[1] ['Group' is used throughout this translation as equivalent to the rather more comprehensive German 'Masse'. The author uses this latter word to render both McDougall's 'group', and also Le 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 for 'crowd' even in the extracts from the English translation of Le Bon.--Translator..]

[2] The Crowd: a Study of the Popular Mind. Fisher Unwin 12th. Impression, 1920.

[3] [See footnote page 1.]

[4] [References are to the English translation.--Translator.]

[5] [The German translation of Le Bon, quoted by the author, reads 'bewusster'; the English translation has 'unconscious'; and the original French text 'inconscients'.--Translator.]

[6] [The English translation reads 'which we ourselves ignore'--a misunderstanding of the French word 'ignorées'.--Translator.]

[7] There is some difference 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 especially contains the most deeply buried features of the racial mind, which as a matter of fact lies outside the scope of psycho-analysis. We do not fail to recognize, indeed, that the ego's nucleus, which comprises the 'archaic inheritance' of the human mind, is unconscious; but in addition to this we distinguish the 'unconscious repressed', which arose from a portion of that inheritance. This concept of the repressed is not to be found in Le Bon.

[8] Compare Schiller's couplet:

Jeder, sieht man ihn einzeln, ist leidlich klug und verständig; Sind sie in corpore, gleich wird euch ein Dummkopf daraus. [Everyone, seen by himself, is passably shrewd and discerning; When they're in corpore, then straightway you'll find he's an ass.]

[9] 'Unconscious' is used here correctly by Le Bon in the descriptive sense, where it does not only mean the 'repressed'.

[10] Compare Totem und Tabu, III., 'Animismus, Magie, und Allmacht der Gedanken.' [Totem and Taboo. New York, Moffat, 1918. London, Kegan Paul, 1919.]

[11] [See footnote p. 69.]

[12] In the interpretation of dreams, to which, indeed, we owe our best knowledge of unconscious mental life, we follow a technical rule of disregarding doubt and uncertainty in the narrative of the dream, and of treating every element of the manifest dream as 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 not acquainted with doubt and uncertainty as critical processes. They may naturally be present, like everything else, as part of the content of the day's residue which leads to the dream. (See Die Traumdeutung, 6. Auflage, 1921, S. 386. [The Interpretation of Dreams. Allen and Unwin, 3rd. Edition, 1913, p. 409.])

[13] The same extreme and unmeasured intensification of every emotion is also a feature of the affective life of children, and it is present as well in dream life. Thanks to the isolation of the single emotions in the unconscious, a slight annoyance 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 we try to discover in consciousness all that the dream has made 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 Traumdeutung, S. 457. [Translation p. 493.])

[14] In young children, for instance, ambivalent emotional attitudes towards those who are nearest to them exist side by side for a long time, without either of them interfering with the expression of the other and contrary one. If eventually a conflict breaks out between the two, it often settled by the child making a change of object and displacing one of the ambivalent emotions on to a substitute. The history of the development of a neurosis in an adult will also show that a suppressed 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 on the part of the ego against what it has repudiated. The phantasy is tolerated for quite a long time, until suddenly one day, usually as a result of an increase in the affective cathexis [see footnote page 48] of the phantasy, a conflict breaks out between it and the ego with all the usual consequences. In the process of a child's development into a mature adult there is a more and more extensive integration of its personality, a co-ordination of the separate instinctive feelings and desires which have grown up in him independently of one another. The analogous process in the domain of sexual life has long been known to us as the co-ordination of all the sexual instincts into a definitive genital organisation. (Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, 1905. [Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory. Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series, No. 7, 1910.]) Moreover, that the unification of the ego is liable to the same interferences as that of the libido is shown by numerous familiar instances, such as that of men of science who have preserved their faith in the Bible, and the like.

[15] See Totem and Tabu.

[16] [See footnote p. 48.]

[17] B. Kraškovič, jun.: Die Psychologie der Kollektivitäten. Translated [into German] from the Croatian by Siegmund von Posavec. Vukovar, 1915. See the body of the work as well as the bibliography.

[18] See Walter Moede: 'Die Massen-und Sozialpsychologie im kritischen Überblick.' Meumann and Scheibner's Zeitschrift für pädagogische Psychologie und experimentelle Pädagogik. 1915, XVI.

[19] Cambridge University Press, 1920.

[20] Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War. Fisher Unwin, 1916.

[21] Brugeilles: 'L'essence du phénomèna social: la suggestion.' Revue philosophique, 1913, XXV.

