StartGroepenDiscussieMeerTijdgeest
Doorzoek de site
Onze site gebruikt cookies om diensten te leveren, prestaties te verbeteren, voor analyse en (indien je niet ingelogd bent) voor advertenties. Door LibraryThing te gebruiken erken je dat je onze Servicevoorwaarden en Privacybeleid gelezen en begrepen hebt. Je gebruik van de site en diensten is onderhevig aan dit beleid en deze voorwaarden.

Resultaten uit Google Boeken

Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.

Bezig met laden...

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1895)

door Gustave Le Bon

Andere auteurs: Zie de sectie andere auteurs.

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
973721,321 (3.72)9
Psychology. Sociology. Nonfiction. HTML:

The following work is devoted to an account of the characteristics of crowds. Organized 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 marvelous 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.

.… (meer)
Geen
Bezig met laden...

Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden.

Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.

» Zie ook 9 vermeldingen

Engels (4)  Duits (2)  Frans (1)  Alle talen (7)
1-5 van 7 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931), filósofo, médico, psicólogo, etnógrafo, con esta obra: Psicología de las masas, elaboró un manual con el cual los políticos y líderes supieran como manipular y dirigir a su antojo a las masas incultas, es decir, a los que no pueden reaccionar a las manipulaciones por desconocer las técnicas con las que son esclavizados.
Para el público en general esta obra resulta sumamente interesante, sobre todo, para prevenirnos de las maniobras que propone, ya que a pesar de estar escrito en 1895 ha sido y sigue siendo un libro de referencia y fuente de inspiración para seres sin escrúpulos: muchos políticos, lideres, vendedores, fundadores de sectas… y en general para todos aquellos que desean vivir a costa del sudor del prójimo. Basta observar la importancia que le otorgan al haberlo traducido a casi todos los idiomas: español, alemán, inglés, ruso, checo, sueco, turco, polaco, japonés, árabe, etc.; y cómo se comportan según sus criterios los medios masivos de comunicación para dirigir los gustos y controlar las opiniones del pueblo, para estar de acuerdo en que este libro fue y sigue siendo el canon de los aspirantes a desaprensivos sectarios, políticos y dictadores. ( )
  serxius | Aug 26, 2022 |
review of
Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd - Study of the Popular Mind
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 21-27, 2022

For the full review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1923596-the-crowding

I got a copy of this bk b/c it was apparently influential on the idea of "mass formation". Since I now consider most people to be hopelessly conformist sheeple I'm interested in what crowd psychology observations have been made that predate this current hellish age. As such, I was predisposed to find any study of crowds as of interest. Still, it was w/ some trepidation that I read the description of Le Bon on the back cover:

"Gustave Le Bon (7 May 1841 - 13 December 1931) was a French 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."

"racial superiority"?! What was I getting myself in for?! As it turned out, Le Bon's meaning of "race" seems to be more what we'd call "nationality" these days & doesn't seem to be based on skin color. Still, how does the "superiority" factor in? Well, in this bk, it doesn't seem to factor in at all so I'm relieved by that. IMO any notion of "superiority" except for, perhaps, the technical superiority of functioning of a machine designed for a specific purpose, is bound to cause more trouble than it's worth - esp when applied to people & peoples.

As w/ many publishers in this day & age of taking things from public domain & putting them out using POD printers, this particular edition is rather, ahem, bizarre since it claims "Copyright © 2018 All rights reserved." & "Your support to the author's rights is appreciated. First Edition". Ahem, the original was written in 1895, the author is long since dead. The publisher might be copyrighting this particular translation, there's no translator credited, MAYBE it's a "First Edition" of that. Whatever the case may be, the publisher's claims on this bk as represented by what I quoted above are very tenuous. The publisher is so pathetic that they also state on the same page:

"Except in United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shell no, by the way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without publisher's prior consent in any form or binding or cover other then that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser."

Wow, I won't even say 'Nice try' sarcastically. This copyright page appears to be the ONLY page that the publisher actually had to go to the trouble of writing - &, yet, they cdn't even get this tiny bit right. They're so clearly not literate people, they're so clearly just trying to make money off of someone else's labor & trying to own it that it's disgusting. "that it shell no"?! I do believe they were intending to write 'shall not' but that wd've taken being able to think past their bank acct. Maybe they cd've really strained their intellect & gone for 'Except in the United States of America'. & how about "other then that"? Perhaps they cd've striven to learn a little more about the English language, to not just rely on their spellcheck. THEN they might've written 'other than that' - but, no, they're just in it for the money, apparently. Of course, there's no publisher name on the bk. This seems to be the common way of things w/ these scammers, it makes it harder to pinpoint who, exactly, they are. I wonder if they ever even read the bk that they 'publish'. It seems just as likely, if not more so, that they just learned about the bk thru a college course &/or thru some online search for bks in the public domain. Oh, well.

