Mass Psychology in Geopolitics 3 of 9
Developments in Mass Psychology
Sigmund Freud and Edward Bernays
Key Findings of Mass Psychology
Acknowledgements
This work has made extensive use of the research and publications of Joshua Stylman[1] and ICE-9.[2] It is strongly recommended to study their work.
Developments in Mass Psychology
Rational and truthful communications to the masses fails, as it is premised on the wrong assumption that the masses think logically. Quoting Dale Carnegie: [3]
When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bustling with prejudices, and motivated with pride and vanity.
The basic instincts of fear and greed have long been used for manipulation in diverse fields, particularly in the financial markets, where herd mentality is commonly displayed. However, the greatest strides in understanding mass psychology and transforming it into a powerful instrument of mass control is traceable to the beginnings of the 20th century.
Sigmund Freud and Edward Bernays
Sigmund Freud is credited with bringing to light two powerful factors of mass psychology that can be utilized for mass manipulation: the subconscious driver and the group or herd mentality. The results of Freud’s research were put into practice for mass manipulation by his nephew Edward Bernays, the key propagandist in the Committee on Public Information (CPI) discussed earlier. Bernays developed the psychological framework for mass influence that would become modern marketing and mass manipulation.[4]
The subconscious driver [5]
Freud noted that many of man’s thoughts and actions are compensatory substitutes for desires which he has been obliged to suppress. An object is desired not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because man has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself.
There often is a divorce between one’s conscious thoughts, feelings, and desires which do not fit with one’s self-image and which are therefore suppressed. Bernays recognized that this facilitates manipulation of humans by designing propaganda or psychological operations that bypass the conscious and rational faculties of the individual, targeting instead suppressed emotions and hidden desires. This makes it possible to have people adopt beliefs and behaviors without their being aware of the underlying motivations leading them on. [6] As Bernays explained:
“…men are very largely actuated by motives which they conceal from themselves…It is evident that the successful propagandist must understand the true motives and not be content to accept the reasons which men give for what they do.”
It is possible, although often difficult, for an individual to become aware of the underlying motives driving their beliefs and actions through honest and critical introspection.
Example: A man buying a car may think he wants it for purposes of transportation, but he really wants it because it is a symbol of social position, an evidence of his success, or to impress.
Group mentality
Freud studied the tendency of people to engage in group-identification and how group identification affects one’s mind and behavior. People were found to identify themselves and others in groups based on things such as race, class, gender, nationality, religion, sect, political party, etc.[7] Freud observed that individuals within groups lose objectivity, which allows them to be readily manipulated:
A group is extraordinarily credulous and open to influence, it has no critical faculty. Once one succumbs to the effects of group identification, such critical introspection becomes nearly impossible.[8] In identifying with a group, the individual subordinates self-analysis and a discerning search for the truth in favor of maintaining group interests and cohesion. And with their critical capacities weakened by the influence of group psychology, they become highly susceptible to psychological operations designed to target suppressed or unconscious desires and emotions.
Edward Bernays noted that the tendency to engage in group-identification is a function of the enlarged sense of self-importance that individuals derive from identifying with a potentially powerful mass. Just as “the wolf pack is many times as strong as the combined strength of its individual members,” so too the individual senses the potential power of the group and derives feelings of potency in identifying with it.
Kelley Williams, Herd Mentality, BPF
The Tavistock Institute[9]
One of the earliest and premier centers for research into mass psychology and manipulation is the British Tavistock Clinic, which later with Rockefeller Foundation funding, became the Tavistock Institute.[10] Tavistock’s research would have a major impact on mass psychology manipulation. Some of Tavistock’s key findings:
Individuals under shock can be easily manipulated
Indirect influence through trusted voices works better than direct propaganda.
Emotional resonance matters more than facts.
People trust peer sharing over authority.
Through systematic study of trauma and group psychology, Tavistock developed methods to shape not just what people could see, but how they would interpret reality itself. The Institute's work revealed how psychological vulnerability could be used to reshape both individual and group behavior - insights that would prove invaluable as mechanisms of influence evolved from overt censorship to subtle manipulation of perception.
Tavistock mastered transforming psychological theories into practical tools for cultural engineering, particularly through popular music and youth culture. By embedding mass psychology principles into seemingly spontaneous cultural trends, Tavistock created a template for social programming invisible to its subjects.[11]
Tavistock would become one of the most influential organizations in shaping modern social control methods. The Tavistock Institute, in cooperation with Britain’s MI6, played a significant role in developing methods to control consciousness itself, some of which became the foundational algorithms of DARPA’s social media platforms such as Facebook.[12]
CIA and Pentagon
The US military and intelligence communities invested greatly in mind research and mass psychology. Their methods were mostly crude and criminal. Among their notable projects are Mockingbird for infiltrating “independent” media, MK-Ultra for psychological manipulation using drugs, and Laurel Canyon for mass psychological manipulation using movies and music, and Women’s Lib.
Key Findings of Mass Psychology
§ Humans are emotional, irrational beings:
Emotional resonance matters more than facts or logic.
One can never change people’s behavior by appealing to them rationally.
Humans live in a dream world.
People feel secure having themselves reflected back to them, just like in a mirror.
§ Humans are driven by their subconscious rather than their conscious mind:
Subconscious drivers facilitate manipulation.
