had been achieved
became the source of new The persons who were united in this developments. group of brothers gradually came towards a revival still
remained,
and
it
^ What follows at this point was written under the influence of an exchange of ideas with Otto Rank.
113
Postscript
of
the
old
Man things at a new level. the chief of a family, and broke
of
state
became once more down the prerogatives of the gynaecocracy which had become established during the fatherless period. As compensation for this he may at that time have acknowledged the mother deities, whose priests were a
castrated for the mother's protection, after the example that had been given by the father of the primal
And
yet the new family was only a shadow of the old one; there were numbers of fathers and
horde.
each one was limited by the rights of the others. It
the to
was
then,
perhaps,
some
that
individual,
in
exigency of his longing, may have been moved free himself from the group and take over the
father's
He who
part.
did
was the
this
poet; and the advance was achieved
first
epic
in his
imagination. This poet disguised the truth with lies in accordance with his longing. He invented the heroic myth. The hero was a man who by himself had slain the father
—the
totemistic
boy's
who
father
monster.
first
father's ideal.
still
ideal,
place
The
in
appeared
Just
as the father
who
so in the hero
the
poet
transition
now to
the
myth as a had been the
the
aspires
created the
hero
was
to the
first
ego
probably
afforded by the youngest son, the mother's favourite, whom she had protected from paternal jealousy, and who, in the era of the primal horde, had been the father's
successor.
In
the
lying
poetic
fancies
of
114 Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
woman, who had been and the allurement to murder, was
prehistoric times the
the prize
of battle
probably-
turned into the seducer and instigator to the crime. The hero claims to have acted alone in accom-
which certainly only the horde as a whole would have ventured upon. But, as Rank has observed, fairy tales have preserved clear traces of
plishing the deed,
For we often find in them that the hero who has to carry out some difficult task (usually a youngest son, and not in-
the facts which were disavowed.
frequently one who has represented himself to the father surrogate as being stupid, that is to say,
—
we often find, then, that this hero can harmless) carry out his task only by the help of a crowd of These would small animals, such as bees or ants. the primal horde, just as in the dream symbolism insects or vermin
be the brothers
same
in
way
signify brothers
as
babies).
myths
and
in
and
Moreover fairy
(contemptuously, considered every one of the tasks in
sisters
tales
is
easily
as
recognisable
a
substitute for the heroic deed.
The individual
myth was
myth,
then,
is
the
step
by
emerges from group psychology.
which
the
The
first
certainly the psychological, the hero
m)^h;
myth must have followed much The poet who had taken this step and had
the explanatory nature later.
in
this
way
imagination,
set is
himself free
from the group
nevertheless able (as
Rank has
in
his
further
Postscript
115
observed) to find his way back to it in reality. For he goes and relates to the group his hero's deeds which he has invented. At bottom this hero is no
one but of
Thus he lowers himself
himself.
and
reality,
raises
But
imagination.
hearers
his
hearers
his
to
to the level
the
understand
of
level
the
poet, of their having the same relation of longing towards the primal father, they can identify themselves with the hero.^ in
virtue
The
lie
and,
of
deification
have
of the the
been
may may have been
heroic
hero. earlier
myth culminates
Perhaps than
the
the
in
deified
Father
the
hero
God and
a precursor to the return of the The series of gods, then, primal father as a deity. would run chronologically: Mother Goddess Hero
—
—
Father God. never
But
only with the elevation of the forgotten primal father that the deity acquires it
is
we still recognise in him to-day.^ deal has been said in this paper about great directly sexual instincts and those that are inhibited
the features that C.
*
Cf»
A
Hanns Sachs: *Gemeinsame Tagtraume*,
a
summary
made by
the lecturer himself of a paper read at the Sixth PsychoInternationale in 1920. analytical Congress, held at the Zeitschrift fiir Psychoanalyse, 1920, Bd. VI. ['Day-Dreams in
Ha^e
Common'. International Journal of Psycho- Analysis, ^
1 920,
Vol.
I.]
In this brief exposition I have made no attempt to bring forward any of the material existing in legends, myths, fairy tales, the history of manners, etc., in support of the construction.
