Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War Wilfred Trotter 9788826404424 Books
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The more we consider the conduct of government in warfare the clearer does it become that every act of authority produces effects in two distinct fields-that of its primary function as directed more or less immediately against the enemy, and that of its secondary action upon the morale of the nation. The first of these two constituents possesses the uncertainty of all military enterprises, and its success or failure cannot be foretold; the influence of the second constituent is susceptible of definition and foresight and need never be wholly ambiguous to any but the ignorant or the indifferent. The relative importance of the military and the moral factors in any act or enterprise varies much, but it may be asserted that while the moral factor may sometimes be enormously the more important, it is never wholly absent. This constant and admittedly significant factor in all acts of government is usually awarded an attention so thoroughly inexpert and perfunctory, as to justify the feeling that the customary belief in its importance is no more than a conventional expression.
Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War Wilfred Trotter 9788826404424 Books
The writing in this book is a bit dated and arch, yet Trotter's analysis is extremely insightful. Indeed it is somewhat shocking to realize how little psychology has advanced since this time (1908 and 1915) and the time of William James. Trotter's basic argument is that being a social species marks us collectively and especially individually with strong psychological characteristics. We respond instinctively and readily to group suggestions and are thus easily trained to suppress the most basic instincts (survival, sex) in the service of the group. Parallels can easily be drawn to other social species, including wolves, dogs, and bees, who are enthusiastic servants of their group as well as recipients of group communication and training, even while other species such as cats, are much less social and lack many of these instincts.Indeed what we regard as morals are the implanted instinctive or trained promptings of group service, which necessarily conflict with selfish instincts, and thus set up the mental conflicts that are the bread and butter of psychotherapy. "Normal" people are fully adapted to this regime, submerging their selves into the larger group and thus are ready to go off to war and other group activities. Trotter is rather biting in his analysis of war (WWI was to come as he presciently wrote in 1908, and was underway as he wrote in 1915). He also identifies religion as the natural consequence of this social instinct, which progressively hypostasizes the imaginary emblem and enforcer of the social order, until it is both all-powerful and psychologically internalized.
Trotter's take on the then-new Freudian corpus is especially interesting, taking him seriously, but also identifying Freud's remarkable excesses of assigning all causes to sex and all scientific objectivity to himself. Trotter explains that while Freud's school is exceedingly interested in the causes of individual resistance to communal indoctrination, it is remarkably uninterested both in the sources of this indoctrination and in our natural suggestibility to it. Thus this book and this thread of thought is an important complement to whatever is left of psychoanalysis. It is somewhat depressing to realize that perhaps the principal current inheritor of Trotter's tradition and insights is the advertising industry.
Lastly, Trotter indulges in long mid-war and post-war analyses of German instincts and character, contrasting the militaristic wolf-like follower/leader system of the German nation with the more advanced bee-like, collegial, bottom-up integration of countries like Britain, which is virtually allergic to strong leaders and external aggression. This section would be comically jingoistic were it not that his analysis became realized to an unimaginable degree in the "Führer prinzip" fifteen years later. Sadly, his prescription for post-war treatment of Germany is to "give it a good whipping", which may have done more to reinforce the psychology he writes about than any other treatment.
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Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War Wilfred Trotter 9788826404424 Books Reviews
Really gets me when she's right, but when Coulter writes, she footnotes everything as in a legal breif. So I bought this one of her footnotes, studied it - wonderful insight, but the feature is the era of the book - quite old. Fast read? No. Go slow. Short book; probably overpriced, but, this is the kind of book you give to a kid of about 17 or 18, just before college to impress on the kid that college BS is an old story, and that people really act in strange ways, sometimes like a mob or a herd of animals. I always disliked John Lennon; saw him as a social leech with a mob of followers. When he did drugs, so did they. He had doctors, etc. They did not. I wonder how many young idiots went right off the cliff becasue of said Johnnie. Thus my recommend as a gift for kids who will be exposed to dangerous ideas. Don't be impressed by mob ideas. Don't go along. Recognize that mobs destroy people in many ways. Let a kid know they are in for intellectual storms, not education. This is a bit more practical than MacKays classic, a bit more dry. I also recommend Bernay's "Propaganda." Kids have to have the backbone to say "No." That's what this is about. Coulter wins this one. Best regards.
I bought this book expecting to finish it in a week. This was about 8 months ago. It is very difficult keeping pace with the Victorian language with very long paragraphs. Still, he had some great insights from the 1905 perspective. I am still reading it.
Interesting subject.
Good read.
This is not a fiction, so most of the descriptions don't fit. It is chilling, to know how people were and are being manipulated.
This book was written 100 years ago.There are people fighting a war at the time.This subject is written from a sociological perspective,if true,there would be economic implications.What is required in order to survive?The New York Stock Exchange will close.How decent can war get?Why they fight and why they don't will not be answered here.Thinking fast and reacting fast might help.
I love this book. However, it is written in an arcane style that takes some getting used to. That being said, his conception of the an instinct he calls "gregariousness" where he argues that our herd nature is a foremost force in our mental lives is both obvious and genius. It is worth reading both for its content and its place in the evolution of psychoanalytic thinking about our social versus individual nature.
The writing in this book is a bit dated and arch, yet Trotter's analysis is extremely insightful. Indeed it is somewhat shocking to realize how little psychology has advanced since this time (1908 and 1915) and the time of William James. Trotter's basic argument is that being a social species marks us collectively and especially individually with strong psychological characteristics. We respond instinctively and readily to group suggestions and are thus easily trained to suppress the most basic instincts (survival, sex) in the service of the group. Parallels can easily be drawn to other social species, including wolves, dogs, and bees, who are enthusiastic servants of their group as well as recipients of group communication and training, even while other species such as cats, are much less social and lack many of these instincts.
Indeed what we regard as morals are the implanted instinctive or trained promptings of group service, which necessarily conflict with selfish instincts, and thus set up the mental conflicts that are the bread and butter of psychotherapy. "Normal" people are fully adapted to this regime, submerging their selves into the larger group and thus are ready to go off to war and other group activities. Trotter is rather biting in his analysis of war (WWI was to come as he presciently wrote in 1908, and was underway as he wrote in 1915). He also identifies religion as the natural consequence of this social instinct, which progressively hypostasizes the imaginary emblem and enforcer of the social order, until it is both all-powerful and psychologically internalized.
Trotter's take on the then-new Freudian corpus is especially interesting, taking him seriously, but also identifying Freud's remarkable excesses of assigning all causes to sex and all scientific objectivity to himself. Trotter explains that while Freud's school is exceedingly interested in the causes of individual resistance to communal indoctrination, it is remarkably uninterested both in the sources of this indoctrination and in our natural suggestibility to it. Thus this book and this thread of thought is an important complement to whatever is left of psychoanalysis. It is somewhat depressing to realize that perhaps the principal current inheritor of Trotter's tradition and insights is the advertising industry.
Lastly, Trotter indulges in long mid-war and post-war analyses of German instincts and character, contrasting the militaristic wolf-like follower/leader system of the German nation with the more advanced bee-like, collegial, bottom-up integration of countries like Britain, which is virtually allergic to strong leaders and external aggression. This section would be comically jingoistic were it not that his analysis became realized to an unimaginable degree in the "Führer prinzip" fifteen years later. Sadly, his prescription for post-war treatment of Germany is to "give it a good whipping", which may have done more to reinforce the psychology he writes about than any other treatment.
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