The Crowd

I

General Characteristics of Crowds⁠—Psychological Law of Their Mental Unity

What constitutes a crowd from the psychological point of view⁠—A numerically strong agglomeration of individuals does not suffice to form a crowd⁠—Special characteristics of psychological crowds⁠—The turning in a fixed direction of the ideas and sentiments of individuals composing such a crowd, and the disappearance of their personality⁠—The crowd is always dominated by considerations of which it is unconscious⁠—The disappearance of brain activity and the predominance of medullar activity⁠—The lowering of the intelligence and the complete transformation of the sentiments⁠—The transformed sentiments may be better or worse than those of the individuals of which the crowd is composed⁠—A crowd is as easily heroic as criminal.

In its ordinary sense the word “crowd” means a gathering of individuals of whatever nationality, profession, or sex, and whatever be the chances that have brought them together. From the psychological point of view the expression “crowd” assumes quite a different signification. Under certain given circumstances, and only under those circumstances, an agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics. The gathering has thus become what, in the absence of a better expression, I will call an organised crowd, or, if the term is considered preferable, a psychological crowd. It forms a single being, and is subjected to the law of the mental unity of crowds.