1 1
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
6
in their will
aims,
not
and
it
meet with
may be hoped that this distinction But a too much resistance.
detailed discussion of the question will not place,
even
it
if
what has to a great
repeats
only
be out of
extent already been said before.
The development of the libido in children has made us acquainted with the first but also tlie best example of sexual
which are inhibited
instincts
in their
the feelings which a child has towards its parents and those who look after it pass by an easy transition into the wishes which gw^ expression to All
aims.
The
the child's sexual tendencies. these
of
objects
which
it
and look
knows at
its
of;
them;
it
it
love
all
the
child claims
signs
is
curious to see their
and to be with them when they perform
proposes to
itself
from
affection
wants to kiss them, touch them,
excremental functions; w^hatever it or nurse
—
of
it
to bear
genitals,
their intimate
promises to marry its mother may understand by that; it its
father a child, etc. Direct
observation, as well as the subsequent analytic investigation of the residue of childhood, leave no doubt
the
as' to
feelings
and
complete
fusion
of sexual
tender
intentions,
what a fundamental way the it
of
loves into the object of
all
child its
Cf.
jealous
show us in makes the person and
incompletely centred
sexual tendencies.^
*
and
Drei Abkandlungen zur Sexualtheorie.
1 1
Postscript
7
configuration of the child's love, which in typical cases is co-ordinated with the Oedipus complex, succumbs, as we know, from the beginning of the period
This
first
wave of
of latency onwards to a as
it
over shows
emotional
Such
repression.
ot
purely tender which relates to the same people, but
left
is
tie,
itself
as
a
no longer to be described as ^sexual'. Psychoanalysis, which illuminates the depths of mental life,
is
has no
difficulty
showing that the sexual
in
ties
of
years of childhood also persist, though It gives us courage to repressed and unconscious. assert that wherever we come across a tender feeling the
it
earliest
the
is
tie
a
successor to
with the person
in
completely question
^sensual'
object or rather with that
It cannot indeed prototype (or imago). disclose to us without a special investigation whether in a given case this former complete sexual current
person's
still
exists
under repression or whether
been exhausted. quite
energy
that
certain
possibility,
To it
put is
it
still
still
more
there
it
has already
precisely:
as
a form
it
is
and
and can always be charged with cathectic
and
put
into
activity
again
by
means of
regression; the only question is (and it cannot always be answered) what degree of cathexis and operative force it still has at the present moment. Equal care
must be taken
in this
connection to avoid two sources
of error— the Scylla of under-estimating the importance of the repressed unconscious, and the Charybdis of
1 1
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
8
judging the normal entirely by the standards
of the
pathological.
A
psychology which
what
of
the
depths emotional ties
not or cannot penetrate repressed regards tender
will
is
being invariably the expression of tendencies which have no sexual aim, even though they are derived from tendencies which have such an aim.^
We diverted is
a
some
as
are justified in saying that they have been from these sexual aims, even though there difficulty
giving
aim
of
diversion
in
of such
a representation
which
will
conform
the
to
Moreover, those aims always instincts which are inhibited in their sexual few of their some aims; even preserve original an affectionate devotee, even a friend or an admirer, of
requirements
desires
the
person
who
If
we
aim
physical is
choose, a
instincts,
metapsychology.
proximity and the sight of the loved only in the ^Pauline' sense.
now we may
recognise in this diversion of of the sublimation of the sexual
beginning or on the other hand
of sublimation
at
some more
we may distant
fix the limits
point.
Those
sexual instincts which are inhibited in their aims have a great functional advantage uninhibited. Since they are
^
Hostile feeling^s, which are a
their construction, offer
no exception
over those not
little
capable
which of
are
really
more complicated
to this rule.
in
I
Postscript
1 1
9
they are especially adapted to create permanent ties; while those instincts which are directly sexual incur a loss of energy each time they
complete
are
satisfaction,
satisfied,
and must wait to be
accumulation
fresh
while
the
inhibited
of sexual
libido,
renewed so
that
by a mean-
The
may have been changed.
object
are
of
any degree of admixture with the uninhibited; they can be transformed back into them, just as they arose out of them.
instincts
It
is
out
develop
capable
known how
well
emotional
of
easily
relations
erotic
of
a
wishes friendly
based upon appreciation and admiration, Moliere's 'Embrassez-moi pour I'amour du (compare a between master and a pupil, between a grec'), character,
performer and a delighted the case of
women.
listener,
In fact the
and especially
in
growth of emotional
of this kind, with their purposeless beginnings, provides a much frequented pathway to sexual objectties
choice.
