The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

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There are two types of factors that affect the psychological characteristics of crowds, remote factors and immediate factors. Crowds either accept opinions, ideas, and beliefs entirely, or reject them as a whole; they may even consider them as falsehoods. They don’t accept any transitional or neutral opinions, and they won’t allow contradictions and arguments. Therefore, crowds will appear to be domineering and intolerant. For example, at public meetings, the slightest countering speech from an orator may cause the harshest reaction from the crowd. At this point, if the orator still insists on his point or position, he will soon be defeated. Being domineering and intolerant are common characteristics of all crowds. Nevertheless, their degrees vary across different ethnic groups. Le Bon believed that the Latin race in ancient Rome was the most domineering and intolerant of all. They believed that those who disagreed with them must immediately denounce their own beliefs strongly. The development of these two attitudes in the Latin crowd completely destroyed the strong sentiment of individual independence among the Anglo-Saxons. Psychologie des Foules (1895); (" The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind", 1986) Full text available; Audiobook available. Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, was influenced by Le Bon and Trotter. In his influential book Propaganda, he declared that a major feature of democracy was the manipulation of the electorate by the mass media and advertising. Some have claimed that, Theodore Roosevelt and Charles G. Dawes and many other American progressives in the early 20th century were also deeply affected by Le Bon's writings. [50] Works [ edit ] Bibliography compiled from the 1984 reissue of Psychologie du Socialisme. [51] Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon was born in Nogent-le-Rotrou, Centre-Val de Loire on 7 May 1841 to a family of Breton ancestry. At the time of Le Bon's birth, his mother, Annette Josephine Eugénic Tétiot Desmarlinais, was twenty-six and his father, Jean-Marie Charles Le Bon, was forty-one and a provincial functionary of the French government. [6] Le Bon was a direct descendant of Jean-Odet Carnot, whose grandfather, Jean Carnot, had a brother, Denys, from whom the fifth president of the French Third Republic, Marie François Sadi Carnot, was directly descended. [7]

Adas, Michael (1990). Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance. Cornell University Press. p. 195. ISBN 9780801497605. Söyler, Mehtap (2015). The Turkish Deep State: State Consolidation, Civil-Military Relations and Democracy. Routledge. p.70. ISBN 9781317668800.

The tyranny exercised unconsciously on men’s minds is the only real tyranny, because it cannot be fought against.”( The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind – Gustave Le Bon) Drury, John; Scott, Clifford (2015). Crowds in the 21st Century: Perspectives from Contemporary Social Science. Routledge. p.169. ISBN 978-1138922914. The author of this book, Gustave Le Bon, is a famous French social psychologist and the founder of crowd psychology. He has published many works, such as The French Revolution and the Psychology of Revolution, The Psychology of the Great War, and The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. These works have contributed to the theory of psychology and anthropology, among which “The Crowd” is a milestone work in crowd psychology research. Since its publication in 1895, the book has been a best-selling world classic. It successfully predicted all psychological and political developments in the 1920s. It also influenced Freud, Jung, and other scholars, as well as Roosevelt, Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, and other political figures. We can use the book’s analysis of crowd phenomena to interpret many social events around us. This book speaks the truth that we cannot help but admit, that is, we intend not to, but always unconsciously become part of “the crowd.” While crowds are capable of acts which achieve both good and evil, Le Bon believed that more often than not crowds commit barbarous and immoral actions. Why do crowds so often act in an immoral manner? Recherches anatomiques et mathématiques sur les variations de volume du cerveau et sur leurs relations avec l'intelligence (1879); ("Anatomical and mathematical research on the changes in brain volume and its relationships with intelligence")

