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Organised crowds have always played an important part in the life of peoples, but this part has never been of such moment as at present. The substitution of the unconscious action of crowds for the conscious activity of individuals is one of the principal characteristics of the present age.
Crowds, doubtless, are always unconscious, but this very unconsciousness is perhaps one of the secrets of their strength. In the natural world beings exclusively governed by instinct accomplish acts whose marvellous complexity astounds us. Reason is an attribute of humanity of too recent date and still too imperfect to reveal to us the laws of the unconscious, and still more to take its place. The part played by the unconscious in all our acts is immense, and that played by reason very small. The unconscious acts like a force still unknown.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Gustave le Bon was an eminent psychologist and sociologist. In Psychology of Crowds, he explores theories of national traits and behaviour as opposed to the behaviour of individuals.The ideas Le Bon explores in Psychology of Crowds are extremely relevant to to-day's society and were of pivotal importance in the early years of group psychology: Sigmund Freud's Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse (1921; English translation Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 1922) was based on Le Bon's work.Gustave Le Bon was born in Nogent-le-Rotrou on 7th May, 1841. He died in Marnes-la-Coquette on 13th December 1931.