Pfister,
in
his
Frommigkeit des Grafen von
Zinzendorf^ has given an extremely clear and certainly not an isolated example of how easily even an intense
tie
religious
excitement.
On
can
revert
the other hand
it
to is
ardent
sexual
also very usual
for directly sexual tendencies, short-lived in themselves,
to
be transformed ^
into a lasting
and purely tender
[Sckri/ten zur angewandten Seelenkunde. Heft
Deuticke; 1910.]
8.
tie;
Vienna,
1
20 Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
and the consolidation of a passionate love marriage rests to a large extent
We
this process.
upon
not be surprised to hear that the sexual tendencies that are inhibited in their aims shall naturally
arise out of the
outer
make
obstacles
sexual
directly
sexual
the
The
ones when inner or
of latency
repression during the inner obstacle of this kind
— orperiod rather
become the
aims unattainable.
inner.
horde
primal
all
compelled forced
We
them
into
an
one which has
have assumed that the father of
owing
his
is
sons
to to
be
that
ties
intolerance
sexual
his
abstinent,
were inhibited
and
thus
in
their
aims, while he reserved for himself freedom of sexual enjoyment and in this way remained without ties. All
the
ties
upon which a group depends are of the
character of instincts that are inhibited in their aims.
But here we have approached the discussion of a new subject, which deals with the relation between
and the formation of groups. two remarks will have prepared us
directly sexual instincts
D.
The
last
for finding that directl y sexual t endencies are unfavour-
able
the is
to -the^ior^nation jdI _groups. In the history of development of the family there have also, it
true,
been group
relations
but
more
marriages);
became
the
for the ego,
of sexual
important
and the more
characteristics of being in love, the
required
to
be
limited
to
two
it
love (group sexual love
developed the
more urgently it people una cum
—
1
Postscript
uno
— as
aim.
is
prescribed by
the
inclinations
Polygamous
nature
had
to
of the
2
I
genital
be content to
find satisfaction in a succession of changing objects.
Twe-^eople comi ng—together
purpose of
ior- the
so fa r as they se ek- for solitii(ie, sgxuaLaatisfaction, are^jnakiDg a dernQnstratiQa.,against the herd instinct,, ,
the group feeling.
more co mpletely
in
Xhe—more-4h€y-~ th ey
suffice
are
in-Joai^^jthe
each
for
other.
The
rejection of the group's influence is manifested in the shape of a sense of shame. The extremely violent
of jealousy are sutnmoned up in order to the sexual object-choice from being encroached protect upon by a group tie. It is only—whea the tender^ feelings
that Js^-thf^ personal, factQr__Qf_a
love
relation
gives place entir£ly,„tQ.. the sensual QQ£^__thaluit-is possible for two people-Jt£X have sexual intercourse in the
presence of ^thers o r for there to be simultaneous sexual acts in a group as occurs at an orgy. But at that point a regression has taken place to an early stage in sexual relations, at which being in love as yet played no part, and all sexual objects were
judged to be of equal value, somewhat in the sense of Bernard Shaw's malicious aphorism to the effect that being in love means greatly exaggerating the
between one woman and another. There are abundant indications that being
difference
love only
made
relations
between
its
late
on
appearance and women:
men
in
so
in
the sexual
that
the
122
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
opposition between sexual love and group ties is also a late development. Now it may seem as though this
assumption were incompatible with our myth of
For
the primal family. for
their
brothers parricide;
and
mothers was,
and
we
as it
is
was
it
after
have
difficult
all
that
sisters
by
the
supposed,
their love
troop driven
of to
to imagine this love as
—
being anything but unbroken and primitive that is, as an intimate union of the tender and the sensual.
