Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/475

 PRESENT PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 459

soul-parasite or as a noble graft upon an inferior stock, there is no question that we are in the presence of a super-individual phe- nomenon. The coincident ideas men have of their group become a spiritual structure, the group-individuality, which trenches upon, even overshadows and well-nigh supplants, their personal individuality.

The problem of social groupings is distinct from that of per- sonal relations. Although it is inter-individual action that extends through a population a plane of agreement, such as a common speech, religion, or culture a plane which, to be sure, often serves as a convenient platform on which to rear some fabric of collective life it does not follow that a group-unit is built up out of nothing but personal ties, that the bond between fellow-members must be some one of the relations that may be established between two individuals. In that case a society, however complex and stable, would be resolvable into couples, each exemplifying some type of reciprocal influence that can be observed between man and man. No doubt there is much social tissue where people are webbed together by spiritual threads stretching from person to person. In the higher social forma- tions, however, people do not cohere altogether in this simple way. In the personal relationship the poles of thought are myself and my idea of the other person. But in the relation of compatriots, or coreligionists, or co-conspirators there comes first the thought of the ideal, leader, dynasty, territory, possession, organ, or sym- bol that serves as keystone locking the social arch, and then the thought of the fellow-member in the same attitude toward it that I am. Recognition of this identity of relation establishes between us a bond of sympathy. The vitality and strength of an active permanent group consists, then, not so much in direct attachments among the members, as in the attachment of all to something which serves to mark off that body of persons from the rest of the world.

The subjective aspect of human groupings has of late years been taken in hand by what is known as collective psychology, and some really beautiful studies have been made of the crowd, the party, the sect, the public, and the criminal band. They have