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Galdós and Mass Psychology
Clark M. Zlotchew
Senatores boni viri; senatus autem mala bestia .
( Ancient maxim .)
Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977
The present era of mass communication and social unrest places a high priority on the understanding
of group psychology. Sociologists and psychologists study the phenomenon while the advertising
agencies and statesmen give practical application to the knowledge gathered by the socio-
psychologists. The roots of this science can be traced to the nineteenth century, principally to the
Italian school of positive criminology, the founder and chief exponent of which is generally held to
be Enrico Ferri 1 . Ferri's major departure from the classical school of criminology, with significant
consequences for the yet unborn science of mass psychology, is contained in the idea that the joining
together of generally intelligent individuals into a group does not guarantee the intelligence of the
resulting assembly. This is so because, psychologically speaking, «the union of individuals never
gives, as it would seem it should, a total equal to the individual value of each of them» 2 . Equally
significant is his affirmation that emotion predominates over rationality in a group endeavor. 3
While Ferri's statements referred principally to the composition and psychology of juries, his
disciple, Scipio Sighele, applies these concepts to mobs as well and greatly expands upon them in
La Folla delinquente (1892) 4 . Other writers, in France as well as Italy, write of the psychology of
1 William W. Smithers states, «Enrico Ferri, founder of criminal sociology...». Enrico Ferri, Criminal
Sociology , translated by Joseph I. Kelly and John Lisle, edited by William W. Smithers with an
introduction by Charles A. Ellwood and Quincy A. Myers (New York: Agathon Press, Inc., 1967),
p. xxi. « the founding in Italy of a new school of positive criminal law, of which Ferri is himself the
chief exponent.» Ibid. , p. xxiii.
2 Ibid. , p. 486.
3 «This predominance of sentiment over reason, which is the fundamental note of the jury...» Ibid. ,
p. 489.
4 Scipio Sighele, La Folla delinquente (Torino: Fratelli Bocca, 1892). A wide diffusion of this book
may be assumed because only a few months after the first Italian edition the French edition appeared
as La Foule criminelle . Perhaps one of the more significant statements by Sighele is: « Un'antica
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