But further consideration resolves a confirmation.
was
after
all
One the
objection into of the reactions to the parricide
institution
of
the
of
sexual
any prohibition women of the family who
this
totemistic relation
exogamy, with
those
had been tenderly loved In this way a wedge was driven in since childhood. between a man's tender and sensual feelings, one still
As a result ot this exogamy the sensual needs of men had to be satisfied with strange and unloved women. firmly fixed in his erotic
life
to-day.^
In the great artificial groups, the church army, there is no room for woman as a
and the sexual
The love relation between men and women object. Even where remains outside these organisations. groups are formed which are composed of both men and women the distinction between the sexes plays no part. There is scarcely any sense in asking whether *
See *Ober die allgemeinste Erniedri^ng des Liebeslebens.*
123
Postscript
the libido which keeps groups together is of a sexual or of a heterosexual nature, for it differentiated according to the sexes,
and
homois
not
particularly
shows a complete disregard for the aims of the genital organisation of the libido.
Even
a person who has in other respects become a group the directly sexual tendencies
in
absorbed
in
preserve
a
become
too
formation.
motives
little
of
individual
his
activity.
strong they disintegrate Catholic Church had
The
for
falling
in
love has
same way love
breaks through the group separation,
and
of
the
to
remain
its
priests;
often driven even priests to
In the
leave the church.
they
every group the best of
recommending its followers unmarried and for imposing celibacy upon
but
If
of race,
ties
social
class
for
women
of national
system,
and
it
thus produces important effects as a factor in civilization. It seems certain that homosexual love is
more compatible with group
far
ties,
even when
it
tendencies — a
shape of uninhibited sexual remarkable fact, the explanation of which might carry takes the
us
far.
The
psycho-analytic investigation of the psychoneuroses has taught us that their symptoms are to
be traced back are repressed but this
to
sexual tendencies which
directly
still
remain
formula by adding to
it:
active.
or, to
We
can complete
tendencies inhibited
in their aims, whose inhibition has not been entirely
Gronp Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
124
made room
has
or
successful
repressed sexual aim. that a neurosis should
It
is
in
make
a return to
the
accordance with
this
for
its
victim
asocial
and
should remove him from the usual group formations. It may be said that a neurosis has the same dis-
On
upon a group
effect
integrating
the other hand
as
appears that
it
being
in
love.
where a powerful
impetus has been given to group formation neuroses diminish and at
events temporarily disappear. Justifiable attempts have also been made to turn this antagonism between neuroses and group formation to
may
all
therapeutic account. EyerLthose who do^ not jcegret the disappearance of religious illnsionR^fcom the civilized
WQild_ of to-day will ad niil^ that were in force they offered those .
by them danger all
t];;t£-.^_i3qh^t:^j2nwerfnl
of
the
is
prntertion against the it hard to discern in
ties with
sects
religious
mystico-religious or philosophicoand communities the manifestation of
distorted cures of is
Nor
neurosis.
so long as ^ey; who were bound
bound
with
up
sexual tendencies
All of this
kinds of neuroses.
all
the
and
contrast
between
those which
are
directly
inhibited
in
their aims. If
replace
group
he
by
is
his
obliged to formations the great
to himself, a neurotic
left
own symptom
formations
from
which
he
is
is
excluded.
He
own world of imagination for himself, his own religion, his own system of delusions, and thus creates his
1
Postscript
25
recapitulates the institutions of humanity in a distorted way which is clear evidence of the dominating part
played by the directly sexual tendencies.^ E. In conclusion, we will add a comparative estimate, from the standpoint of the libido theory, of the states with which in
being
we have been of group
of hypnosis,
love,
concerned, of
and
formation,
of the neurosis.
Being in
love
is
based
upon the simultaneous
presence of directly sexual tendencies and of sexual tendencies that are inhibited in their aims, so that the object draws a part of the narcissistic ego-libido It a condition in which there is only to itself. is
room
for the
ego and the object.
Hypnosis resembles being to these two persons, but it sexual
tendencies
that
are
and substitutes the object The group multiplies
in
love in being limited
is
based
inhibited
for the this
entirely
upon
their
aims
in
ideal.
ego
process;
it
agrees with
which hold
hypnosis in the nature of the instincts the together, and in the replacement of
by the object; but other individuals, possible
by
their
to this
it
ego
it
ideal
adds identification with
which was perhaps originally made having
the
same
relation
to
the
object.
