THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRAZES. 285 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRAZES. 



By Professor G. T. W. PATRICK, 



UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. 



A WELL-KNOWN" Washington newspaper correspondent, writing 

 of the recent Congress of the Daughters of the American 

 Revolution and its disorderly meetings, says: "It is the unanimous 

 opinion of those who have attended the congress that, while the 

 Daughters of the American Revolution, individually, are nearly all 

 intellectual, refined and attractive women, collectively they are an 

 uncontrollable mob." Why is the social conduct of human beings 

 different from their conduct as individuals? This is the problem of the 

 new science of social psychology. The following study of crazes and 

 epidemics is offered as a slight contribution to this science. 



By way of preface it might be said that a good deal of the confusion 

 as to the subject matter of social psychology would be avoided if it 

 were understood that this science is not the study of any mysterious 

 entity called £ the social mind,' nor the mere study of those individual 

 traits that make men social beings, such as imitation and suggestibility; 

 but rather the study of the peculiar and characteristic behavior of the 

 mind of the individual when under the influence of the social afflatus. 

 Under this influence we do indeed find that he becomes a different 

 being, and that his mental processes must be formulated by different 

 laws; and we are convinced that, as thus understood, social psychology 

 is just as distinct and legitimate a branch of study as is the psychology 

 of the child or the psychology of sex. 



Now, in what ways is the behavior of man as a social being different 

 from his behavior as an individual? To answer this question in part, let 

 us examine his behavior in mental epidemics and crazes. I select these 

 because they illustrate in somewhat extreme form the influence of the 

 social afflatus. 



If, for the sake of comparison, we first consider the normal individ- 

 ual as such, we find that he is a perceiving, remembering, associating, 

 judging, reflecting, reasoning being; that he is subject to certain 

 feelings, emotions, desires and impulses, prompting him to action; that 

 his action is more or less deliberative, and, when it finally occurs, is 

 the result of a set of motives determined by the man's character, which 

 in turn is the outcome of his heredity and education and his general 

 ability to appreciate and reflect the moral ideals of the social order to 



