From Crowd Psychology to the Dynamics of Large Groups: Historical, Theoretical and Practical Considerations

From Crowd Psychology to the Dynamics of Large Groups offers transdisciplinary research on the history of the study of social  formations, ranging from nineteenth-century crowd psychology in France  and twentieth-century Freudian mass psychology, including the  developments in critical theory, to the study of the psychodynamics of  contemporary large groups.

Carla Penna presents a  unique combination of sociology, psychoanalysis, and group analysis in  the study of social formations. This book revisits the epistemological  basis of group analysis by introducing and discussing its historical  path, especially in connection with the study of large groups and  investigations of the social unconscious in persons, groups, and  societies. It also explores early work on group relations and  contemporary research on the basic-assumption group in England,  particularly Hopper’s theory of Incohesion as a fourth basic assumption.  From Crowd Psychology to the Dynamics of Large Groups enables  the reader to map out the field of the unconscious life of crowds  illuminating the darkness of twenty-first century collective movements.

The  reflections in this book present new perspectives for psychologists,  psychoanalysts, group analysts, sociologists, and historians to  investigate the psychodynamics of contemporary crowds, masses, and  social systems.