Gustave Le Bon
Personal Information
Description
Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon (French: [ɡystav lə bɔ̃]; 7 May 1841 – 13 December 1931) was a leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. He is best known for his 1895 work The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, which is considered one of the seminal works of crowd psychology. A native of Nogent-le-Rotrou, Le Bon qualified as a doctor of medicine at the University of Paris in 1866. He opted against the formal practice of medicine as a physician, instead beginning his writing career the same year of his graduation. He published a number of medical articles and books before joining the French Army after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. Defeat in the war coupled with being a first-hand witness to the Paris Commune of 1871 strongly shaped Le Bon's worldview. He then travelled widely, touring Europe, Asia and North Africa. He analysed the peoples and the civilisations he encountered under the umbrella of the nascent field of anthropology, developing an essentialist view of humanity, and invented a portable cephalometer during his travels. In the 1890s, he turned to psychology and sociology, in which fields he released his most successful works. Le Bon developed the view that crowds are not the sum of their individual parts, proposing that within crowds there forms a new psychological entity, the characteristics of which are determined by the "racial unconscious" of the crowd. At the same time he created his psychological and sociological theories, he performed experiments in physics and published popular books on the subject, anticipating the mass–energy equivalence and prophesising the Atomic Age.[citation needed] Le Bon maintained his eclectic interests up until his death in 1931. Ignored or maligned by sections of the French academic and scientific establishment during his life due to his politically conservative and reactionary views, Le Bon was critical of majoritarianism and socialism.
Books
Gustave Le Bon, the man and his works
Le Bon's works are translated from French.Includes index.
Psychologie des foules
"Gustave LeBon's The Crowd is not only a classic, but one of the best-selling scientific books in social psychology and collective behavior ever written. Here, LeBon analyzes the nature of crowds and their role in political movements. He presents crowd behavior as a problem of science and power, a natural phenomenon with practical implications. Originally published in 1895, LeBon's book was the first to expand the scope of inquiry beyond criminal crowds to include all possible kinds of collective phenomena. Its continuing significance is evident even in the Los Angeles riots of 1992 in which LeBon's theories were cited in testimony." "LeBon emphasizes the various areas of modern life where crowd behavior holds sway, particularly political upheavals. He focuses on electoral campaigns, parliaments, juries, labor agitation, and street demonstrations. At the same time, his treatment of crowds is far from complimentary. In a new introduction to this edition, Robert A. Nye presents a broad analytical understanding of the relationship between power and knowledge in crowd theory. He also discusses the historical circumstances and the various personalities who have shaped our understanding of crowds. Nye emphasizes The Crowd's continuing usefulness to cultural historians, psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists. He also places LeBon in a rich tradition of European social theory."--BOOK JACKET.
The Crowd, A Study of the Popular Mind
The following work is devoted to an account of the characteristics of crowds.
The crowd
The following work is devoted to an account of the characteristics of crowds. Organised 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 marvellous 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. The unconscious acts like a force still unknown.