Drummond: Ascent of Man, pages 41-57, 189-266.
Giddings: Inductive Sociology, pages 249-278.
CHAPTER XLVI[ToC]
SOCIAL PSYCHIC FACTORS
366. The Social Mind.—As individual life is compounded of many psychic elements that make up one mind, so the life of every group involves various factors of a psychic nature that constitute the social mind. The social mind does not exist apart from individual minds, but it is nevertheless real. When emotional excitement stirs a mob to action, the unity of feeling is evidence of a social mind. When a congregation recites a creed of the church the unity of belief shows the existence of a social mind. When a political land-slide occurs on the occasion of a presidential election in the United States, the unity of will expresses the social mind. The emotional phase is temporary, public opinion changes more slowly; all the time the social mind is gaining experience and learning wisdom, as does the individual. Social consciousness, which at first is slight, increases gradually, until it fructifies in social purpose which results in achievement. History is full of illustrations of such development.
367. How the Social Mind is Formed.—The formation of this social mind and its subsequent workings may be illustrated from a common occurrence in frontier history. Imagine three hunters meeting for the first time around a camp-fire, and analyze their mental processes. The first man was tired and hungry and camped to rest and eat. The second happened to come upon the camp just as a storm was breaking, saw the smoke of the fire, and turned aside for its comfort. The third picked up the trail of the second and followed it to find companionship. Each obeying a primal instinct and conscious of his kind, came into association with others, and thus by the process of aggregation a temporary group was formed. Sitting about the fire, each lighted his pipe in imitation of one another; they communicated with one another in language familiar to all; one became drowsy and the others yielded to the suggestion to sleep. Waking in the morning, they continued their conversation, and in sympathy with a common purpose and in recognition of the advantages of association, they decided to keep together for the remainder of the hunt. Thus was constituted the group or social mind.
With the consciousness that they were congenial spirits and shared a common purpose, each was willing to sacrifice some of his own habits and preferences in the interest of the group. One man might prefer bacon and coffee for breakfast, while a second wished tea; one might wish to break camp at sunrise, another an hour later; each subordinated his own desires for the greater satisfaction of camp comradeship. The strongest personality in the group is the determining factor in forming the habits of the group, though it may be an unconscious leadership. The mind of the group is not the same as that of the leader, for the mutual mental interaction produces changes in all, but it approaches most nearly to his mind.