Group Psychology And The Analysis Of The Ego

The contrast between Individual Psychology and Social or Group Psychology, which at a first glance may seem to be full of significance, loses a great deal of its sharpness when it is examined more closely. It is true that Individual Psychology is concerned with the individual man and explores the paths by which he seeks to find satisfaction for his instincts; but only rarely and under certain exceptional conditions is Individual Psychology in a position to disregard the relations of this individual to others. In the individual's mental life someone else is invariably involved, as a model, as an object, as a helper, as an opponent, and so from the very first Individual Psychology is at the same time Social Psychology as wellÑin this extended but entirely justifiable sense of the words. The relations of an individual to his parents and to his brothers and sisters, to the object of his love, and to his physicianÑin fact all the relations which have hitherto been the chief subject of psycho-analytic researchÑmay claim to be considered as social phenomena; and in this respect they may be contrasted with certain other processes, described by us as 'narcissistic', in which the satisfaction of the instincts is partially or totally withdrawn from the influence of other people. The contrast between social and narcissisticÑBleuler would perhaps call them 'autistic'Ñmental acts therefore falls wholly within the domain of Individual Psychology, and is not well calculated to differentiate it from a Social or Group Psychology.

In this seminal work, Freud describes psychological mechanisms at work within mass movements. A mass, according to Freud, is a "temporary entity, consisting of heterogeneous elements that have joined together for a moment." Like Gustav Le Bon, Freud says that as part of the mass, the individual acquires a sense of infinite power which allows him to act on impulses that he would otherwise have to curb as an isolated individual. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.

The sixth volume in the series "Contemporary Freud: Turning Points and Critical Issues," published with the International Psychoanalytic Association, turns to Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921). In this classic text Freud offered an analysis of the roots of group identity, of the contagions of panic and fanaticism, and of the submission of the individual to the leader that only gained cogency with each passing decade of the troubled twentieth century. And Freud's insights have become more relevant still in the aftermath of the shattering events of September 11, 2001. Following an introduction to the volume by Ethel Spector Person and a summary and abridgement of Freud's text by John Kerr, the contributors to this volume - Didier Anzieu, Robert Caper, Abraham Zeleznik, Andre Haynal, Ernst Falzeder, Yolanda Gampel, and Claudio Laks Eisirik - provide commentaries on Freud's work, explicating the multiple ways in which Freud's insights continue to illuminate the irrational dynamics to which all groups, including psychoanalytic institutions, are prey. Serving as both an introduction to, and an elegant expansion of, Freud's texts, this volume demonstrates the role of psychoanalytic hypotheses in obtaining deeper insight into the tectonic shifts in group psychology underlying today's mass society.

Originally published in 1921, this is Sigmund Freud's Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

Offering an in-depth interpretation of Sigmund Freud’s so-called “collective” or “social” works, León Rozitchner shows how the Left should consider the ways in which capitalism inscribes its power in the subject as the site for the verification of history.

Freud's major work on group psychology. He looks at the dynamics of groups and what holds them together, makes them stable as well as what makes groups break up.

Excerpt from Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego The contrast between Individual Psychology and Social or Group Psychology, which at a first glance may seem to be full of significance, loses a great deal of its sharpness when it is examined more closely. It is true that Individual Psychology is concerned with the individual man and explores the paths by which he seeks to find satisfaction for his instincts; but only rarely and under certain exceptional conditions is Individual Psychology in a position to disregard the I relations of this individual to others. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A new translation from the original German manuscript of Freud's influential 1921 Mass Psychology and Ego Analysis, where he describes his theories on how societies become homogenous and locked in groupthink based on tribal identity. This edition includes an introduction by the translator on the philosophic differences between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, a glossary of Freudian Psychological terminology and a timeline of Freud’s life & works. "The Psychology of the Masses and Ego Analysis (1921) explores the ways in which the individual is influenced by the dynamics of the group and the pressures of society. Here he explores how shared psychic energy collected at the trans-personal level, a warning of groupthink and a Feuerbach- inspired critique of religion. This is a textbook example of Modernist anti-metaphysics, yet also a critique of his contemporary Modernist Humanism of his secular contemporaries.