By working on the subconscious, beliefs and actions can be influenced.
Today there are corporations that know you better than you know yourself.[13]
§ Truth and reality are irrelevant; perception is:
Shift in value systems from emphasis on “truth” to emphasis on “credibility.”[14]
We live in a world where fantasy is more real than reality.[15]
Reality is irrelevant, perception is; provided it is credible.
Media shapes perception.
§ Indirect influence for mass manipulation:
Influence through trusted voices works better than direct propaganda.
People trust peers, “celebrities,” and “experts” over authority.
Stars, celebrities, and experts are made by a familiar process.[16]
§ Groups and the herd mentality:
Individuals tend to identify in groups.
Individuals in groups tend to be irrational and subject to the herd instinct.
Groups are extremely credulous, open to influence, and have no critical faculty.
Dividing populations into groups prone to clash, such as race, class, religion, or political preference, etc., renders rational discourse between individuals of the different groups extremely unlikely.
A divided population is weakened, and its eyes are diverted away from the actions of those operating behind the scenes.
§ Psychological trauma, a powerful tool for conditioning the masses for manipulation:
Can be triggered by terrorist acts such as Bologna bombing, 9/11, Covid-19, etc.
Can be used to reshape individual consciousness and entire social systems.
Can be used to reshape both individual and group behavior.
§ Packaging institutional agendas:
In the language of personal liberation or in the language of security. [17]
§ Control of the masses is achieved by:
Implementing mass psychology operations.
Controlling dominant mass communication platforms.
§ The mass control nexus: Anglo-Saxon military and intelligence agencies, academia, media platforms, celebrities and corporations all at the service of the Money Powers.
The Mass Psychology Manipulation Nexus
This explains officer George Hunter White’s comments regarding his work on the covert MK-Ultra project, which was unknown to the political establishment until revealed in 1975, after over two decades of its operations:[18]
“Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape, and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the All-Highest?"[19],[20]
Further insight is provided by Edward Bernays:[21]
In our society today there is a throne behind the world of politics, fashion, music and education that essentially governs these areas of social life. These are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions.
Endnotes
[3] How to win friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie, Simon & Schuster, Oct 1936
[4] The Technocratic Blueprint, A Century in the Making, Joshua Stylman, Substack Jan 15, 2025
[5] Edward Bernays and Group Psychology: Manipulating the Masses, Academy of Ideas, July 12, 2017
[6] Group Psychology and The Analysis of the Ego, Sigmund Freud, Hogarth Press, 1949
[7] Edward Bernays and Group Psychology: Manipulating the Masses, Academy of Ideas, July 12, 2017
[8] Group Psychology and The Analysis of the Ego, Sigmund Freud, Hogarth Press, 1949
[9] Engineering Reality: Part I A Century of Cultural Control From Edison's Monopolies to Algorithmic Manipulation, Joshua Stylman, Substack, Dec 19, 2024
[10] John Rawlings Rees, Wikipedia
[11] Engineering Reality: Part I A Century of Cultural Control From Edison's Monopolies to Algorithmic Manipulation, Joshua Stylman, Substack, Dec 19, 2024
[12] Control of people’s perception and behaviour through media began a century ago, Rhoda Wilson, The Expose, Dec 29, 2024
[13] Yuval Noah Harari: Humans are now hackable animals, CNN,
[14] The Image, a Guide to Pseudo Events in America, p212 Daniel J. Boorstin, Harper’s publishers, 1961
[15] The Image, a Guide to Pseudo Events in America, p212 Daniel J. Boorstin, Harper’s publishers, 1961
[16] The Image, a Guide to Pseudo Events in America, p212 Daniel J. Boorstin, Harper’s publishers, 1961
[17] How the Information Factory Evolved, Joshua Stylman, Brownstone Institute, Nov 12, 2024
[19] The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, John Marks, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, 6. Them Unwitting: The Safehouses
[20] The CIA's Appalling Human Experiments With Mind Control, Brianna Nofil, History.com, 2025
[21] How One Man Made You Want Hot Dogs & Hate Communism, The Machiavellians, YouTube, Jun 24, 2023
Quote: "It seems that societies too have their own other than conscious hidden parts and drivers !"
Agree. I guess it is partly formed by the civilizational heritage, and increasingly by the mass psychology manipulation society has been subjected to.
Indoctrination in childhood.. very rarely is open to change. i was blessed to have parents who taught me to think, but did not try to influence my thinking. I was taught to make my own decisions based on life experiences and learning. Books were most important...and at 4 I was taken to the library for the story hour that I loved. As soon s I could read, I had a library card; and took home 5 books a week to read. As a child, I spent 4 years immersed in reading fairy tales...and lived in the world of the imagination. My friends were of all races and religions, but I never had a desire to join a religious group. I never even owned a Bible, until Dr Norman Walker sent me the King James Bible, when I was 50. My first impression, it started out like one of the fairy tales i had read as a child. I wondered who had written it? The answer came years later, after i read God's Secretaries by Adam Nicolson. After reading this King James bible for 40 years, it is taped together. However, my father told me s a child..."Just because something is printed in a book...does not make it valid." I really pray for guidance, before I read any book. Mankind makes books, but only our Creator knows the truth. The truth is within everyone of us, if we only knew it was there for the asking.