Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/237

 THE NATURE OF THE SOCIAL UNITY 22$

Social psychology, then, if somewhat more strictly denned, has as its task to examine and explain the form or mechanism of these group psychical processes. 11

Whatever psychical phenomena may be regarded as pertaining to group- life as such are, therefore, the proper subject-matter of social psychology."

It is evident that the only social psychology which is possible is a psy- chology of the activities and development of the social group, a " functional psychology of the collective mind." "

Is there, then, a collective psychical life, in which the psychical life of the individual is but a constitutive element? .... The conclusion, therefore, is that there could be no such phenomena as public opinion, the Zeitgeist, tra- dition, social ideals, and the like, if the individuals of a social group were psychically autonomous and independent."

But the real proof of the existence of socio-psychical processes is found in the fact that social groups act, that they are functional unities capable of making inner and outer adjustments.* 3

This principle of organization can be no other, on the psychological side, than a psychical process which extends throughout the group and unifies it. 1 *

Human society may, therefore, with propriety be styled a psychical organism."

The concept of the social mind, then, is not meaningless, although it does not mean that society presents a unified consciousness, much less that it is ruled over by a mysterious entity resembling the " soul " of theology and metaphysics."

The theory of inter-individual psychic processes and group psychical processes has been sufficiently criticised. There are no "psychical phenomena pertaining to the group-life as such;" there is no collective mind. Public opinion, the Zeitgeist, tradi- tion, social ideals, and the like are not psychic phenomena, if we consider them from the standpoint of their unity. Public opinion, if considered from the standpoint of psychology, is not one, but a thousand opinions. Its unity is purely objective, and, hence, not psychic. Kiilpe's statement that there are mental phenomena dependent upon a community of individuals need mean only that the individual's psychic processes are socially conditioned that they are what they are because the individual is a social indi- vidual; that the individual thinks, feels, and acts with reference to the actual social situation; and social psychology, from this


 * Ibid., p. 657. * Ibid., pp. 102, 103. "Ibid., p. 109.

"Ibid., p. 657. * Ibid., p. 104. " Ibid., p. 227.

"Ibid., Vol. V, p. 100. *Ibid., p. 104.