Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego is a work of Sigmund Freud from the year 1921. In this monograph, Freud describes psychological mechanisms at work within mass movements. A mass, according to Freud, is a "temporary entity, consisting of heterogeneous elements that have joined together for a moment." He refers heavily to the writings of sociologist and psychologist Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931), summarizing his work at the beginning of the book in the chapter Le Bons Schilderung der Massenseele ("Le Bon's description of the group mind"). Like Le Bon, Freud says that as part of the mass, the individual acquires a sense of infinite power which allows him to act on impulses that he would otherwise have to curb as an isolated individual. These feelings of power and security allow the individual not only to act as part of the mass, but also to feel safety in numbers. This is accompanied, however, by a loss of conscious personality and a tendency of the individual to be infected by any emotion within the mass, and to amplify the emotion, in turn, by "mutual induction". Overall, the mass is "impulsive, changeable, and irritable. It is controlled almost exclusively by the unconscious." Freud distinguishes between two types of masses. One is the short-lived kind, characterized by a rapidly transient interest, such as trends. The other kind consists of more permanent and enduring masses, which are highly organized, such as the Church or the military. "The masses of the former type, so to speak, ride on the latter, like the short but high waves on the long swell of the sea." However, the same basic mental processes operate in both kinds of masses.

Presents Freud's psychoanalytical treatise on the divisions of the mind and their interrelations

Covers the themes that Sigmund Freud explored in his work from the meaning of dreams and the concept of the unconscious, instinctual and sexual life to the structure of the personality. This collection is intended as a guide to the principle concepts of psycho-analysis.

Letters between the two men reveal their thoughts on politics, literature, and homosexuality, as well as their observations of such collegues and friends as John Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf, and Betrand Russell.

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Chronicles the growth of their surprisingly modern marriage of equals as well as their separated but similar worlds of literature and bohemianism united by the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis

Case studies show how the two physicians developed the cathartic method of psychoanalysis to treat people with emotional problems

Product Description: This 24-volume set contains the whole of Freud's published psychological writings.