See Totem und Tabu, towards the end of Part Tabu und die Ambivalenz '. *
II,
'Das
1
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
26
Both an
human and
libido
the
and group formation, are
hypnosis
states,
inherited
from
—deposit hypnosis
The replacement
in the
besides
group,
the
phylogenesis
of the
form of a predisposition,
this,
as
a
direct
survival.
of the directly sexual tendencies
by
those that are inhibited in their aims promotes in both states a separation between the ego and the ego ideal,
a separation with which a beginning has already been made in the state of being in love.
The neurosis stands outside is
based upon a peculiarity
— the
in
this
the
series.
It
also
development of
twice repeated start made by the directly sexual function, with an intervening period of latency.^ To this extent it resembles hypnosis and the
human
libido
group formation in having the character of a regression, which is absent from being in love. It makes its appearance wherever the advance from directly sexual instincts to those that are inhibited in their aims has not been completely successful; and it represents a those instincts which have been conflict between received
the
ego after having passed through this development and those portions of the same instincts which, like other instinctive desires that have into
been completely repressed,
strive,
from the repressed
unconscious, to attain direct satisfaction.
^
The
See Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie,
1920, S. 96.
4.
neurosis
Auflage,
1
Postscript is
which
it
— and
itself
ego and
—
relations
both those in
for it embraces all between the ego and the object which the object is retained and others
extraordinarily rich in content,
possible
its
in
27
is
abandoned or erected
also
ego
inside
the ego
the conflicting relations between the ideal.
I
INDEX Abraham,
62, 108.
Affectivity.
See
Conscience,
««
Emotion.
Altruism, 57.
Contagion,
Ambivalence,
55, 61.
18,
Anaclitic type, 60. Archaic inheritance, 10, 99. Army, 42-6, 89, 94, no, 122. Autistic mental acts, 2.
10, 28, 68-9,75,
79
Social, 88.
Emotional,
10-13,
27, 34-5, 46-7.
Crowd,
I,
3,
26, 92.
Danger, Effect on groups, 46-9.
Darwin, Delusions
90. :
of inferiority, 107. of observation, 69. Devotion to abstract idea, 17,
Be?'nheim, 35, loo. Bleuler, 2. Brothers, 43, 114. in Christ, 43.
Community
of,
90, 112, 122.
Caesar, 44. Cathexis, 18, 20, 28, 117. Object-, 48, 58,60-1,71-2,76. Catholic Church, 42-3, 1 11, 123. Celibacy of priests, 123. Censorship of dreams, 16, 69. Chieftains,
Mana
in, 96.
Children, 14, 16, 18-19, 30, 67, in,
83, 85-6.
Parents and, 54, 86, 116. Sexual object of, 72, 116.
Unconscious
of,
Christ, 42-5, 50,
Equal love
of,
18.
:
Children's, 83, 85-6. in a group, 46-8, 50. in
an individual, 47-8.
Neurotic, 48. of society, 10. Panic, 45-9. 20, 69, 104. Interpretation of doubt and uncertainty in, 15-16.
symbolism, 114. Duty, Sense of, 84, 88, 95.
III.
Ego,
50.
Identification with,
in.
Church, 42-3, 89, 94, iio-ii, 122-3.
Commander-in-Chief, 42-5. Conflict, 18,
Dread
Dream,
82, 91.
Dread
Doubt: absence
in groups, 15-16. interpretation in dreams, 15-16.
Brugeilles, 34.
107, 126.
10,
18-19, 62-70, 74, 84,
93, 100-9, 120, 125-7. Relations between ego ideal
and, 68-70, 103, 105-10. Relations between object and, 62-70, 74-6, 108-10.
1
30 Group Psychology aitd the Analysis of tJie Ego
Ego
ideal, 68-70, 74-7, 80, 100-3, 105-10, 113, 126-7. Abrogation of the, 105. Hypnotist in the place of, 77. Object as substitute for, 74-6,
no.
