'To obtain at any rate a glimpse of them it is necessary in the first place to call to mind the truth established by modern psychology, that unconscious phenomena play an altogether preponderating part not only in organic life, but also in the operations of the intelligence. The conscious life of the mind is of small importance in comparison with its unconscious life. The most subtle analyst, the most acute observer, is scarcely successful in discovering more than a very small number of the conscious[1] motives that determine his conduct. Our conscious acts are the outcome of an unconscious substratum created in the mind in the main by hereditary influences. This substratum consists of the innumerable common characteristics handed down from generation to generation, which constitute the genius of a race. Behind the avowed causes of our acts there undoubtedly lie secret causes that we do not avow, but behind these secret causes there are many others more secret still, of which we ourselves are ignorant.[2] The greater part of our daily actions are the result of hidden motives which escape our observation.' (p. 30.)
- ↑ [The German translation of Le Bon, quoted by the author, reads ‘bewusster’; the English translation has 'unconscious'; and the original French text ‘inconscients’.—Translator.]
- ↑ [The English translation reads 'which we ourselves ignore'—a misunderstanding of the French word ‘ignorées’.—Translator.]
