Psychology of the Great War: The First World War & Its Origins

by Gustave Le Bon, Louis Horowitz Irving

The outbreak of World War I saw the collapse of socialist notions of class solidarity and reaffirmed the enduring strength of nationalism. The workers of the world did not unite, but turned on one another and slaughtered their fellows in what was then the bloodiest war in history. There have been many efforts to explain the outbreak of war in 1914, but few from so intimate a perspective as LeBon's. He examines such questions as why German scholars tried to deny Germany's obvious guilt in the war, and what explained the remarkable resolve of the French army to persevere in the face of unprecedented adversity. To such questions, LeBon proposes answers built upon principles well articulated in the larger body of his work. He transforms the character of the debate by demonstrating how psychological principles explain more persuasively both the causes of German academic ignominy and the origins of French valor. Convinced as he was that only psychology could illuminate collective behavior, LeBon dismisses purely economic or political interpretations as ill-conceived and inadequate precisely because they fail to appreciate the role of psychology in the collective behavior of national statesmen, prominent scholars, and ordinary soldiers. The Psychology of the Great War provides a bridge to study both crowd behavior and battlefield behavior by illustrating how ordinary people are transformed into savages by great events. This element in LeBon's thinking influenced Georges Sorel's thinking, as he had seen the same phenomenon in those who participated in general strikes and revolutions. And in a later period and different context, Hannah Arendt gave this strange capacity of the ordinary to be transformed into the extraordinary the name "banality of evil." The book will be of interest to social theorists, psychologists concerned with group behavior, and historians of the period.

Genres: Psychology, History, World War I, Politics

516 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1915

About the author

A social psychologist, sociologist, and amateur physicist. He was the author of several works in which he expounded theories of national traits, racial superiority, herd behavior and crowd psychology.
See also Гюстав Ле Бон

Reviews

[Mohamad Hallak · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب غني بالأفكار التحليلية، يستعرض كيف غيّرت الحرب العالمية الأولى البنية الذهنية للشعوب، ويكشف عن تأثير الصراعات الكبرى على الوعي الجمعي. أثناء قراءتي، شعرت أن لوبون لا يصف الأحداث فقط، بل يشرح كيف تُصاغ العقول في زمن الأزمات. من العبارات المستلهمة:
"حين تتغير الذهنية، تتغير الأمم، وتُعاد كتابة التاريخ من جديد."

[Canon · Rating 4 out of 5]

1.群眾是衝動、善變，容易受到煽動的 — 甚至 可蓋過其自身的利害觀念，無法計畫性的思考。

2.群眾會輕易接受暗示，輕信他人所言 — 被喚起的心像，會被當成事實來接受，即使是學者在群眾中也無差別。

3.群眾的情感是誇張而單純的 — 無法感受到疑惑、不安，會不斷從極端走向極端。

所謂「導師」將信念植入群眾的主要方法：
a.妄下斷言-不經推理、論證，毫無條件地斷下言論。
b.反覆-不斷重複的事情會被刻印在無意識的深處。
c.渲染-將某種斷言不斷使用，形塑意見的趨勢，即可產生強大的渲染作用

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圖書館借閱

[Percy Yue · Rating 4 out of 5]

妄下斷言、反覆、渲染

群眾是受到刺激，一切情緒與觀念都能被操弄的個人之集合。
個人在群眾中會失去自我的主見，成為一個自動化的傀儡。
當權力達到絕對時，就形成「威嚴」。
以擴增名為法律的束縛來擴大權勢以保障地位的其實是行政官員。換句話說，這些不是透過選舉選出來的官僚將成為國家的統治者，習慣於束縛的人民將成為他們手中操弄的傀儡。