MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Sigmund Freud, Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse (Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego), 1921
Published by Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag
First edition
Collection M HKA, Antwerp 

With his 1921 Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse, Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, wrote his major work on collective psychology. In the introduction, he elucidates that the psychology of the individual is inextricably linked – through the relationships we always establish with others – to social and group psychology. To investigate the dynamics that hold the individuals of a group together and ensure its stability, Freud first discusses La Psychologie des foules (The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, 1895) by French sociologist, psychologist and anthropologist Gustave Le Bon. Le Bon's theories also inspired fascist leaders like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.

“Le Bon thinks that the particular acquirements of individuals become obliterated in a group, and that in this way their distinctiveness vanishes. The racial unconscious emerges; what is heterogeneous is submerged in what is homogeneous. We may say that the mental superstructure, the development of which in individuals shows such dissimilarities, is removed, and that the unconscious foundations, which are similar in everyone, stand exposed to view”.

Following Le Bon, Freud argues that, as part of a mass, individuals experience a sense of power that incites them to extreme acts they would never perform in personal contact. Later in the book he examines two specific situations of mass psychology: one within the Church and one within the military. For Freud, the figure of the leader is crucial. The latter ensures coherence and identification within the group by creating the illusion that all group members are equally loved and appreciated. To further strengthen cohesion within the group, an image of the enemy existing outside the group is created. Freud states that, due to a crowd's impulsive and intolerant nature, it only listens to extreme opinions.