80, 103,
Relations between ego and, 68-70, 103, 105-10. Testing reality of things, 77.
The
first,
Egoism,
Emotion
113.
Ambivalent,
18, 55.
28.
of,
of.
1 12-13, 122. 114. 43, Surrogate,
the, 94,
induction
of,
27,
50.
Folk-lore, 25.
Folk-song, 25. French Revolution, 26. Function: for testing reality, 20, 77.
34, 46-7.
Tender, 72-3, 78, 1 16-17. Emotional tie, 40, 43, 45, 52-3, 59-60,64-5,81,88,91,94, 100, 117-20. Cessation of, 46-9. Empathy, relation to
P.,
Festivals, 105.
See Contagion.
Intensification of, in groups, 16, 23, 27-30, 33, 46, 81.
Primitive
Primal, 92, 94-5, 9Q-100, 112-13, 115, 120. Deification of, 93, 115. Killing
Felszeghy, Beta v., 48. Ferenczi, 'j6^ 98.
:
Contagion
God, 115. Identification with, 60-2. Object tie with, 62.
Federn,
57.
Charge
Father, 43, 92, 98-9. Equal love of, 95.
identi-
fication, 66, 70. Enthusiasm, in groups, 25.
15.
(Instanz),
Gemeingeist, origin of, 87. Genital organisation, 19. God, 85, 5^. Father, 115. Gregariousness, 83-4, 92.
Group
:
Artificial, 41-2, 52, 82,
Envy, 87-8. Equality, demand for, 88, 89. Eros, 38-40. Esprit de corps, origin of, 87. Ethical conduct of a group, 18. of Christianity, in. level standards of individual, 24-5. :
no,
Different kinds
Disintegration
Dread
89,94,
122.
in,
Equality
of,
of,
26, 41.
49-5 1«
47,
in,
89.
feeling, 86-7, 121. Heightened affectivity in.
See under Emotion. Fairy tales, the hero in, 114. Family, 70, 95, 100, n3, 120.
ideal, 100, 102. Intellectual capacity
of,
14,
a group formation, 95. and Christian community, 43.
23, 25, 29, 31, 33, 8iIntensification of emotion in.
and
See 7mder Emotion. Leaders of. See under
social instinct,
3.
Primal, 122. Fascination, 11, 13, 21, 75.
18,
Leader.
Index Group (continued)
:
Libidinal structure
of, 37,
40,
44-5. 47, 51, 53-4, 70, 79-80, 102-3. marriages, 120. Mental change of the indi-
vidual
6-I4j 33-4, 45> 102.
in,
56, 81,
131
Hypnotist, 13, 77, 95-9. Hysteria, Identification in, 63-5. Idealisation, 74.
59-70, 75-6, 84, 86-9, 94, 101-3, III, 125. Ambivalent, 61. in hysterical symptom, 63-5.
Identification,
mind, 3, 5-27, 40, 49, 82. Organisation in, 26, 30-1, 33,
Regression of object-choice
41-2, 80, 82, 90. Primitive, 31, 33, 41, 80.
with a lost or rejected object,
psychological
character
of,
6-32.
psychology,
1-4, 6, 25-6, 33-4,
37, 45, 53, 59, 92-4, 112, 114. Revolutionary, 26.
loi,
Sexual instincts and, 120. spirit, 87. Stable, 26, 41, 84, 10 1.
84,
loi.
Guilt,Senseof,20,63,65,84, 106.
56.
Herd, 83-5,
89.
instinct,
Imitation, 34-5, 65, 70. Individual: a member of many groups, lOI. in,
114.
Inferiority,
3,
83-6, 105, 121.
Delusions
of, 57,
106-7. Inheritance, archaic, 10, 99. Inhibition Collective, of intellectual :
functioning, 23, 33.
123.
Horde Primal, 89-95, 99,
1 1
3-14,
Removal
of,
17, 28,
33.
Instinct:
120.
of Father.
47-8.
Mental change in a group. 6-14, 33-4,45, 56,81, 102, Psychology, 1-2, 92-3, 112,
46-7. Infection, mental, 64-65.
Hero, 17, 113-15Homosexuality, 57, 66-7, 94,
Father
the father, 60-2. the hero, 115. the leader, iio-ii.
