Российский психологический журнал (Jul 2018)
Pioneers in the Study of Crowds in Foreign Psychology: Scipio Sighele and Henry Fournial
Abstract
Introduction. By the end of the 19th century the society had to adapt to new threats—namely, increasing the number and activity of the proletariat masses and spreading socialist and anarchist ideas. Many researchers concentrated their study on characteristics of crowds. Scipio Sighele and Henry Fournial have been pioneers in this field. Theoretical Basis. The paper describes two concepts which provided a starting point for studying crowds in foreign psychology. The main issues considered by Scipio Sighele and Henry Fournial were as follows: characteristics of the crowd as a social institution, its properties, activization factors, characteristics of leaders, personality changes within crowds, and the problem of criminal liability for mass crimes. The paper presents an innovative view of (a) the origin of excessive generalization of the crowd concept, (b) its uncritical acceptance in defining a number of social organizations, (c) and wrongful attributing characteristics of individual women to the crowd as the subject of mass action. Results. The revealed tendencies and a clearly distorted perception of crowds among representatives of the anthropological and criminalistic approach determined the critical attitude towards new science of temporary social groups. Discussion. A distinct trend towards isolated cognitive constructs and almost complete disregard for the study of the past contribute to a distorted understanding of the phenomenon of crowds in modern social psychology of spontaneous groups. The ideas of researchers of the past seem to be a necessary precondition for developing a holistic approach to this problem. Highlights • Sighele and H. Fournial created the background for scientific understanding of the phenomenon of crowds until the mid 20th century; they considered the characteristics of the crowd as a social institution, its properties, activization factors, characteristics of leaders, personality changes within crowds, the problem of criminal responsibility for mass crimes. • Methodological weaknesses in S. Sighele’s and H. Fournial’s studies included: (a) attributing negative traits of criminal crowds to other crowd types, (b) attributing a reduced intellectual potential to any meeting, and (c) attributing characteristics of women in the crowd to the crowd as the subject of mass action. • The heritage of S. Sighele, H. Fournial, and other researchers of the initial period can help in overcoming excessive individualism and rationalism in modern crowd psychology.
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