Gustave Le Bon And The Psychology Of The Masses

The name of Gustave Le Bon is associated with several of the most important events of the 20th century in the world. His approaches and his studies encouraged the Nazi ideology. It is speculated that Adolf Hitler’s book My Fight was inspired by Le Bon’s work.

Gustave Le Bon was born in Nogent-le Rotrou (France) on May 7, 1841. He trained as a doctor, but devoted much of his life to the study of sociology, psychology, physics and anthropology. He was a military doctor during the Franco-German war and his first research was devoted to physiology. Then he turned to archeology and anthropology.

The French government itself sent him to the East as an archaeologist. He visited a large number of countries in that area of ​​the world. He also traveled extensively in Europe and Africa. From his investigations and observations a series of books began to emerge . The most famous of these was Crowd Psychology.

Gustave Le Bon’s Darwinian approach

Much of Gustave Le Bon’s work is dedicated to justifying the colonialism of the European powers. His main argument for this was the claim that there are superior races. He used a great deal of conjecture and rather questionable evidence to prove it.

Le Bon was convinced of geographic determinism. It basically posited that only under certain geographical conditions could truly intelligent, beautiful, and morally developed men and women appear. Such conditions were those of Europe and the superior race were the Aryans.

Gustave Le Bon was also convinced that there were several distinct human races. He was not referring to varying physical or genetic traits, but he actually thought that each race was a species apart. Of course, he also believed that there were superior and inferior races.

If the superior races were mixed with each other, or with one of the inferior, the results could be good. On the other hand, if two or more inferior races were mixed, the consequence was a degenerate people.

The psychology of the masses

Gustave Le Bon became particularly famous for the publication of his book Mass Psychology . His basic approach was that human beings collectively develop behaviors that they would never develop individually. In other words, groups have a determining influence on individuals.

He points out that the main reasons why the “I” is lost in the “we” are the following :

• The human being perceives the mass as an invincible power. Stop feeling responsible because she is an anonymous figure.
• The masses infect their way of feeling and acting to those who make them up. This occurs unconsciously and allows the crowd to be manipulated by a leader.
• The mass suggests and hypnotizes the individual. Being part of a crowd leads to feelings of omnipotence.
• In the mass the unreal predominates over the real. It is compact and does not break due to internal differences.
• The mass is perceived as a survival mechanism. Not belonging to the crowd is seen as a serious danger.

It should be noted that Sigmund Freud himself wrote a whole work to question the psychology of the masses of Gustave Le Bon. Freud’s work is called Psychology of the masses and analysis of the self .

The impact of Le Bon’s theories

Despite the fact that Gustave Le Bon defined himself as a democrat, the truth is that his proposals notably encouraged Nazi ideology, fascism and all the sectors that emerged from that matrix. Ultimately, Le Bon argued that the masses were a servile herd and therefore could not exist without a master. He pointed out that this master or leader should be someone with a strong personality, well-defined beliefs, and a powerful will.

On the other hand, Le Bon’s approaches to the unconscious achieved great diffusion and notoriety. In this field he made important contributions, which on the one hand were taken up by the Nazi propaganda apparatus, but on the other, they laid important foundations for advertising activity.

Gustave Le Bon died in 1931. He probably never imagined that his ideas would serve to encourage the Nazi holocaust. Much less crossed his mind that his own country, France, was going to be the victim of Aryan discrimination.