The "Preface" begins w/ this paragraph:

"The following work is devoted to an account of the characteristics of crowds. The whole of the common characteristics with which heredity endows the individuals of a race constitute the genius of the race. When, however, a certain number of these individuals are gathered together in a crowd for purposes of action, observation proves that, from the mere fact of their being assembled, there result certain new psychological characteristics, which are added to the racial characteristics and differ from them at times to a very considerable degree." - p 5

There's that race thing again. Here're further relevant quotes to bear out my assertion that race = nationality in Le Bon's usage:

"We showed in a previous volume, what an historical race is, and how, its character once formed, it possesses, as the result of the laws of heredity such power that its beliefs, institutions, and arts — in a word, all the elements of its civilization — are merely the outward expression of its genius. We showed that the power of the race is such that no element can pass from one people to another without undergoing the most profound transformations." - p 41

"The assemblage of dissimilar units begins to blend into a whole, to form a race; that is, an aggregate possessing common characteristics and sentiments to which heredity will give greater and greater fixity. The crowd has become a people" - p 100

In Le Bon's preface he establishes himself as a subculture of one. I respect that, it's a better way than most to exercise impartiality.

"In a recent publication an eminent thinker, M. Goblet d'Alviela, made the remark that, belonging to none of the contemporary schools, I am occasionally found in opposition of sundry of the conclusions of all of them. I hope this new work will merit a similar observation. To belong to a school is necessarily to espouse its prejudices and preconceived opinions." - p 5

Moving on to the "Introduction":

"The age we are about to enter will in truth be the Era of Crowds.

"Scarcely a century ago the traditional policy of European states and the rivalries of sovereigns were the principle factors that shaped events. The opinion of the masses scarcely counted, and most frequently indeed did not count at all. To-day it is the traditions which used to obtain in politics, and the individual tendencies and rivalries of rulers which do not count; while, on the contrary, the voice of the masses has become preponderant." - p 8

It seems that he's referring to "the dictatorship of the proletariat", but maybe not quite.

"In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a state of affairs in which the proletariat holds political power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the post-revolutionary state seizes the means of production, compels the implementation of direct elections on behalf of and within the confines of the ruling proletarian state party, and instituting elected delegates into representative workers' councils that nationalise ownership of the means of production from private to collective ownership. During this phase, the administrative organizational structure of the party is to be largely determined by the need for it to govern firmly and wield state power to prevent counterrevolution and to facilitate the transition to a lasting communist society." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat

Either way, it seems that the proletariat ultimately doesn't have much of a say b/c a 'higher authority' is allowed to run the show. The times when the crowd &/or proletariat seems to have the most say is when they run amok &, temporarily, override state authority. It all seems like a mess to me. I'm in favor of the individual, 1st & foremost, by wch I mean a true individual, a person who thinks for theirself. The problem, for me, w/ crowds, is that the mob mentality takes over - wch means the LCD (Lowest Common Denominator), wch is rarely any more than brutishness. But let's see what Le Bon has to say about the matter, eh?:

"History tells us, that from the moment when the moral forces on which a civilisation rested have lost their strength, its final dissolution is brought about by those unconscious and brutal crowds known, justifiably enough, as barbarians. Civilisations as yet have only been created and directed by a small intellectual aristocracy, never by crowds. Crowds are only powerful for destruction. Their rule is always tantamount to a barbarian phase. A civilisation involves fixed rules, discipline, a passing from the instinctive to the rational state, forethought for the future, an elevated degree of culture — all of them conditions that crowds, left to themselves, have invariably shown themselves incapable of realizing. In consequence of the purely destructive nature of their power crowds act like those microbes which hasten the dissolution of enfeebled or dead bodies." - p 10

I agree w/ much of the above. I don't think I agree w/ "Civilisations as yet have only been created and directed by a small intellectual aristocracy". It seems to me that a civilisation is like a brain: there may be top-down processes that seem to be 'directing' it but w/o the other autonomous processes the brain will be neither able to function or to create. In other words, while I consider myself, e.g., to be a creative intellectual, I think that my creativity & my intellect are only part of a much more complex organism that I'm interdependent w/ - even when the "inter" aspect of it may seem antagonistic. It's more likely the arrogance of the "small intellectual aristocracy", the arrogance of someone like Noam Chomsky or William F. Buckley Jr., that gives them the delusion that they've created & are directing the civilisation that they're hypothetically a part of.