Induction of emotion, 27, 34,
Gynaecocracy, 113. Hatred, 53, Hebbel, 49.
67-8, 108-9. Christ, iii.
with with with with
Dread
11, 13, 35,
Suggestibility 84-5. Transient, 25, 41, of,
to, 64.
the.
See
under
Hypnosis, 10-13, 20-1, 77-9, 81,
Herd,
3,
inhibited 1 1
83-6, 105, 121. in aim, 72-3, 78,
5-26.
95-100, 125-6, a group of two, 78, 100.
Life and death, 56.
and
Nutrition, 85. Primary, 84-5.
sleep, 79, 98. of terror, 79.
Love,
37, 39,
58.
1
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
32
Instinct (continued)
:
Libido,
vSelf-preservative, 34, 85.
Sexual,
19,
vSocial,
56,
39,
71-8,
115-26.
85-5, 94, 3.
unhibited in aim, 73, 77-8, 94, 115-26.
Unconscious,
33-40, 44, 57, 79, 83, 102, III, 116, 119, 123, 126. Narcissistic, 58, 74, 93, 104, 125. Oral phase of, 61.
theory, 57, 83, 125. Unification of, 19.
Withdrawal
10.
Intellectual ability," lowering of, in groups, 14, 18, 23, 25, 29. 31. 33. 81.
of,
108.
Love, 37-40, 42, 73, 87, 108, 122.
Introjection, of object into ego, 65, 67-8, ^6.
a factor of civilisation, 57, 93. and character formation, 94, 118-20.
Jealousy, 121.
Being
and hatred, Kings, Mana in, 96. Kraskovic, B. jnr., 23. Kroeger^ 90.
56.
58,
in,
71-9,
120-1,
124-6. Child's,
1
16-17.
Christ's, 43.
Equal, 42, 50, 89, 93.
Language,
25,
Latency, period
Pauline,
71.
i'^,
of,
72, 117,^ 120.
126.
Leader, 20-2, 41, 44-5, 78, 82, 85, 89, 92, 99, no. as substitutes
Abstractions
Equal love
of,
Identification
93, 95. with, iio-ii.
of,
the group ideal, 100, 102, Tie with, 49, 52, 66. 5-25,
1
10.
29, 34, 82, 84,
100- 1. Libidinal structure of the group, 37, 40, 44-5,47, 53, 7o, 79-8o, :
102-3.
The word, ties,
in
44,
Sublimated homosexual, 37-9, 71. 75.
Unsensual, 73.
Magnetic influence, 11. Magnetism, animal, 96. Mana, 96. Mania, 106-9. Marcuszezciez, 68. Marriage, 54, 120. Melancholia, 68, 106-9. Metapsychology, 63, 118. Moede, Walter, 24. Moliere,
44.
56-8,
57.
The word,
I, 26-31, 34-6, 46-7, 49, 84. Magical power of words, 19.
49.
Negative, 53. Prestige of, 21-2.
Le Bon,
Sensual, 71-3, 78, 117. Sexual, 37-8, 57, 120-2.
McDougali,
Killing the, 90.
Loss
118.
See under Narcissism.
Unhappy,
53.
for,
Self-.
65,
93,
100.
the group, 45, 51, 54.
119.
IMorality, of,
Totemism
90.
the origin
Index Mother
deities,
^^llticellularit^',
Myth,
1 1
113, 7,
133
Panic, 45-9.
115.
Pan-sexualism, 39. Paul, Saint, 39, 118.
32, 83.
3-1 5.'
PJister,
Nacluiiansohn, 39. Names, Taboo upon, 19. Napoleon, 44. Narcissism, 2, 38, 54-8, 69, 74-5, 93, 94,
104.
Nestroy, 49. Neurosis, 18, 20, 37, 44, 63, 103-4,123-26. Nietzsche, 93. Nutrition, Instinct of, 84.
Object,
57-8,
58,
62,
68, 74, 87, 93, 104, 125, 127. cathexis, 48, 58, 60-1, 71-2, 76. Change of, 18, 119, 121.
