The Behavior of Crowds: A Psychological Study by Everett Dean Martin — Summary & Review

Everett Dean Martin's The Behavior of Crowds offers a detailed psychological study of how crowds influence individual minds and society. Rejecting earlier simplistic theories like Le Bon's collective unconscious, Martin presents the crowd as a distinct mental state marked by unconscious impulses, repression, and pathological fixed ideas. Crowds form around issues that capture attention, especially those involving conflict or controversy, and members lose their usual personality, suspending critical thought in favor of shared illusions or symbolic 'crowd-ideas.' These ideas act like psychological complexes, compelling repeated slogans and rigid beliefs, often resembling pathological states such as paranoia or compulsion neurosis.

The book draws heavily on psychoanalytic theories from Freud, Jung, and Adler to explain crowd behavior. It highlights how unconscious egoism, self-flattery, and projection of hostility onto external enemies fuel crowd morality, which tends to be negative, prohibitive, and uniform. Fanaticism emerges as the ideal crowd-man, embodying total devotion and sacrifice, while leaders manipulate crowds through ritualistic language and appeals to abstract ideals. Crowds often idealize heroes as symbols of themselves, ignoring their individuality, and seek social dominance and renewed self-esteem through group identification.

Martin analyzes historical and contemporary examples, including revolutionary movements, race riots, and political debates, to illustrate how crowds operate. He shows how revolutionary crowds arise from conflicts between dominant and under crowds, with each side clinging to absolutist, dogmatic principles that suppress dissent and justify hostility. Revolutionary ideals often take on a Messianic, eschatological character, serving as compensations and escapes from reality rather than pragmatic solutions. The cycle of revolution tends to replace one crowd-tyranny with another, as new ruling classes emerge and suppress freedoms through censorship and conformity.

Democracy, far from guaranteeing liberty, is portrayed as a system that multiplies mutually suspicious crowds, often leading to tyranny of the majority or coercion by minority groups. Education and intellectual life are dominated by crowd-thinking, which suppresses originality and critical thought, producing conformist citizens rather than free spirits. Martin's small study reveals low general knowledge among high school graduates, reflecting this intellectual stagnation.

The book concludes with a call for a new humanistic education emphasizing scientific method, critical thinking, and self-analysis to counteract crowd mentality. True social progress depends on individuals who liberate themselves from unconscious motives and dogmatic systems, becoming 'free spirits' capable of contributing genuine social energy. Psychoanalysis is proposed as a tool for re-education, helping individuals confront self-deception and resist crowd compulsions. Martin envisions a 'Republic of the Free' formed by independent thinkers who balance social engagement with intellectual courage.

Throughout, the tone remains analytical, critical, and cautious, warning of the dangers crowds pose to individuality, reason, and freedom. The work invites readers to recognize the psychological mechanisms behind mass movements, question popular opinion formed in crowds, and cultivate skepticism toward propaganda and slogans. While the book acknowledges uncertainties about the precise workings of unconscious processes and the limits of individual agency within crowds, it offers a rich framework for understanding the complex interplay between psychology and social behavior.