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Freud's paper, Mass Psychology and the Psychoanalysis of the Ego (1921), has influenced psychoanalytic literature both by the methodological equipment used and the material to which it is applied. Redl's investigation supplements Freud's study by utilizing the methodological equipment developed since 1921. It applies these methods to those group observations which could be made
in practical work with children and adolescents in school and camp situations.
Freud's term 'leader' is for good reasons substituted by the term 'central person', meaning the person around whom the group formation crystallizes. The significance of the central person for the member of the group consists, according to Freud's original views, in the fact that this person functions as the superego of the group. The author states that this is by no means the only function which the central person may assume and describes (with illustrative case material) the different group formations and situations:
1The central person as an object of identification
a.on the basis of love
1incorporation into conscience ('The Patriarch')
2incorporation into the ego ideal ('The Leader')
b.on the basis of fear identification with the aggressor ('The Tyrant')
2The central person as an object of drives