Man is an ambiguous creature: he is not solitary like the gorilla or the cat; he lives in large groups, yet he is not collective and collectivized like the ant. He lives somewhat like a herd animal, yet he also maintains a personal individuality, a personal uniqueness, and he exercises individual choice over more or less important areas of his behaviour.

It is thus natural that social scientists should search for concepts or models which might increase our understanding of the interrelationship between individual and collective phenomena.

Both Freud and Jung dealt almost exclusively with the individual in his essentially personal and private relationship to himself and to a few meaningful persons around him, yet they were both very interested in man's behaviour in groups. Both wrote papers in which they studied and discussed political, sociological and cultural phenomena and attempted to extend the insights gained in their work with individuals to the understanding of the character and behaviour of groups.