On Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:13:58 -0800, Allen Esterson wrote: >On 14 February 2009 Mike Palij wrote: >> Chris Green wrote: >>>By 1939, Bernays was already the leading PR man in America >>> for two decades and had been hired by the car companies to >>> advance their cause. >> >> Given what Wikipedia provides, I think the emphasis on >> cars is misplaced. His distinction between "public relations" >> and "advertising" is worth noting especially in that he felt >> that public relations was intrinsic to democracy >> (if one accepted Freudian notions like "herd instinct"). > >I don't think it can be said that the notion of the "herd instinct" is >Freudian. I expect it goes back a long way as a conception, and >it is to be found, as Freud discusses for a whole chapter in "Group >Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego" (1921), in le Bon's >(non-psychoanalytic) book *Psychologie des foules* (1895). >(I don't know what equivalent French expression le Bon used. -:) ) >In another chapter titled "The Herd Instinct", Freud also discusses >Trotter's (non-psychoanalytic) *Instincts of the Herd in Peace and >War* (1916) in which the notion is explored at length.
I was not precise in what I said about the Wikipedia entry and oversimplified in saying herd instinct was a Freudian notion. Quoting from the entry: |As well as being influenced by his uncle Sigmund's ideas of the |Unconscious, Bernays applied the ideas of the French writer Gustave |LeBon, the originator of Crowd psychology, and of Wilfred Trotter, |who promoted similar ideas to the English speaking world in his famous |book Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War. Bernays refers to these |two names in his writings. Trotter, who was a head and neck surgeon |at University College Hospital, London, read Freud's works, and it was |he who introduced Wilfred Bion, whom he lived and worked with, to |Freud's ideas. When Freud fled Germany for London at the start of |World War II, Trotter became his personal Physician, and Wilfred Bion |and Ernest Jones became key members of the Freudian Psychoanalysis |movement in England, and would go on to develop the field of Group |Dynamics, largely associated with the Tavistock Institute where many |of Freud's followers worked. Thus ideas of Group Psychology and |Psychoanalysis came together in London around World War II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays My lack of familiarity with the relevant sources/texts led my oversimiplifaction. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
