The contrast between Individual Psychology and Social or Group Psychology, which at a first glance may seem to be full of significance, loses a great deal of its sharpness when it is examined more closely. It is true that Individual Psychology is concerned with the individual man and explores the paths by which he seeks to find satisfaction for his instincts; but only rarely and under certain exceptional conditions is Individual Psychology in a position to disregard the relations of this individual to others. In the individual's mental life someone else is invariably involved, as a model, as an object, as a helper, as an opponent, and so from the very first Individual Psychology is at the same time Social Psychology as wellÑin this extended but entirely justifiable sense of the words. The relations of an individual to his parents and to his brothers and sisters, to the object of his love, and to his physicianÑin fact all the relations which have hitherto been the chief subject of psycho-analytic researchÑmay claim to be considered as social phenomena; and in this respect they may be contrasted with certain other processes, described by us as 'narcissistic', in which the satisfaction of the instincts is partially or totally withdrawn from the influence of other people. The contrast between social and narcissisticÑBleuler would perhaps call them 'autistic'Ñmental acts therefore falls wholly within the domain of Individual Psychology, and is not well calculated to differentiate it from a Social or Group Psychology.

Freud's Mass Psychology examines one of the key concepts in the theory of the psyche. Surprenant treats it as an epistemological issue rather than exclusively as a socio-political issue. Focusing on this neglected concept enables the author to raise anew the question of the 'application' of psychoanalysis, beyond a mechanistic understanding of this term and of Freud's writings. This study brings together important topics associated with psychoanalysis, recent French philosophy, and political thought. The original arguments that it develops should interest anyone preoccupied with the relevance of psychoanalytic concepts in philosophy and in related disciplines, notably in the field of literary studies.

The sixth volume in the series "Contemporary Freud: Turning Points and Critical Issues," published with the International Psychoanalytic Association, turns to Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921). In this classic text Freud offered an analysis of the roots of group identity, of the contagions of panic and fanaticism, and of the submission of the individual to the leader that only gained cogency with each passing decade of the troubled twentieth century. And Freud's insights have become more relevant still in the aftermath of the shattering events of September 11, 2001. Following an introduction to the volume by Ethel Spector Person and a summary and abridgement of Freud's text by John Kerr, the contributors to this volume - Didier Anzieu, Robert Caper, Abraham Zeleznik, Andre Haynal, Ernst Falzeder, Yolanda Gampel, and Claudio Laks Eisirik - provide commentaries on Freud's work, explicating the multiple ways in which Freud's insights continue to illuminate the irrational dynamics to which all groups, including psychoanalytic institutions, are prey. Serving as both an introduction to, and an elegant expansion of, Freud's texts, this volume demonstrates the role of psychoanalytic hypotheses in obtaining deeper insight into the tectonic shifts in group psychology underlying today's mass society.

Freud's religious unbeliefs are too easily dismissed as the standard scientific rationalism of the twentieth-century intellectual, yet he scorned the high-minded humanism of his contemporaries. In Mass Psychology and Analysis of the 'I' he explores the notion of 'mass-psychology' - his findings would prove all too prophetic in the years that followed. Writings such as A Religious Experience and The Future of an Illusion continue earlier work on the essential savagery of the civilized mind, and Moses the Man and Monotheistic Religion excavates the roots of religion and racism, which he concludes are inextricably intertwined. This remarkable collection reveals Freud not only at his most radically pessimistic, but also at his most personally courageous - engaging with his own adherences, his own antecedents, his own identity.

Freud: From Individual Psychology to Group Psychology, by M. Andrew Holowchak, explores Freudian psychoanalysis as a full-fledged science, as it relates psychoanalytically to issues of individual psychology (Individualpsychologie) and group psychology (Massenpsychologie). Holowchak analyzes Freud's shift in focus in his mature years away from psychoanalysis as a "curative" method for treating individual neurosis, to psychoanalysis as a full-fledged science of the human psyche that essays to shed light on group issues, such as religiosity and war.

(Dover thrift editions).

"Civilized" Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness, Vol. IX (1959); Thoughts for the Times on War and Death, Vol. XIV (1957); Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Vol.XVIII (1955); The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents, Vol. XXI (1961); Why War?, Vol. XXII (1964).

This book presents a reinterpretation of Freud to show how language can be expressive and repressive.

This classic work by the Father of Psychoanalysis, is essential reading for any serious student of psychology. Dr. Freud covers the hidden meanings within our dreams, especially repressed sexual desires, the purpose of our conscious and unconscious minds, and the importance of dreams to our wellbeing. This title is, in essence, a comprehensive analysis of Freud's psychoanalytical studies, research and empirical observations. Freud begins by explaining the meaning of dreams through presentations of varied real examples. He then proceeds to explain the causes of dreams and their relation to past and on-going events in our lives, he analyses dream elements, and then explores specified topics such as sexual thoughts in dreams and humans desires and wishes.