"It is only by obtaining some sort of insight into the psychology of crowds that it can be understood how slight is the action upon them of laws and institutions, how powerless they are to hold any opinions other than those which are imposed upon them, and that it is not with rules based on theories of pure equity that they are to be led, but by seeking what produces an impression on them and what seduces them." - p 11

I basically agree w/ all of that while at the same time finding it somewhat self-contradictory & disturbing. I say "contradictory" b/c if "the action upon" [crowds] "of laws and institutions" is "slight" than by what means is it that opinions "are imposed upon them"? The answer given by Le Bon is whatever "produces an impression on them and what seduces them." Fair enuf - but it seems to me that the "laws and institutions" are a part of what produces this impression.

My disturbance is partially rooted in my opinion that crowd psychologists have come a long way since Le Bon's writing of this bk in 1895. It's known that CIA recruiters look for potential new agents at universities, probably in history departments but probably also in psychology ones. Surely an expert crowd psychologist is valuable to institutions other than the CIA too. Where have the top crowd psychologists of the last 30 yrs found gainful employment?

Wherever they're located, they seem to be at least partially behind the current era of extreme obedience to almost completely nonsensical mind control under the guise of 'for your own good'. From my POV the current SHEEPLE behavior is preferable to a murderous mob but it's far from preferable to free & critical thinking - something that's been entirely too close to being obliterated by the brainwashing.

An example: brainwashed people get vaccinated out of fear of dying otherwise & out of fear of being ostracized by their 'peers'. Then, even tho they believe that the vaccination has been gotten to protect them, they still consider unvaccinated people to be a threat. This, alone, makes no sense - either the vaccination protects or it doesn't. As it turns out, it doesn't so the SHEEPLE get vaccinated AGAIN b/c, this time, hypothetically, it'll work. Their faith in the vaccine is unwavering even tho the 'need' for a 2nd vaccination is predicated on the 1st one not working. It doesn't stop there, a 3rd & 4th vaccination are still somehow believed necessary. In the meantime, there're unvaccinated people in excellent health. Despite the evidence of what little of their senses are by now unblindered by propaganda, the unvaccinated people are still considered dangerous - even tho they, themselves, are healthy in some cases & not healthy in others. In the meantime, influential propagandists such as Bill Maher present outdated statistics from a time before many people were vaccinated to claim that it's 99% people who're unvaccinated who're dying from COVID-19.

In other words, I think that "some sort of insight into the psychology of crowds" has been obtained & that it's being applied in greater force than ever before. This recent force of application seems more 'gentle' than such predecessors as the nazis & the Khmer Rouge but it's similarly as devastating to free thinking. IMO it's all-too-easy to get into conversations w/ zombies who speak in prefabricated sentences. It's b/c of concerns w/ this state of affairs that I read this bk.

"Under certain given circumstances, and only under those circumstances, an agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics." - p 13

I think it might be more appropriate to say 'a collective lack of mind' than a "collective mind". It's my observation that there's an ongoing constant campaign originating w/ mass media to implant what're tantamount to post-hypnotic suggestions. Then all that needs to happen is for the trigger words to be massively applied in order to get the hypnotized to fall in line - oblivious to the process the whole time but still completely obedient. Simultaneously, they're given some outlets for trapped energies as if they're achieving liberation instead of being co-opted. I, personally, resist the "collective mind" as do a very few others. It's hard on all of us but it's better than not having a mind at all wch is what being part of the 'collective non-mind' wd entail.

"The most striking peculiarity presented by a psychological crowd is the following: Whoever be the individuals that compose it, however like or unlike be their mode of life, their occupations, their character, or their intelligence, the fact that they have been transformed into a crowd puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind which makes them feel, think, and act in a manner quite different from that in which each individual of them would feel, think, and act were he in a state of isolation. There are certain ideas and feelings which do not come into being, or do not transform themselves into acts except in the case of individuals forming a crowd. The psychological crowd is a provisional being formed of heterogeneous elements, which for a moment are combined, exactly as the cells which constitute a living body form by their reunion a new being which displays characteristics very different from those possessed by each of the cells singly." - pp 14-15

In other words, a superorganism of Manchurian Candidates. Given the latency of the new behavior I wonder whether the people who join a crowd were ever deserving of being considered individuals. If we're all just cells in a superorganism awaiting orders in a top-down fashion then our individual abilities are only 'important' for enabling us to carry out orders. Personally, I prefer to be as free an agent as possible. The thoughts I have are far more interesting to me that the prepackaged excuses for thoughts that people are force-fed thru near-omnipresence every day thru electronic gadgets.

