The Psychology of Social Movements : A Psycho-Analytic View of
Society. By Pryns Hopkins. (Allen and Unwin. ios. 6d.)
A PSYCHO-ANALYST ON SOCIETY
IN every civilised country men are asking, and asking with something like desperation, questions which a book such as this should help to answer : whether civilisation itself can endure ; why objects which we all believe we desire, such as peace between nations, should seem impossible of achievement ; and why large sections of mankind have suddenly abandoned not only the p alitical beliefs but als 3 the moral and religious ideals which had guided their forefathers. Anyone who admits that the science of psychology has added to our knowledge of human nature will realise that it can contribute to our understanding of these problems. And those who accept even a part of the conclusions reached by Freud and his school will be aware that this contribution is of basic importance. If a book could be written which justified the title quoted no one concerned with social movements could afford to ignore it.
In fact its title is a misleading description of .this particular book. It deals only indirectly with the psychology of social movements, and it does not expound a psycho-analytic view of life, but the personal view of a man whose opinions have been formed by many other influtnces besides his knowledge of psychology. To take two examples—the author discusses the relative values of gluttony and poetry as though he were writing in the middle of the last century; as though they were a mere matter of " higher " and " lower " pleasures, and " educating taste's' until one is preferred to the other ; he makes no reference either to the fact that large numbers of human beings are incapable of taking pleasure in either over- eating or reading poems, or even—though surely this is the crux of the problem from a social point of view—to the forces which drive us to find our pleasure in such different ways. Again, few other psycho-analysts would allot only one chapter (nineteen pages) to political beliefs and to religion (which the writer dislikes) and the bulk of two chapters (thirty-one pages) besides many other paragraphs to the evils of smoking (which he dislikes even more than religion).
What this book does contain is interesting but • les3 far- reaching. After some introductory chapters on the history and importance of modern psychology and its appropriate ethical basis—which he finds in Utilitarianism—Dr. Pryns Hopkins states that man has six fundamental needs for six forms of happiness. These are the enjoyment of knowledge, of what he calls sensory naturalism, of inner peace, of the family, of material means and of safety from violence. He then examines them in turn and shows that our attitudes to each one are based not upon reason as we like to believe, but largely upon tendencies which have been shaped in us during our earliest years, of which we are often unaware, but which influence profoundly our conscious judgements and feelings. He describes some of these sources and traces, not always as clearly as he might, the evolution of adult character traits from their infantile origins. He does refer to some of the social movements which are particularly affected by these unconscious mechanisms, and what he says is often lively and suggestive. But what he is analysing is essentially some components of 'our views about social movements and not the movements themselves. For example, when he is dealing with religion Dr. Pryns Hopkins is so anxious to show that elements such as sadism and homo- sexuality have entered into certain religious attitudes that he gives no space at all to its restorative; and uplifting- 'aspects
and barely refers to man's conception of God, though both these are of primary social importance.
" Again, he is so much concerned to emphasise the infantile com- ponents of our beliefs that he often writes as though they were the only factors present. To take one case—when he is discussing the human attitude towards work he derives the feeling that productive work is a duty and idleness a sin from ideas implanted in the infant by mothers and nurses with regard to the output of faeces. This he considers a determinant of Socialistic opinions and hatred towards rentiers as a class. Such a form of bias may exist, but it is also true that work is a condition of human life and that lazy people were disliked and despised centuries before the advent of modern hygiene.
The author's knowledge of America, his career as a school- master and a social reformer have enabled him to include material which will appeal to English readers ; and as the accounts of the theoretical work on which his psychology is based, though chiefly English, are scattered and not always easy to produce, enquirers who are already acquainted with their main outlines will find a good deal to interest them in this volume. On the other hand one is driven to say that it is too fragmentary, too personal, and perhaps too aggressive in tone to give a fair or coherent picture of current psycho-analytical hypotheses on social subjects to anyone who is without other
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