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The Group Mind
Erich
Fromm describes the alienated man of our time. Social conditions, he tells us, are creating character
traits in people that predispose them to aggression. The dominant character orientation in our consumer democracy
is the marketing orientation. A
person with this character orientation seeks profit through favorable
exchange. He looks upon everything
as a commodity. His very body
becomes an instrument for success.
He must look youthful, wear the acceptable smile, conform to the
acceptable image. Who he is – is
all about image. He adapts his
personality to others, to the cultural pattern, falling in completely with the
expectations of others, forfeiting his individuality and spontaneity in the
process. He isn’t interested in
life – people, nature, ideas. He’s more interested in things not alive –
machines, gadgets, things. He’s
out of touch with his feelings.
Instead of the joy of self-expression, of the unfolding of his
potentialities, he seeks excitement to make himself feel alive. He pollutes the environment. Puts technical progress above human
values. He has a
cerebral-intellectual approach to life – how does it work, how can it be
manipulated, what is it worth?
Passion with him is dead if it isn’t the passion to win.
Where
the psychologically healthy person develops as an individual who has
differentiated his personality from the group, who is in touch with his
feelings, has spent time alone thinking about what he values in introspection,
our new alienated man’s functioning is in reaction to the behavior of
others. In him togetherness trumps
individuality. This lack of
balance between the individuality force and togetherness force operating within
us spawns social problems. Where
the individuality force leads people to act like individuals, being
inner-directed, thinking things out for themselves, feeling what they really
feel, not manipulating themselves or others – the togetherness force leads
people to make connectedness uppermost, responding to other people’s
directives, to function as part of a group and to do what the group does. The togetherness force results in
people thinking, feeling, or acting as others do and trying to get others to
think, feel, and do as they do.
In
understanding the alienated man spawned by the marketing orientation of the 20th
century we have to talk about the group mind, understand group psychology. Being a member of a group, Sigmund
Freud tells us, produces a unique mental phenomena. The people who make up a group have a collective mind that
is different from the mind they have as individual persons. “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 group,” we learn in Freud’s book on Group
Psychology and Analysis of the Ego.
A group acts differently than individuals. The unconscious motives of the group, Sigmund Freud tells
us, outnumber the conscious.
In
the individual who has spent time alone thinking about what he values, being
introspective about his own behavior – education and information play a crucial
role. Whereas, heredity is the
most dominent influence in the group.
The characteristics that are the inheritance of the human race are
paramount in the motives of the group.
Our uniqueness is lost in a group where our common predispositions are
what is most apparent. Hence the
group manifests a common character.
The
group acts without conscience or responsibility. “In a group every sentiment and act is contagious,” Freud
tells us. In groups people do
things that is uncharacteristic of them, that is not part of their personal
repertoire of habits. In a group
the conscious personality vanishes, individuals lose consciousness of their
acts. There is a tendency to
immediately transform suggested ideas into acts. “Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual; in a crowd, he
is a barbarian – that is, a creature acting by instinct.” Freud tells us, “by the mere fact that
he forms part of an organized group, a man descends several rungs in the ladder
of civilization. He possesses the
spontaneity, the violence, the ferocity, and also the enthusiasm and heroism of
primitive beings.” A group is
almost completely unconscious in its behavior. “The feelings of a group are always very simple and very
exaggerated. It goes directly to
extremes; if a suspicion is expressed, it is instantly changed into an
incontrovertible certainty; a trace of antipathy is turned into furious
hatred.” The only thing a group
respects, said Freud, is force, “groups have never thirsted after truth. They demand illusions, and cannot do
without them.” The behavior of
groups is based on fantasy, not truth.
Groups are dominated by feeling, not thought.
The
group gives the individual a feeling of power which permits him to express
instincts he might have been able to restrain had he not become part of a
group. “He will be less disposed
to check himself, from the consideration that, a group being anonymous and in
consequence irresponsible, the sentiment of responsibility which always
controls individuals disappears entirely,” we learn in Freud’s book on group
psychology. Where the individual
is apt to repress unconscious impulses – the group doesn’t. So an individual displays
characteristics as part of a group they don’t display as individuals.
Groups can also help
an individual to transcend herself or himself. But in this case we are speaking of communities – not
collectivities. In a community
people retain their individuality and do not think as one. The philosopher Martin Buber explains
the difference between a community and a collectivity by explaining the
different relationships that take place in them. To understand his distinction you can read chapter 4 of my
book, The Search for Being, where I describe the perspective of Martin Buber
who explains the kind of relationships that lead to being and the kind of
relationships that lead to alienation.
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