Child's, 72. -choice, 54, 62^ 64, 74, III, 119, 121. Eating the, 61-62.
39, 119. Plato, 38. Poet, the first epic,
Power,
15,
9,
113-114.
28.
of leaders, 21. of words, 19. Prestige, 21-2, 34. Primitive peoples, 14, 18-19, 24, 92, 96, 105. Psycho-Analysis, 4, 7 14, 18, 36, 38-9. 59-60, 84, 97.
Psychology: Group, i-4,
6, 25-6, 33-4, 37» 45. 53. 59. 92, 94, loi. Group and individual, 1-2,
92-93, 112, 114.
Psychoses, ^^, 103. Puberti% ^^, 72-73-
Races, repugnance between
'
Hyper-cathexis
of,
Identification with ego, 108. Less or Renunciation of, 68, 108. -love, 56, 63, 74, III.
Relations with the ego, 65, 67-8, 70, 76. Sexual, ^^, 72-3, 116. Substituted for ego ideal, 74, 80,
of,
Oedipus complex, 60-61,
69. 63,
66,
the libido, 61.
Organisation in groups, 26j 41-2,
Function for testing, 20, i']. Contrast between Objective
and Psychological, 20. Regression, 82, 91, 117, 121, 126.
Religion, 51, 90. of,
51.
Repressed Sexual tendencies, :
74,
117,
117-18, 126. 64-5, 69, 72, 84, 95, 105, 117, 120, Resistance, 84, 104.
The,
Oral phase of organisation of
33,
Reality:
123-4.
117. Inverted, 62.
30-1,
114.
Rapport, 97.
Wars
103, 125.
Observation, delusions
Orgy, 121.
related, S5. Otto, 112,
Rank,
76.
80,
82,
90.
10,
Repression,
104, 9,
54,
Responsibility, Sense 29-30.
of,
9-10,
1
34 Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
Rickter,
Konrad,
Suggestibility, u, 13, 35, 84-5. Suggestion, 12-13, 17, 29, 34-7, 40, 82, 95, 99, 102.
36.
Sachs, HannSy 16, 115.
Schopenhauer, 54.
Counter-, 35.
Self-
Definition for, 100.
:
Mutual, 12, 27, 34, 82.
consciousness, 30-1, depreciation, 107. love. See under Narcissism. observation, 69.
Taboo,
preservation,
Tarde, 34.
11,
sacrifice,
15,
34,
84-5.
38, 75.
121.
58,
72.
Diversion of
instinct from, 58. Infantile, 72. Obstacles to, 120. life,
Totemism, 90,
112. 1
12-13.
:
clan, 95.
:
act, 92,
aims,
19, 96,
Totemistic
Sex, 39.
Sexual
Superman, 93.
19, 72.
over-estimation, 53-5. Tendencies, Inhibited and unhibited. 72-3, 77-8, 94, 1 1 5-16, 125-26. union, 37-8.
Shaw, Bernard,
121.
Sidis, Boris, 84.
Sighele, 24-5. Simmel, E., 44. Sleep, 98, 104.
community of brothers, exogamy, 122. Tradition, 17, 21. of the group, 31. of the individual, 32. Transference, 97-8. Trotter,
32, 83-5, 89,
15-16. interpretation in dreams, 15-16. Unconscious, 8, 10, 12, 14-16, 18, 23-4, 64, 67, 72,97.
Groups led by,
Social:
instincts,
duties, 88, 95. relations, 2-3, 57. Socialistic tie, 51.
Le
Dread
of,
100,
104. 14.
10.
Bon's, 10, 14, 24. of children, 18, 117. of neurotics, 18. Racial, 9.
10.
Sociolo^. See under Group
Wallenstein, 44.
Psychology. Speech, 84. Sublimated:
Wcir neuroses, 44. War, The, 44.
devotion, 17, 75.
homosexual Sublimation,
105.
Uncanniness, 95, 99, Uncertainty, absence in groups,
and hypnosis, 98. Smith, Robertson, 70.
Society, 24, 26, 28, 90.
112.
love, 57. 118.
Wilson, President, 44.
Wishes, Affective cathexis
of,
20.
Words, magical power
of,
19.
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