Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
by Sigmund Freud
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Sigmund Freud's 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego' explores the psychological dynamics of individuals within groups, building upon the theories of Gustave Le Bon. Freud investigates how individual behavior is influenced and often altered when part of a larger group, examining concepts such as the 'herd instinct' and the social drive. The book addresses the psychological mechanisms that bind individuals together, such as suggestion and libido, and contrasts these with narcissistic show more processes. Intended for readers interested in psychology and social theory, the book delves into artificial groups like the church and military, and discusses the implications of mass psychology on individual ego development. show lessTags
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An interesting book by Freud detailing the advent of unconscious in terms of groups of people. The foundations, the ideas, are what attracted and kept me there throughout the duration of this volume. Freud's theories are nearly archaic, but there is still a sense of amazement and wonder about his intellectual processes and sheer ingenuity (in his time) at coming up with his theories and the examples that he used to stand by them. This all offers food for thought, which I believe is essential for those wishing to think, consider, and examine their own views in terms of how they view the world and those around them.
3.75- worth reading.
3.75- worth reading.
Perfecto para el análisis de las masas y la influencia de la comunicación en ellas.
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Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, simultaneously a theory of personality, a therapy, and an intellectual movement. He was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Freiburg, Moravia, now part of Czechoslovakia, but then a city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the age of 4, he moved to Vienna, where he spent nearly his entire life. show more In 1873 he entered the medical school at the University of Vienna and spent the following eight years pursuing a wide range of studies, including philosophy, in addition to the medical curriculum. After graduating, he worked in several clinics and went to Paris to study under Jean-Martin Charcot, a neurologist who used hypnosis to treat the symptoms of hysteria. When Freud returned to Vienna and set up practice as a clinical neurologist, he found orthodox therapies for nervous disorders ineffective for most of his patients, so he began to use a modified version of the hypnosis he had learned under Charcot. Gradually, however, he discovered that it was not necessary to put patients into a deep trance; rather, he would merely encourage them to talk freely, saying whatever came to mind without self-censorship, in order to bring unconscious material to the surface, where it could be analyzed. He found that this method of free association very often evoked memories of traumatic events in childhood, usually having to do with sex. This discovery led him, at first, to assume that most of his patients had actually been seduced as children by adult relatives and that this was the cause of their neuroses; later, however, he changed his mind and concluded that his patients' memories of childhood seduction were fantasies born of their childhood sexual desires for adults. (This reversal is a matter of some controversy today.) Out of this clinical material he constructed a theory of psychosexual development through oral, anal, phallic and genital stages. Freud considered his patients' dreams and his own to be "the royal road to the unconscious." In The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), perhaps his most brilliant book, he theorized that dreams are heavily disguised expressions of deep-seated wishes and fears and can give great insight into personality. These investigations led him to his theory of a three-part structure of personality: the id (unconscious biological drives, especially for sex), the superego (the conscience, guided by moral principles), and the ego (the mediator between the id and superego, guided by reality). Freud's last years were plagued by severe illness and the rise of Nazism, which regarded psychoanalysis as a "Jewish pollution." Through the intervention of the British and U.S. governments, he was allowed to emigrate in 1938 to England, where he died 15 months later, widely honored for his original thinking. His theories have had a profound impact on psychology, anthropology, art, and literature, as well as on the thinking of millions of ordinary people about their own lives. Freud's daughter Anna Freud was the founder of the Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic in London, where her specialty was applying psychoanalysis to children. Her major work was The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
- Original title
- Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse
- Original publication date
- 1922
- Original language*
- Deutsch
- Canonical LCC
- BF173.F662
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Philosophy
- DDC/MDS
- 150.1952 — Philosophy and Psychology Psychology Emotions, Relationships, & Family Theory And Instruction Systems, schools, viewpoints Psychoanalytic systems Freudian system
- LCC
- BF173 .F662 — Philosophy, Psychology and Religion Psychology Psychology Psychoanalysis
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 734
- Popularity
- 38,320
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.55)
- Languages
- 10 — Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Serbian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 72
- ASINs
- 33
