After the Great War: Nationalism, degenerationism and mass psychology
Author(s) / Creator(s)
García-García, Juan
Abstract / Description
This article explores the influence of psychological language and discourses on the contemporary view of nationalism, an issue that has only begun to be studied in recent years (García-García, 2013; Sluga, 2006). On this occasion, the author focuses on two currents or schools that contributed decisively to the new view of nationalism after the Great War: first, degenerationist medicine and psychiatry, highly accepted in the European social and political debate since the late 19th century; second, and no less penetrating, the crowd or mass psychology of Taine, Tarde, Sighele, and, above all, Gustave Le Bon. After the Great War, as we shall see, nationalism was often represented as a form of degeneration, or a barbarous and cruel regression to a prior stage of development, embodied by the masses. This discourse and rhetoric was to condition the area of study for generations. In fact, the voices of medicine, psychiatry and mass psychology have not disappeared from the debate and continue to directly and indirectly influence the academic and popular comprehension of nationalism.
Keyword(s)
nationalism mass psychology Le Bon degenerationism warPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2015-04-27
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
3
Issue
1
Page numbers
103–123
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
García-García, J. (2015). After the Great War: Nationalism, degenerationism and mass psychology. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.371
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Author(s) / Creator(s)García-García, Juan
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-26T12:45:03Z
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Made available on2018-11-26T12:45:03Z
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Date of first publication2015-04-27
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Abstract / DescriptionThis article explores the influence of psychological language and discourses on the contemporary view of nationalism, an issue that has only begun to be studied in recent years (García-García, 2013; Sluga, 2006). On this occasion, the author focuses on two currents or schools that contributed decisively to the new view of nationalism after the Great War: first, degenerationist medicine and psychiatry, highly accepted in the European social and political debate since the late 19th century; second, and no less penetrating, the crowd or mass psychology of Taine, Tarde, Sighele, and, above all, Gustave Le Bon. After the Great War, as we shall see, nationalism was often represented as a form of degeneration, or a barbarous and cruel regression to a prior stage of development, embodied by the masses. This discourse and rhetoric was to condition the area of study for generations. In fact, the voices of medicine, psychiatry and mass psychology have not disappeared from the debate and continue to directly and indirectly influence the academic and popular comprehension of nationalism.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationGarcía-García, J. (2015). After the Great War: Nationalism, degenerationism and mass psychology. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.371en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1367
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1746
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.371
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Keyword(s)nationalismen_US
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Keyword(s)mass psychologyen_US
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Keyword(s)Le Bonen_US
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Keyword(s)degenerationismen_US
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Keyword(s)waren_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleAfter the Great War: Nationalism, degenerationism and mass psychologyen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue1
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers103–123
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Volume3
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record