The Psychology of Revolution
Contents:
The miser becomes generous, the skeptic a believer, the honest man a criminal, the coward a hero.
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Examples of such transformations abounded during the great Revolution. As part of a jury or a parliament, the collective man renders verdicts or passes laws of which he would never have dreamed in his isolated condition.
Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance. The errors concerning our primitive ancestors were excusable enough, since before modern discoveries had shown us the real conditions of their existence these were absolutely unknown. Contagion refers to the spread in the crowd of particular behaviours and individuals sacrifice their personal interest for the collective interest. Cory Hall marked it as to-read Oct 12, Arthur Young relates that when he visited the springs near Clermont, at the time of the French Revolution, his guide was stopped by the people, who were persuaded that he had come by Order of the Queen to mine and blow up the town. These various characteristics show that man in the crowd descends to a very low degree in the scale of civilization. Sean marked it as to-read Oct 13,
One of the most notable consequences of the influence of a collectivity upon the individuals who compose it is the unification of their sentiments and wills. This psychological unity confers a remarkable force upon crowds. The formation of such a mental unity results chiefly from the fact that in a crowd gestures and actions are extremely contagious.
Acclamations of hatred, fury, or love are immediately approved and repeated. What is the origin of these common sentiments, this common will? They are propagated by contagion, but a point of departure is necessary before this contagion can take effect. Without a leader the crowd is an amorphous entity incapable of action. A knowledge of the laws relating to the psychology of crowds is indispensable to the interpretation of the elements of our Revolution, and to a comprehension of the conduct of revolutionary assemblies, and the singular transformations of the individuals who form part of them.
Pushed by the unconscious forces of the collective soul, they more often than not say what they did not intend, and vote what they would not have wished to vote. Although the laws of collective psychology have sometimes been divined instinctively by superior statesmen, the majority of Governments have not understood and do not understand them because they do not understand that so many of them have fallen so easily.
We have already repeated, and shall again repeat, that the errors of a doctrine do not hinder its propagation, so that all we have to consider here is its influence upon men's minds. But although the criticism of erroneous doctrines is seldom of practical utility, it is extremely interesting from a psychological point of view. The philosopher who wishes to understand the working of men's minds should always carefully consider the illusions which they live with.
Never, perhaps, in the course of history have these illusions appeared so profound and so numerous as during the Revolution. One of the most prominent was the singular conception of the nature of our first ancestors and primitive societies. Anthropology not having as yet revealed the conditions of our remoter forbears, men supposed, being influenced by the legends of the Bible, that they had issued perfect from the hands of the Creator.
The first societies were models which were afterwards ruined by civilization, but to which mankind must return. The return to the state of nature was very soon the general cry.
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Modern science, by determining, from the surviving remnants, the conditions of life of our first ancestors, has long ago shown the error of this doctrine. Chris Edgerly marked it as to-read Aug 22, Cory Hall marked it as to-read Oct 12, Sean marked it as to-read Oct 13, Andrian Gutu marked it as to-read Oct 13, Christopher Dubey marked it as to-read Oct 16, Judah marked it as to-read Oct 17, Harold Kelso marked it as to-read Oct 20, Shari marked it as to-read Nov 30, Christina Lamb is currently reading it Jan 02, Grant Hamersma added it Jan 02, Dimitry Lukashov marked it as to-read Jan 09, G marked it as to-read Mar 04, Giorgi Bratchuli added it Apr 13, Majdy marked it as to-read May 27, Benita marked it as to-read Aug 31, Michelle W added it Oct 24, Ereya marked it as to-read Oct 25, Rania Kamal marked it as to-read Nov 19, Le Bon also witnessed the Paris Commune of , which deeply affected his worldview.
From 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 Le Bon became interested in the emerging field of anthropology in the s and travelled throughout Europe , Asia and North Africa. In , he was commissioned by the French government to travel around Asia and report on the civilisations there. In this, Le Bon praised Arabs highly for their contributions to civilisation, but criticised Islamism as an agent of stagnation.
He next published Les Civilisations de l'Inde , in which he applauded Indian architecture, art and religion but argued that Indians were comparatively inferior to Europeans in regard to scientific advancements, and that this had facilitated British domination. The same year, he delivered a speech to the International Colonial Congress criticising colonial policies which included attempts of cultural assimilation , stating: On his travels, Le Bon travelled largely on horseback and noticed that techniques used by horse breeders and trainers varied dependent on the region.
Gustave Le Bon
He returned to Paris and in , while riding a high-spirited horse, he was bucked off and narrowly escaped death. He was unsure as to what caused him to be thrown off the horse, and decided to begin a study of what he had done wrong as a rider. This work became a respected cavalry manual, and Le Bon extrapolated his studies on the behaviour of horses to develop theories on early childhood education. Both were best-sellers, with Psychologie des Foules being translated into nineteen languages within one year of its appearance. These works rankled the largely socialist academic establishment of France.
Le Bon constructed a home laboratory in the early s, and in reported observing "black light", a new kind of radiation that he believed was distinct from, but possibly related to, X-rays and cathode rays. In , Le Bon began a series of weekly luncheons to which he invited prominent intellectuals, nobles and ladies of fashion. The strength of his personal networks is apparent from the guest list: Einstein responded and conceded that a mass—energy equivalence had been proposed before him, but only the theory of relativity had cogently proved it. Le Bon discontinued his research in physics in , and turned again to psychology.
The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave Le Bon
He then released Psychologie des Temps Nouveaux before resigning from his position as Professor of Psychology and Allied Sciences at the University of Paris and retiring to his home. He became a Grand-Croix of the Legion of Honour in In putting an end to the long, diverse and fruitful activity of Gustave Le Bon, death deprived our culture of a truly remarkable man.
His was a man of most exceptional intelligence; it sprang entirely from within himself; he was his own master, his own initiator Science and philosophy have suffered a cruel loss. According to Steve Reicher , Le Bon was not the first crowd psychologist: He considered this as a shortcoming from those authors who only considered the criminal aspect of crowd psychology.
Le Bon theorised that the new entity, the "psychological crowd", which emerges from incorporating the assembled population not only forms a new body but also creates a collective "unconsciousness". As a group of people gather together and coalesces to form a crowd, there is a "magnetic influence given out by the crowd" that transmutes every individual's behaviour until it becomes governed by the " group mind ". This model treats the crowd as a unit in its composition which robs every individual member of their opinions, values and beliefs; as Le Bon states: Le Bon detailed three key processes that create the psychological crowd: Anonymity provides to rational individuals a feeling of invincibility and the loss of personal responsibility.
An individual becomes primitive, unreasoning, and emotional. This lack of self-restraint allows individuals to "yield to instincts" and to accept the instinctual drives of their " racial unconscious ".
For Le Bon, the crowd inverts Darwin's law of evolution and becomes atavistic , proving Ernst Haeckel 's embryological theory: Contagion refers to the spread in the crowd of particular behaviours and individuals sacrifice their personal interest for the collective interest. Suggestibility is the mechanism through which the contagion is achieved; as the crowd coalesces into a singular mind, suggestions made by strong voices in the crowd create a space for the racial unconscious to come to the forefront and guide its behaviour. At this stage, the psychological crowd becomes homogeneous and malleable to suggestions from its strongest members.