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THE CONCEPT OF HISTORICAL GROUP-FANTASIES

Historical group-fantasies are defined as those shared fantasies which are

1. massive displacements onto the public stage of feelings connected with the individual's search for love,
2. allowing people to use groups to relieve shared private feelings and
3. to act out and defend against repressed desires, rages and prohibitions which have their origins in childhoods common to the group,
4. using the same ego mechanisms of splitting, condensation, reaction formation, etc. as in personal fantasy formation, only
5. forged in public discussion
6. out of materials provided by recent historical events,
7. distributing group roles by psychoclass, and
8. producing group dynamics which can lead to a breakdown of group-fantasy, a period of paranoid collapse, and an attempted restitution through the formation of a group-delusion,
9. which result in a group-trance state which may require discharge in violent historical action.

Original complete text from:
"Foundations of Psychohistory" page 172.
[Note: Hyperlinks below will take user to in text descriptions of each.]

In my previous four papers,(1) I have introduced the use of the concept of historical group fantasies as that part of my psychogenic theory which describes how the values produced by the evolution of parent-child relations are translated into historical movements. In this paper, historical group-fantasies are defined as those shared fantasies which are [1] massive displacements onto the public stage of feelings connected with the individual's search for love, [2] allowing people to use groups to relieve shared private feelings and [3] to act out and defend against re-pressed desires, rages and prohibitions which have their origins in childhoods common to the group, [4] using the same ego mechanisms of splitting, condensation, reaction formation, etc. as in personal fantasy formation, only [5] forged in public discussion [6] out of materials provided by recent historical events, [7] distributing group roles by psychoclass, and [8] producing group dynamics which can lead to a breakdown of group-fantasy, a period of paranoid collapse, and an attempted restitution through the formation of a group-delusion, [9] which result in a group-trance state which may require discharge in violent historical action.

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