A timely contribution in this era of authoritarianism, right-wing populist movements, identity formation, and political correctness.
“In groups the most contradictory ideas can exist side by side and tolerate each other, without any conflict arising from the logical contradiction between them”, wrote Freud in his 1921 book Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. One hundred years later, in an age of war, social networks, and ubiquitous threats to democracy, the questions raised by Freud are as relevant as ever. In today's mass and group formations, psychological processes and mechanisms can be recognized as they were described by Freud a century ago: compliance, hypnotization, regression, idealization, identification, and fusion with the Other. This anthology is the result of an interdisciplinary symposium organized by the Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna. In their contributions, scholars from psychoanalysis, philosophy, sociology and literary studies present critical re-readings of the text and focus on current issues such as the rise of right-wing populist movements, the role of the narcissistic leader, and mass phenomena in the digital age.
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Table of Contents:
Preface
Monika Pessler
Introduction
Daniela Finzi and Jeanne Wolff Bernstein
Sexual Drives, Eros, and Identification – A Re-reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
Ulrike May
Freud’s “Mass Psychology”
Helmut Dahmer
The Social Unconscious, Trauma and Groups: A Constellation
Earl Hopper
The In-Between of Us: The Inter-Subject and Interstitial Belonging
Francisco J. González
Mass Death / Tobacco and Salt
Ranjana Khanna
Art, Identity, and Group Psychology in Digital Modernity
Sama Maani
The Truths of Psychoanalysis: Defying the Lies of Psychology that Fuel the Digital Amassing of Individuals
Jan De Vos
Representing the Crisis of Representation
Giuseppina Antinucci
Ideology, Leaders, and Group Action in the January 6 Insurrection
Ricardo Ainslie
Massenpsychologie and MAGA
Gail Newman
Notes on the Contributors
About the Author :
Daniela Finzi is the head of the research department of the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna and member of the board of the Sigmund Freud Foundation. Jeanne Wolff Bernstein is a psychoanalyst in Vienna and the chair of the Advisory Board of the Sigmund Freud Foundation.
Review :
This volume is a very important and timely contribution. The chapters taken together offer multiple psychoanalytic perspectives on Freud’s “Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego,” which could not be more timely given the rise of authoritarian regimes around the world, current threats to democracy, and the rise of fanatical right-wing populist movements. The interpretations of the authors provoke serious attention to the continuing relevance of Freud’s - and his predecessors’ and successors’ - important contributions to the understanding of group/mob psychology and the role of the narcissistic leader. - Pamela Cooper-White, Union Theological Seminary
Mass psychology – its roots in large group identity, its vulnerability to collective trauma, and its inchoate shaping by the digital world – could not be a more timely subject. This book’s authors engage that subject, in that word’s more basic meaning of pledging oneself, in this case, to work deeply and personally with Freud’s text. The results are breathtaking! Freud still lives at Bergasse 19, and he hosts profoundly interesting conversations. - M. Gerard Fromm, past president of the International Dialogue Initiative, former director of the Erikson Institute, Austen Riggs Center.