"In crowds it is stupidity and not mother-wit that is accumulated." - p 16

Indeed. Nonetheless, there're people out there who counterbalance this. Vermin Supreme is an excellent example:

666. "VerminSuprememeaversarry, day one"
- a collaboration between Vermin Supreme; tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE; & Tyler Lindsey on December 12, 2021
- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE edit finished December 15, 2021
- 2K, 60p, Stereo
- 2:11:35
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/sqdNKZuW8AI
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/vermin-suprememeaversarry

"The most careful observations seem to prove that an individual immerged for some length of time in a crowd in action soon finds himself — either in consequence of the magnetic influence given out by the crowd, or from some other cause of which we are ignorant — in a special state, which much resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotised individual finds himself in the hands of the hypnotiser." - p 17

I've already commented on this here. I've also commented on it in my bk Unconscious Suffocation - A Personal Journey through the PANDEMIC PANIC ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book2020.09PANDEMIC.html ). Here's a sample from that:

"people easily have their chains jerked. In fact, their chains are so easily jerked that doing so is like flipping a posthypnotic suggestion switch on Pavlovian Zombies. Most of these people are Manchurian Candidates programmed by mediated non-experience into being suppressors of Free Thinkers. This, unfortunately, is what I've been commenting about all along: viz. that people are being manipulated by mass media signals into having completely predictable responses." - p 903

That was written before I read The Crowd. The Crowd just reinforces it. As long as Le Bon sticks to observations about crowds I find what he writes to be accurate. Alas there're times when he strays into what I might call 'patriarchical biases' that I find.. beyond annoying.

"It will be remarked that among the special characteristics of crowds that there are several — such as impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgment and of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of the sentiments, and others besides — which are almost always observed in beings belonging to inferior forms of evolution — in women, savages, and children, for instance." - p 18

For the full review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1923596-the-crowding ( )
  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
Lots of words used to convey simple ideas. Groups are not the average of their individual components; they are a less intelligent more emotional version. ( )
  sami7 | Aug 3, 2020 |
> Un document, un classique mais aussi un moyen d'aborder avec une certaine fraîcheur une interrogation nécessaire sur un phénomène de notre temps.
Emilio Balturi
  Joop-le-philosophe | Jan 26, 2019 |
Gustave Le Bon hat in seinem Buch „Psychologie der Massen“ bereits 1895 beschrieben, dass Menschenmassen einen eigenen Charakter annehmen. Eine Menge von Menschen handelt anders, als jeder Einzelne daraus handeln würde. Das Werk beschreibt Art und Wesen des Populismus erschreckend exakt. Auch wenn ich nicht allen Voraussetzungen des Autors folge, hilft mir das Buch beim Verständnis des aktuellen Tagesgeschehens. Lösungsansätze bietet der Text leider nicht. [mehr ...] ( )
1 stem onkeljoe | Aug 29, 2018 |
1-5 van 7 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe

» Andere auteurs toevoegen (13 mogelijk)

AuteursnaamRolType auteurWerk?Status
Gustave Le Bonprimaire auteuralle editiesberekend
Hofstätter, Peter R.IntroductieSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Smith, AdamIntroductieSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Je moet ingelogd zijn om Algemene Kennis te mogen bewerken.
Voor meer hulp zie de helppagina Algemene Kennis .
Gangbare titel
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Oorspronkelijke titel
Alternatieve titels
Oorspronkelijk jaar van uitgave
Mensen/Personages
Belangrijke plaatsen
Belangrijke gebeurtenissen
Verwante films
Motto
Opdracht
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Preface
The following work is devoted to an account of the characteristics of crowds.
Introduction
The great upheavals which precede changes of civilization, such as the fall of the Roman Empire and the foundation of the Arabian Empire, seem at first sight determined more especially by political transformation, foreign invasion, or the overthrow of dynasties.
In its ordinary sense the word "crowd" means a gathering of individuals of whatever nationality, profession, or sex, and whatever be the chances that have brought them together.
Citaten
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
(Klik om weer te geven. Waarschuwing: kan de inhoud verklappen.)
Ontwarringsbericht
Uitgevers redacteuren
Auteur van flaptekst/aanprijzing
Oorspronkelijke taal
Gangbare DDC/MDS
Canonieke LCC

Verwijzingen naar dit werk in externe bronnen.

Wikipedia in het Engels (1)

Psychology. Sociology. Nonfiction. HTML:

The following work is devoted to an account of the characteristics of crowds. Organized 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 marvelous 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.

.

Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden.

Boekbeschrijving
Haiku samenvatting

Actuele discussies

Geen

Populaire omslagen

Snelkoppelingen

Waardering

Gemiddelde: (3.72)
0.5
1 1
1.5
2 6
2.5 1
3 28
3.5 7
4 36
4.5 4
5 18

Ben jij dit?

Word een LibraryThing Auteur.

Sparkling Books

2 edities van dit boek werden gepubliceerd door Sparkling Books.

Edities: 1907230084, 1907230556

 

Over | Contact | LibraryThing.com | Privacy/Voorwaarden | Help/Veelgestelde vragen | Blog | Winkel | APIs | TinyCat | Nagelaten Bibliotheken | Vroege Recensenten | Algemene kennis | 203,191,483 boeken! | Bovenbalk: Altijd zichtbaar