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Much like other notable psychologists preceding him such as Le Bon, Freud attempts to explain the phenomena of the collective life through individual psychology. In doing so, Freud utilized this book as a means to eliminate the commonplace notions of heredity, mentality and suggestion as motives for collective behavior. Instead replacing them with a self-constructed model of unconscious identification. Freud's purpose within this seminal work is to clarify the irrationality of the group in order to reduce it. Despite his strong claims and the backing of his contemporaries, many current psychologists view this work on psychoanalysis as less provocative than his other works. One such expert, Robert E. Park, on review of this book explains, "Suggestion, imitation, the herd instinct, and every other attempt to solve the problem of human relations by the magic of a single word - all these resolve themselves into some one of the varied manifestations of the fundamental sexual impulse" (Park, npg). Freud may have attempted to do too much with his analysis; he attempts to defragment the mystery of group dynamics into easily adjustable and important social dynamics. This book raises some extremely important psychological lessons in its application to human resources management. HRM focuses on creating a cohesive team that can operate within the framework of the corporation. In order to create this cohesive team, Freud argues that a strong leader must be present that develops rapport with other members of the group as the father of the "primal clan." This relationship itself must be fashioned so that the values of the members reflect the values of the leader and thus they symbiotically form bonds of love. Although on a theoretical level these statements may have implicit truth, application in real world HRM is extremely difficult. To nurture this type of culture, HR managers must stress the development of strong infrastructural values at the outset of corporate development so that members of the group assume the group objective at an early stage. Furthermore, the expansion of social cohesion is extremely important because it will destroy the fabric of social institutions.

Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego., Review author[s]: Robert E. Park

The American Journal of Sociology © 1925