The Group Mind Part 21

[10] E. Barker, _Political Thought in England from Herbert Spencer to the present day_, Home University Library, London, 1915.

[11] _Op. cit._ p. 11.

[12] _Op. cit._ pp. 62-64.

[13] _Op. cit._ p. 74. I consider Mr Barker's brief statement of the nature of the group mind entirely acceptable, and it has given me great pleasure to find myself in such close harmony with it. It will perhaps give further weight to the fact of our agreement, if I add that the whole of this book, including the rest of this introductory chapter, was written before I took up Mr Barker's brilliant little volume.

[14] _Op. cit._ p. 175.

[15] This principle of primitive sympathy or simple direct induction or contagion of emotion was formulated in Chapter IV of my _Social Psychology_.

[16] It was my good fortune to witness the almost instantaneous spread of anger through a crowd of five thousand warlike savages in the heart of Borneo. Representatives of all the tribes of a large district of Sarawak had been brought together by the resident magistrate for the purpose of strengthening friendly relations and cementing peace between the various tribes. All went smoothly, and the chiefs surrounded by their followers were gathered together in a large hall, rudely constructed of timber, to make public protestations of friendship. An air of peace and good-will pervaded the a.s.sembly, until a small piece of wood fell from the roof upon the head of one of the leading chiefs, making a slight wound from which the blood trickled. Only the immediate neighbours of this chief observed the accident or could perceive its effect; nevertheless in the s.p.a.ce of a few seconds a wave of angry emotion swept over the whole a.s.sembly, and a general and b.l.o.o.d.y fight would have at once commenced, but that the Resident had insisted upon all weapons being left in the boats on the river 200 yards away. The great majority of the crowd rushed headlong to fetch their weapons from their boats, while the few who remained on the ground danced in fury or rushed to and fro gesticulating wildly. Happily the boats were widely scattered along the banks of the river, so that it was possible for the Resident, by means of persuasion, threats, and a show of armed force, to prevent the hostile parties coming together again with their weapons in hand.

[17] _The Souls of Black Folk_, by W. E. B. Du Bois, London, 1905.

[18] _The Crowd_, p. 11.

[19] In a recent work (_What is Instinct?_ by Bingham Newland) the author, who shows an intimate knowledge of the life of wild animals, seems to postulate some such direct telepathic _rapport_ between animals of the same species.

[20] See _The Dissociation of a Personality_, by Dr Morton Prince; _Double Personality_, by A. Binet; _The Psychology of Suggestion_, by Boris Sidis; _L'automatism psychologique_, by Pierre Janet; and the descriptions and discussions of William James in his _Principles of Psychology_.

[21] _Philosophy of the Unconscious._

[22] _Die Psychophysik._

[23] _Psychologie des idees forces._

[24] _Les Societes animales_, Paris, 1877.

[25] _Bau und Leben des Socialen Korpers._

[26] _Medicinische Psychologie._

[27] I have argued that the great increase of knowledge of the functions and structure of the nervous system attained by recent research does but provide for the argument a surer basis of empirical data; and I have contended that some at least of the cases of disintegration of personality are more easily reconcilable with this view, than with the contrary doctrine which regards the individual consciousness as the collective consciousness of the brain-cells. See my _Body and Mind_, a book I found myself compelled to write in order to arrive at a reasoned judgment on this difficult problem, which obtrudes itself at the outset of the study of group life.

[28] _Social Psychology_, Chapter IX.

[29] See especially A. Stoll's _Suggestion und Hypnotismus in der Volkerpsychologie_, where the events of the French revolution have been treated in some detail from this point of view.

[30] Hon. Maurice Baring in an article in the _Morning Post_ of April 21, 1906.

[31] _Social Psychology_, Chapter IX.

[32] _Op. cit._ Chapter VII.

[33] One great difference between the professional army, such as that of England, and the citizen armies of Europe, consists in the fact that the special sentiment for the army is stronger in the former; the more general patriotic sentiment, in the rank and file of the latter; though in the regular officers of the continental army the sentiment for the army itself is no doubt usually the stronger.

[34] Cp. _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, by Ch. Hose and W.

McDougall, London, 1912.

[35] _From Religion to Philosophy_, p. 77.

[36] _Op. cit._ p. 82.

[37] Cf. _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, by Ch. Hose and W.

McDougall, London, 1912.

[38] Mr Cornford's book might in fact be ent.i.tled with greater propriety _From Philosophy to Religion_.

[39] 1 Oct. 1914.

[40] _Les Fonctions mentales dans les Societes inferieures_, Alcan, Paris, 1910.

[41] At this point I would refer the reader to the discussion of the self-regarding sentiment (Chapter VII) in my _Social Psychology_.

[42] For a brief history of the nation-state the reader may be referred to Prof. Ramsay Muir's _Nationalism and Internationalism_, London, 1917. He rightly describes 'nationalism' as one of the most powerful factors in modern history. It is, I think, obviously true that we may go further and say that it is _the_ most powerful factor in modern history.

[43] _Op. cit._ p. 38.

[44] _Op. cit._ p. 54.

[45] _Op. cit._ p. 51.

[46] Chapter II. On the question of the definition of the terms 'mind' and 'character' I would refer the reader to my _Psychology, The Study of Behaviour_, Home University Library.

[47] Prof. Hans Driesch's conception of 'super-individual entelechy' seems to be of this order, arrived at by the same line of reasoning. See _Science and Philosophy of the Organism_, Gifford Lectures, 1907.

[48] _Psychological Laws of the Evolution of Peoples._

[49] As examples of the best work as yet accomplished in this immense and fascinating field, I would refer the reader to the books of M. Alfred Fouillee one of the most clear-sighted, judicious, and readable of modern philosophers, especially his _Psychologie des peuples europeens_, his _Psychologie du peuple francais_, and his _Science Sociale Contemporaine_.

[50] _Psychologie du peuple francais_, p. 4. Paris 1903.

[51] _Social Psychology_, p. 330.

[52] _Les inegalites des races humaines._

[53] This fantastic doctrine has found its fullest expression in Chamberlain's work _The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century_.

[54] Other prominent exponents of this view are Mr J. M.

Robertson in his book _The Germans_ and in his _Introduction to English Politics_, and M. J. Finot in his _Race Prejudice_.

[55] I here use this word in the large, loose and convenient sense in which it is used by M. Tarde in his _Lois de l'imitation_. I have examined the nature of imitative processes more closely in my _Social Psychology_.

[56] Meredith Townsend regards this as one of the leading qualities of the peoples of India. See _Europe and Asia, London, 1901_.

[57] Cp. Ripley's _Races of Europe_ and Prof. H. J. Fleure's _Human Geography in Western Europe_, London, 1919.