[22] Konrad Richter: 'Der deutsche S. Christoph.' Berlin, 1896, Acta Germanica, V, I.

[23] [Literally:"Christopher bore Christ; Christ bore the whole world; Say, where did Christopher then put his foot?']

[24] Thus, McDougall: 'A Note on Suggestion.' Journal of Neurology and Psychopathology, 1920, Vol. I, No. I.

[25] Nachmansohn: 'Freuds Libidotheorie verglichen mit der Eroslehre Platos'. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 1915, Bd. III; Pfister: 'Plato als Vorläufer der Psychoanalyse', ibid., 1921, Bd. VII. ['Plato: a Fore-Runner of Psycho-Analysis'. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 1922, Vol. III.]

[26] 'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.'

[27] [An idiom meaning 'for their sake'. Literally: 'for love of them'.--Translator.]

[28] An objection will justly be raised against this conception of the libidinal [see next foot-note] structure of an army on the 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 importance in holding an army together. The answer is that that is a different instance of a group tie, and no longer such a simple one; for the examples of great generals, like Caesar, Wallenstein, or Napoleon, show that such ideas are not indispensable to the existence of an army. We shall presently touch 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 army, even when it is not the only factor operative, seems to be not merely a theoretical omission but also a practical danger. Prussian militarism, which was just as unpsychological as German science, may have had to suffer the consequences of this in the great war. We know that the war neuroses which ravaged the German army have been recognized as being a protest of the individual against the part he was expected to play in the army; and according to the communication of E. Simmel (Kriegsneurosen and 'Psychisches Trauma'. Munich, 1918), 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.

[29] [Here and elsewhere the German 'libidinös' is used simply as an adjectival derivative from the technical term 'Libido'; 'libidinal' is accordingly introduced in the translation in order to avoid the highly-coloured connotation of the English 'libidinous'.--Translator.]

[30] ['Cathexis', from the Greek 'κατἑχω', 'I occupy'. The German word 'Besetzung' has become of fundamental importance in the exposition of psycho-analytical theory. Any attempt at a short definition or description 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 accumulation of mental energy in some particular channel. Thus, when we speak of the existence in someone of a libidinal cathexis of an object, or, more shortly, of an object-cathexis, we mean that the libidinal energy is directed towards, or rather infused into, the idea (Vorstellung) of some object in the outer world. Readers who desire to obtain a more precise knowledge of the term are referred to the discussions in 'Zur Einführung des Narzissmus' and the essays on metapsychology in Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge.--Translator.]

[31] See Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse. XXV, 3. Auflage, 1920. [Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Lecture XXV. George Allen and Unwin, 1922.]

[32] Compare Bela v. Felszeghy's interesting though somewhat fantastic paper 'Panik und Pankomplex'. Imago, 1920, Bd. VI.

[33] Compare the explanation of similar phenomena after the abolition of the paternal authority of the sovereign given in P. Federn's Die vaterlose Gesellschaft. Vienna, Anzengruber-Verlag, 1919.

[34] 'A company of porcupines crowded themselves very close together one cold winter's day so as to profit by one another's warmth and so save themselves from being frozen to death. But soon they felt one another's quills, which induced them to separate again. And now, when the need for warmth brought them nearer together again, the second evil arose once 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'.)

[35] Perhaps with the solitary exception of the relation of a mother to her son, which is based upon narcissism, is not disturbed by subsequent rivalry, and is reinforced by a rudimentary attempt at sexual object-choice.

[36] In a recently published study, Jenseits des Lustprinzips (1920) [Beyond the Pleasure Principle, International Psycho-Analytical Library, No. 4], I have attempted to connect the polarity of love and hatred with a hypothetical opposition between instincts of life and death, and to establish the sexual instincts as the purest examples of the former, the instincts of life.

[37] See 'Zur Einführung des Narzissmus', 1914. Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 1918.

[38] [Literally, 'leaning-up-against type'; from the Greek 'ἁνακλἱνω' 'I lean up against'. In the first phase of their development the sexual instincts have no independent means of finding satisfaction; they do so by propping themselves upon or 'leaning up against' the self-preservative instincts. The individual's first choice of a sexual object is said to be of the 'anaclitic type' when it follows this path; that is, when he choses as his first sexual object the same person who has satisfied his early non-sexual needs. For a full discussion of the anaclitic and narcissistic types of object-choice compare 'Zur Einführung des Narzissmus.--Translator.]

[39] See Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, and Abraham's 'Untersuchungen über die früheste prägenitale Entwicklungsstufe der Libido', Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 1916, Bd, IV; also included in his Klinische Beiträge zur Psychoanalyse (Internationale psychoanalytische Bibliothek. Nr. 10, 1921).

