Mass behaviour and mass psychosis: Robert Wälder: An amendment of Freud’s ‘Theory of Mass Psychology’

Abstract

Introduction Freud’s approach to mass psychology builds on the analysis of the individual ego. The first time he refers to such an analysis of the ego is in his paper on Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Freud, 1920) where he speculated that ‘instincts other than those of self-preservation operate in the ego, namely libidinal ones’ (Freud, SE 18, 1920: 47). However, he conceded that ‘unfortunately, the analysis of the ego has made so little headway that it is very difficult for us to do so’ (ibid; italics mine). It is in the paper on mass psychology where this conceptual lack is elaborated. Nonetheless, the provisional status the ego as an agency did not discourage Freud from positing his main point, namely that in the individual’s psychic life, other people usually must be considered as either ‘models, helpers or opponents’, and thus ‘from the beginning, individual psychology is simultaneously group psychology—in this restricted but legitimated sense’ (Freud, SE 18, 1920: 65). 1120886 GAQ0010.1177/05333164221120886Group Analysis 54(3)Nitzgen: Mass behaviour and mass psychosis research-article2022