The Group Mind: A Sketch of the Principles of Collective Psychology: With Some Attempt to Apply Them to the Interpretation of National Life and CharacterMcDougall, William
Science
The Group Mind: A Sketch of the Principles of Collective Psychology: With Some Attempt to Apply Them to the Interpretation of National Life and Character
McDougall, William
Ethnopsychology; National characteristics; Social psychology
It must be added that all the peculiarities of collective mental process
mentioned above express themselves very readily in the actions of simple
crowds, because such a crowd is incapable of resolution and volition in
the true sense of the words. I have shown[28] that individual resolution
and volition are only rendered possible by the possession of a
well-developed self-consciousness and self-regarding sentiment. But a
simple crowd has at the most only a rudimentary self-consciousness and
has no self-regarding sentiment. Hence its actions are the direct issue
of the various impulses that are collectively evoked; and, though it may
be collectively conscious of the end towards which it is impelled, and
though all the individuals may desire to effect or realise this end, and
to that extent may be said to be capable of purpose; yet such an
impulse or desire cannot be steadied, strengthened, renewed, or
supported and maintained, in opposition to any other impulse that may
come into play, by an impulse springing from the self-regarding
sentiment in the way which constitutes resolution and volition. Just so
far as the self-regarding sentiment of individuals comes into play and
they exert their individual volitions, they cease to act as members of a
crowd. The actions of the simple crowd are thus not the outcome of a
general will, nor are they the resultant of the wills of all its
members; they are simply not volitional in the true sense, but rather
impulsive. They are comparable with the actions of an animal rather than
with those of a man. It is the lack of the conditions necessary to
collective resolution and volition that renders a crowd so fickle and
inconsistent; so capable of passing from one extreme of action to
another, of hurrying to death the man whom it glorified at an earlier
moment, or of turning from savage butchery to tender and tearful
solicitude. Such incapacity of the crowd for resolution and volition,
together with the increased suggestibility of its members, accounts for
the fact that a crowd may be easily induced to follow as a leader any
one who, by means of the elementary reasoning processes suited to its
intellectual capacity, can succeed in suggesting to it the desirability
of any course of action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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