Applied Psycho-Analysis: William McDougall. Professor Freud's Group Psychology and his Theory of Suggestion. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 1925, Vol. V, p. 14.

In this paper, which is a contribution to the Morton Prince Commemoration Volume, McDougall criticizes Freud's views on group psychology. He commences in a sarcastic vein and accuses Freud of inconsistency in his

remarks on individual peculiarities in the group and in his use of the words cruel, brutal and destructive as applied to instincts. Freud recognizes McDougall's fundamental paradox of group psychology, namely, that although the crowd degrades the individual below his normal level, it is only by group life that man rises above the level of animal life. McDougall complains that in spite of this recognition, Freud rejects his explanation of organization and merely restates the problem without suggesting an alternative solution. He also complains that his theory of the intensified emotional reaction of crowds is misunderstood because Freud states that he (McDougall) explains the fact 'by means of the emotional contagion with which we are already familiar'. McDougall protests that he does not explain them, and endeavours at some length to show that although le Bon treats this emotional contagion as a manifestation of suggestion, he believes it to be a fundamental phenomenon quite distinct. In his Introduction to Social Psychology he states that he clearly distinguishes these points and propounds a distinct theory of suggestion which Freud appears to have overlooked. He argues that in gregarious animals there is a distinct and specific instinct of submission and that this is the main conative factor at work in true suggestion. He states that Freud has not attempted to define ego-instincts, but that if he had he would have found them identical with the instincts of self-assertion and submission. McDougall now proceeds to quarrel with Freud's theory of libidinal ties on the one hand to the leader, and on the other hand to the other members of the group. He suggests that these ties may have been asserted to be present by Freud in order to make Group Psyc