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Mob: a study of mass psychology

The synonym mob ((France) Gustav Le Pen's psychological works) generally refers to the mob: a study of popular psychology (Gustav Le Pen's works on Social Psychology) the mob: a study of popular psychology is a social psychological work written by French social psychologist Gustav Le Pen, which was first published in 1895.

Mob: a study of popular psychology is a book on popular psychology. In the book, Le Pen expounds the characteristics of group and group psychology, and points out that when an individual is an isolated individual, he has his own distinctive personality characteristics. When the individual integrates into the group, all his personality will be submerged by the group, and his thoughts will be immediately replaced by the thoughts of the group. When a group exists, it has the characteristics of emotional, no objection, low IQ and so on.

By 2013, the mob: a study of popular psychology has been translated into nearly 20 languages.

content validity

Mob: a study of public psychology describes the general characteristics of group psychology in detail, and analyzes the psychological, moral and behavioral characteristics of people in a group state. This paper explains why groups often show the characteristics of "blindness", "impulse", "fanaticism" and "credulity", and how the rulers use these characteristics to establish and consolidate their own rule.

Catalogue of works

Creative background

After the French Revolution, bourgeois scholars regarded the victory of bourgeois revolution as the victory of reason. However, this view can not explain why the terror of Jacobin's dictatorship appeared when reason called on people to drive away the king. Among the scholars who try to answer this question, Le Pen has become an outstanding one: he has developed a unique way to open up the psychological perspective of this research. Le Pen pointed out: "reason has done its best. We should not do more. For those problems that are still unsolved, we must find another way." In order to find "other methods", Le Pen claimed that he had accumulated considerable achievements for 20 years, and published a series of achievements on the research of public psychology. Mob is one of them.

Thoughts of works

1、 The basic concept of group (1) the nature of group in Mob: a study of popular psychology, the author believes that the word "group" refers to the individuals gathered together, no matter what nationality, occupation or gender they belong to, and no matter what things bring them together It can be said that the individuals in the group integrate their emotions and thoughts into the group, and the individual differences are hidden and blurred. It is the same as the meaning of "public" in the title, emphasizing the collection of a group of people. For example, the protest against Japanese goods triggered by the Diaoyu Islands incident has increasingly developed into smashing Japanese vehicles and Japanese funded shopping malls, and hurting innocent people. Usually, law-abiding citizens form a psychological group because of their strong emotions. Driven by such fanatical emotions and the power given by the number of people, they make the so-called "justice" and the common will of the group silent It replaces the individual will and makes the individual complete the transformation from external object to internalization in the unconscious conscious state, which forms the group unconscious behavior. (2) the basic characteristics of group Le Pen believes that "the loss of personality consciously and the change of feelings and thoughts in a different direction are the primary characteristics of people who are about to become an organized group." At the beginning of the May 4th movement, the slogan of "democracy and freedom" guided the people to save the nation from subjugation. When the movement was in full swing, personal emotions were magnified in the group, and the division between slogan and theme was not clear, which made the group make an event similar to "burning zhaojialou". The basic characteristics of the group can be roughly divided into two aspects, one is the loss of personality, the other is the loss of emotion strengthen. Moreover, the "unconscious quality" prevails. When the masses gather, they are always in high spirits, which makes the individual's feelings conform to the collective thought indiscriminately, so that they unconsciously enter into the collective consciousness. The most obvious embodiment of the group behavior's departure from rationality is that the group's unconscious behavior replaces the individual's conscious behavior. (1) the social and psychological characteristics of group behavior from the "Chengdu beaten female driver" incident, we can get a glimpse of the social and psychological characteristics of group behavior, from the netizens' angry reprimand of the beater at first, to the sudden change of wind direction and collective reprimand of the female driver, to the netizens' human flesh search for the female driver's personal privacy and publish it to the public, and the female driver reluctantly expressed Some netizens also have sympathy for female drivers. Combined with the relevant contents of mob: a study of public psychology, the social psychological characteristics of group behavior can be divided into the following points: first, impulse and changeability. When faced with problems, the group usually does not make advance planning and arrangement. When the crisis occurs, the emotion often overwhelms the rationality, and the blind impulse replaces the thinking, which is being coerced by the anonymous group. second, it is easy to be implied and credulous. Le Pen pointed out that group members accelerate the appearance of unconscious personality through suggestion and emotional contagion, and people immediately externalize the thought of accepting suggestion into their own behavior trend. Thirdly, exaggeration and simplicity of emotion. Le Pen believes that although the feelings expressed by individuals in the group are different, they are generally very simple and absurd. For example, after the terrorist attacks in Paris, the people generally put the whole Muslim community in the situation of verbal criticism, while ignoring that most Muslims are kind. European Muslims and Christians have lived peacefully for many years, while most people are in the rage of group feelings, and they do not have enough sense of responsibility for their own words and deeds, which further intensifies the group mood Exaggeration and simplicity. Fourth, paranoia and tyranny. Individuals in a group will show obvious herd mentality, which is also known as anonymity in the field of psychology. Individuals do irresponsible things in the name of "quantity is justice", which Le Pen called "the psychological law of the unity of group spirit". It is easy to breed dogmatism, abandoning responsibility and stubborn paranoia. (2) the reasons for the social psychological characteristics of group behavior the social psychological characteristics can be summarized as three specific reasons: psychological convergence, emotional infection and psychological suggestion. In the group, there are few people who have strong enough ability to resist emotional suggestion, so they are easy to get lost in the flood of convergence. third, the power of group behavior the following viewpoint appears in the mob: a study of public psychology: "a hero liked by a group is always like a Caesar." Group leaders are equivalent to the sheep in the sheep. The power of group behavior is dominated by leaders to a large extent, which may explain the fanatical cult of personality during the cultural revolution. In George Orwell's 1984 and animal farm, the mobilization means of leaders are described in detail, mainly including assertion, repetition and infection. The development of modern pyramid selling and cults has distorted the use of these mobilization means to encourage the group's unconscious behavior, which has caused great damage to people's physical and mental health and disrupted the normal social order.

Influence of works

Mobs: a study of public psychology is a pioneering work of group psychology. All the actions that need to mobilize large-scale public participation, such as politicians' incitement to national madness, business circles' encouragement of group buying, media's inducement of people's will and so on, must make use of Le Pen's ideas. Many action programs are formulated with reference to Le Pen's group psychological analysis. The mob: a study of popular psychology is not only a necessary book for psychological researchers, but also a reference for experts, scholars and workers in other fields. For example, the description of criminal groups and the criminal tendency of groups in the book will also be of great help to people who study criminal psychology and legal workers. The mob is also helpful for people who are engaged in or study political economy. In the book, there are many references for the study of the psychology of the voters and the parliament.

Work evaluation

Austrian psychologist Freud: "Le Pen's book is a well deserved masterpiece, he describes the collective mentality with great delicacy." Olbert, an American social psychologist: "among the works written in the field of social psychology, Le Pen's mob is the most influential." American sociologist Merton: "Le Pen's book has a lasting influence, and it is an indispensable document for researchers of group behavior."

Publishing information

About the author

Gustave LeBon (1841-1931) is a French social psychologist. Since 1894, Le Pen has published a series of works on social psychology, including psychological law of national evolution (1894), mob (1895), socialist Psychology (1898), revolutionary Psychology (1912) and war psychology (1916).

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