Group Psychology and The Analysis of The EgoFreud, Sigmund
Science
Group Psychology and The Analysis of The Ego
Freud, Sigmund
Ego (Psychology); Psychoanalysis; Social psychology
McDougall does not dispute the thesis as to the collective inhibition of
intelligence in groups (p. 41). He says that the minds of lower
intelligence bring down those of a higher order to their own level. The
latter are obstructed in their activity, because in general an
intensification of emotion creates unfavourable conditions for sound
intellectual work, and further because the individuals are intimidated
by the group and their mental activity is not free, and because there is
a lowering in each individual of his sense of responsibility for his own
performances.
The judgement with which McDougall sums up the psychological behaviour
of a simple 'unorganised' group is no more friendly than that of Le Bon.
Such a group 'is excessively emotional, impulsive, violent, fickle,
inconsistent, irresolute and extreme in action, displaying only the
coarser emotions and the less refined sentiments; extremely suggestible,
careless in deliberation, hasty in judgment, incapable of any but the
simpler and imperfect forms of reasoning; easily swayed and led,
lacking in self-consciousness, devoid of self-respect and of sense of
responsibility, and apt to be carried away by the consciousness of its
own force, so that it tends to produce all the manifestations we have
learnt to expect of any irresponsible and absolute power. Hence its
behaviour is like that of an unruly child or an untutored passionate
savage in a strange situation, rather than like that of its average
member; and in the worst cases it is like that of a wild beast, rather
than like that of human beings.' (p. 45.)
Since McDougall contrasts the behaviour of a highly organised group with
what has just been described, we shall be particularly interested to
learn in what this organisation consists, and by what factors it is
produced. The author enumerates five 'principal conditions' for raising
collective mental life to a higher level.
The first and fundamental condition is that there should be some degree
of continuity of existence in the group. This may be either material or
formal; the former, if the same individuals persist in the group for
some time; and the latter, if 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 of the group some
definite idea should be formed of the nature, composition, functions and
capacities of the group, so that from this he may develop an emotional
relation to the group as a whole.
The third is that the group should be brought into interaction (perhaps
in the form of rivalry) with other groups similar to it but differing
from it in many respects.
The fourth is that the group should possess traditions, customs and
habits, and especially such as determine the relations of its members to
one another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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