44
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
attributed to Christ than to a human Commander-in-Chief.[1]
It is to be noticed that in these two artificial groups each individual is bound by libidinal[2] ties on
- ↑ An objection will justly be raised against this conception of the libidinal [see next foot-note] structure of an army on the ground that no place has been found in it for such ideas as those of one's country, of national glory, etc., which are of such importance in holding an army together. The answer is that that is a different instance of a group tie, and no longer such a simple one; for the examples of great generals, like Caesar, Wallenstein, or Napoleon, show that such ideas are not indispensable to the existence of an army. We shall presently touch upon the possibility of a leading idea being substituted for a leader and upon the relations between the two. The neglect of this libidinal factor in an army, even when it is not the only factor operative, seems to be not merely a theoretical omission but also a practical danger.. Prussian militarism, which was just as unpsychological as German science, may have had to suffer the consequences of this in the great war. We know that the war neuroses which ravaged the German army have been recognized as being a protest of the individual against the part he was expected to play in the army; and according to the communication of E. Simmel (Kriegsneurosen und ‘Psychisches Trauma’. Munich, 1918), the hard treatment of the men by their superiors may be considered as foremost among the motive forces of the disease. If the importance of the libido's claims on this score had been better appreciated, the fantastic promises of the American President's fourteen points would probably not have been believed so easily, and the splendid instrument would not have broken in the hands of the German leaders.
- ↑ [Here and elsewhere the German ‘libidinös'’ is used simply as an adjectival derivative from the technical term ‘Libido’;
