Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/107

 BOOK REVIEWS oq

THE GROUP MIND, By William McDougall M.B., F.R.S. (Cambridge University Press, 1921. Pp. 304. Price 2is.) tv^amonage

The most remarkable thing about books that deal with the 'GrAnn Mind ■ is that they \re frequently difficult to distinguish from te le^Z articles of a daily paper. Mr. McDougall's book is^ot one " ^hele S err the most in this line, but still, from a purely scientific pit of view we must ask why the author finds it necessary to state that 'politically' n.y sympathies are w:th mdividualism and internationalism, although i have, I tiiink. fully recogn^ed the great and necessary part playel in human hfe by tiie "Group Spirit - and by that specialTorm of it whi h wenowcallnauonahsm' (p. xi Preface). What have 'sympathies' to do with the top,cs in quesbon, which concern a department of applied psychology, localised on the border-line between psychology and social anthropology or sociology? We do not generally 'sympathise' with totemism or animism: why should we not be able to adhere to this ^^s.»^^ess.„.eni when discussing other questions of collective psycho-

]T\^" fr ^\ 'T ^^" ^"■^ ^P^'^^^^' ^- ^™ "^ - book {the Study of Sociology) in which the authors of books on this subject

might see, as m a mirror held before their eyes, how nation and party

distort ^eir view of facts. But it has had remarkably litde eifect o^

hem and books are still written, calling themselves scientific, which try to show that one nabon was 'wrong' another 'right', that certain pohtcs are justified-, others 'condemned' by sciencl The superiorit^ of fte British type of social organisation over the German is one of the fading themes of W. Trotter's 'Instincts of the Herd in Peace ^d War. 1916, whilst the defeat of Prassian militarism has not cured the Gennans or their leading philosopher of thefr old ideals (cf. W. Wundf Voikerpsychologie. Vol. X. 1920; Kultur und Geschichte. S. 44^)' The learned author of the 'Group Mind' is of course fiali; aware of tins remarkable dependence of science on politics (cf. p 3) but he does not aiink it necessary to explain the fact Vet we Lk that this

abnormal' character of books which touch these questions shou^ be explamed, and that the reason why authors cannot get rid T'bi^- IS simply that then they would be rid of the subject; for it is justISs bias, or rather the unconsaous impulse for which it is a substitute m consciousness that draws their attention to the problems of group ■ psychology, and perhaps contains the key to the problem of the group mind'. ^

Although this 'group mind- is. properly speaking, the subject of group or collective psychology, it is yet a matter of much S^u^ between authors whether, and m what sense, such a thing as a group mmd can be sa.d to exist at all. McDougall answers thi! questfon i^ ti.ealfirmative by saying that 'society when it enjoys a lon^ life and ' becomes highly orgamzed acquires a structure and qualities which are