SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF INVOLUTION 119 



of the group-mind as determined by Le Bon in his 

 notable work, " The Crowd." 



There is a certain aligning power in association 

 itself, especially when association is frequent and of 

 long standing. That this holds of the school-room, 

 witness the class-spirit with which the child is im- 

 bued almost from his first day at school. The un- 

 accustomed numbers induce a crowd-consciousness. 

 This quickly breaks down whatsoever individuality 

 may have been attained. At the same time the child 

 receives from it a new sense of power and with that 

 sense comes the tendency to cast aside all control. 

 Instincts which have been kept under restraint gain 

 the mastery. Finding himself one of many, the 

 child also loses what little sense of responsibility he 

 may have acquired. The danger of mental is quite 

 as great as that of bodily contagion. Sentiments 

 and actions spread with great rapidity, as we all 

 know. 



Add to association, as the school-room does, the 

 direct action of a common physical environment, the 

 participation in common tasks, and, above all, the 

 same directing personalities of teacher and class- 

 leaders, and the outward conditions are certainly 

 complete for a homogeneous whole. The subjective 

 conditions are likewise right for the overthrow of 

 the Self; obedience, the orientation of attention, the 

 attitude of expectancy, the narrowing of the field of 

 consciousness, the inhibition of voluntary activity, 