Before anything, the crowd needs a “God”, a belief, or a common illusion. People need God and their faith to give them a commitment, to let them feel relieved from the cruel realities. We, humans, are weak creatures who can’t handle the pale reality of truth in the world. It is crowds rather than isolated individuals that may be induced to run the risk of death to secure the triumph of a creed or an idea, that may be fired with enthusiasm for glory and honour… Such heroism is without doubt somewhat unconscious, but it is of such heroism that history is made.”( The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind – Gustave Le Bon) Before we discuss the unconsciousness of the crowd, we need to know what a crowd is. According to Le Bon’s definition, a crowd is not some random gathering of people in a place; a crowd is a group of individuals united by a common idea, belief, or ideology. The idea which unites a crowd is not chosen by a process of clear reasoning and examination of evidence. When an individual becomes part of a crowd, the person will undergo a profound psychological transformation. The individuality of the person will disappear, and the person will become unconscious. The personalities and intelligence of individuals are erased in the crowd. With such a psychological transformation, an individual no longer lives for himself, and an individual will act differently from the state of the individual. Le Bon notes, “In a crowd, every sentiment and act is contagious, and contagious to such a degree that an individual readily sacrifices his personal interest to the collective interest” (p. #). In joining a crowd or a mass movement, the individual is temporarily relieved of this responsibility and sense of impotence, and comes to feel that he is capable of shaking the foundations of the earth:

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Nye, Robert A. (1969). An Intellectual Portrait of Gustave Le Bon: A Study of the Development and Impact of the Social Scientist in His Historical Setting. Xerox University Microfilms. p.5. Staum, Martin S. (2011), Nature and Nurture in French Social Sciences, 1859–1914 and Beyond, McGill-Queen's Press When Le Bon was eight years old, his father obtained a new post in French government and the family, including Gustave's younger brother Georges, left Nogent-le-Rotrou never to return. Nonetheless, the town was proud that Gustave Le Bon was born there and later named a street after him. [7] Little else is known of Le Bon's childhood, except for his attendance at a lycée in Tours, where he was an unexceptional student. [8] From 1871 on, Le Bon was an avowed opponent of socialist pacifists and protectionists, who he believed were halting France's martial development and stifling her industrial growth; stating in 1913: "Only people with lots of cannons have the right to be pacifists." [14] He also warned his countrymen of the deleterious effects of political rivalries in the face of German military might and rapid industrialisation, and therefore was uninvolved in the Dreyfus Affair which dichotomised France. [13] Widespread travels [ edit ] Le Bon in Algiers, 1880 Were it possible to induce the masses to adopt atheism, disbelief would exhibit all the intolerant ardour of a religious sentiment, and in its exterior forms would soon become a cult.”( The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind – Gustave Le Bon)

Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931), a French social psychologist, is often seen as the father of the study of crowd psychology. Le Bon believed an understanding of crowd psychology was essential for a proper understating of the both history and the nature of man. As he wrote in his classic and highly influential work The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind:Kedourie, Sylvia (1962). Arab Nationalism: An Anthology. Cambridge University Press. p. 182. ISBN 9780520026452.

Nye, Robert (1975), The Origins of Crowd Psychology – Gustave Le Bon and the Crisis of Mass Democracy in the Third Republic, Sage In the modern day one can see how invigorated and rejuvenated crowds become when they hear a leader pronounce that a cause is being fought in the name of freedom, peace, or prosperity. Once these words are proclaimed the members of the crowd nod their heads in blind obedience to whatever else follows from the leader’s mouth – completely ignorant as to the corrupt purposes that may be the true guide for the leader’s actions. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind is a book written by Gustave Le Bon, the French social psychologist, and was first published in 1895. The Crowd is one of the best-selling books, and its influence stretches to the present day because of its strong opinions and claims. In the book, Le Bon claims that there are several characteristics of crowd psychology: "impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgment of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others.” Ohlberg, Marieke (2014), The Era of Crowds: Gustave Le Bon, Crowd Psychology and Conceptualizations of Mass-Elite Relations in China, SpringerHow numerous are the crowds that have heroically faced death for beliefs, ideas, and phrases that they scarcely understood!”( The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind – Gustave Le Bon) period of decadence for the Latin peoples. CHAPTER II THE IMMEDIATE FACTORS OF THE OPINIONS OF CROWDS Approaching these simplified, and therefore gravely misunderstood, ideas as mysterious divinities, a crowd always forms a religious relationship to the ideas which motivate them to action. This being the case even when the ideas have no explicitly religious component: “A person is not religious solely when he worships a divinity, but when he puts all the resources of his mind, the complete submission of his will, and the whole-souled ardour of fanaticism at the service of a cause or an individual who becomes the goal and guide of his thoughts and actions.”