[40] [Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre. Zweite Folge.]

[41] Marcuszewicz: 'Beitrag zum autistischen Denken bei Kindern.' Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 1920, Bd. VI.

[42] ['Trauer und Melancholie.' Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 1918.]

[43] ['Instanz'--like 'instance' in the phrase 'court of first instance'--was originally a legal term. It is now used in the sense of one of a hierarchy of authorities or functions.--Translator.]

[44] 'Zur Einführung des Narzissmus', 'Trauer und Melancholie.'

[45] 'Zur Einführung des Narzissmus.'

[46] We are very well aware that we have not exhausted the nature of identification with these samples taken from pathology, and that we have consequently left part of the riddle of group formations untouched. A far more fundamental and comprehensive 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, which lie at the root of clan feeling, led Robertson Smith to the surprising result that they rest upon the recognition of a common 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 identification with the early history of the human family which I constructed in Totem und Tabu.

[47] Cf. Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, l.c.

[48] 'Über die allgemeinste Erniedrigung des Liebeslebens.' Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 1918.

[49] Cf. 'Metapsychologische Ergänzung zur Traumlehre.' Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 1918.

[50] W. Trotter: Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War. Fisher Unwin, 1916.

[51] See my essay Jenseits des Lustprinzips.

[52] See the remarks upon Dread in Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse. XXV.

[53] Totem und Tabu.

[54] What we have just described in our general characterisation of 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 ones. An idea did not dare to turn itself into a volition unless it felt itself reinforced by a perception of its general diffusion. This weakness of the idea is to be explained by the strength of the emotional tie which is shared by all the members of the horde; but the similarity in the circumstances of their life and the absence of any private property assist in determining the uniformity of their individual mental acts. As we may observe with children and soldiers, common activity is not excluded even in the excremental functions. The one great exception is provided by the 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.

[55] It may perhaps also be assumed that the sons, when they were driven out and separated from their father, advanced from identification with one another to homosexual object love, and in this way won freedom to kill their father.

[56] 'Das Unheimliche.' Imago, 1919, Bd. V.

[57] See Totem und Tabu and the sources there quoted.

[58] This situation, in which the subject's attitude is unconsciously directed towards the hypnotist, while he is consciously occupied with the monotonous and uninteresting perceptions, finds a parallel among the events of psycho-analytic treatment, which 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 incentives for putting them in motion fail in their effect. As a result of pressure the patient is at last 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 ceiling. Then one knows at once that he has gone off into the transference and that he is engaged upon what are still 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.

[59] Ferenczi: 'Introjektion und Übertragung.' Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, 1909, Bd. I [Contributions to Psycho-Analysis. Boston, Badger, 1916, Chapter II.]

[60] It seems to me worth emphasizing the fact that the discussions in this section have induced us to give up Bernheim's conception of hypnosis and go back to the naïf earlier one. According to Bernheim all hypnotic phenomena are to be traced to the factor of suggestion, which is not itself capable of further explanation. We have come to the conclusion that suggestion is 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.

[61] 'Trauer und Melancholie.'

[62] Totem und Tabu.

[63] Trotter traces repression back to the herd instinct. It is a translation of this into another form of expression rather than a contradiction when I say in my 'Einführung des Narzissmus' that on the part of the ego the construction of an ideal is the condition of repression.

[64] Cf. Abraham: 'Ansätze zur psychoanalytischen Erforschung und Behandlung des manisch-depressiven Irreseins', 1912, in Klinische Beiträge zur Psychoanalyse, 1921.

[65] 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 of a melancholiac.

[66] [Literally: 'How he clears his throat and how he spits, that you have cleverly copied from him.']

[67] What follows at this point was written under the influence of an exchange of ideas with Otto Rank.

[68] Cf. Hanns Sachs: 'Gemeinsame Tagträume', a summary made by the lecturer himself of a paper read at the Sixth Psycho-analytical Congress, held at the Hague in 1920. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 1920, Bd. VI. ['Day-Dreams in Common'. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 1920, Vol. I.]

[69] 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.

[70] Cf. Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie.

[71] Hostile feelings, which are a little more complicated in their construction, offer no exception to this rule.

[72] [Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde. Heft 8. Vienna, Deuticke, 1910.]

[73] See 'Über die allgemeinste Erniedrigung des Liebeslebens.'

[74] See Totem und Tabu, towards the end of Part II, 'Das Tabu und die Ambivalenz'.

[75] See Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, 4. Auflage, 1920, S. 96.