Abstract
This document explores the concept of 'psychological crowd' and its application to the 'Nuit Debout' movement, a collective manifestation of individuals united around a common goal. It delves into the ideas of Norbert Elias, Gustave Le Bon, and Nicolas Delesalle, examining the relationship between individual and collective life, and the challenges of finding harmony between personal needs and collective needs.
Extract
[...] Either the solutions try to satisfy the collective needs, as in the case of the 'Nuit debout' movement, or they resolve individual needs. Thus, the ideas of Le Bon and Delesalle converge in the same direction as Elias, since they express the idea that a united crowd around a common goal, a collective goal, will defend its cause by opting for the solution of collective manifestation, a solution used in the context of collective claims. This solution cannot be used in the context of individual claims, which converges towards the idea of Elias that the existing solutions to resolve the conflicts related to the relationship between the individual and society cannot satisfy the individual and collective poles at the same time, and this despite his proposal to reflect on this aspect to change it. [...]
[...] The Society of Individuals - Norbert Elias (1987); The Crowd Psychology - Gustave Le Bon (1895); Telerama.fr, Nuit Debout: 'It floats, of course it floats. But on the other side, it floats too' - Nicolas Delesalle (2016); Nuit Debout movement manifestation evening on the Place de la République, Paris, spring 2016 - Alone with all Note of synthesis: alone with all Social life, which encompasses both individual and collective life, is not always easy since it is based on a difficulty encountered by individuals, that of joining their own individual needs with those demanded by collective society. [...]
[...] For Le Bon, it is external conditions that bring these crowds together, such as in the case of the 'Nuit debout' movement, triggered by the diffusion of a documentary dealing with the financial difficulties of two individuals following the relocation of their company. These conditions will define the nature of the movement, the deep character of the crowd. In conclusion, Elias, Le Bon and Delesalle share the idea that there are solutions to the problems related to the relationship between the individual and society. [...]
[...] As illustrated by the 'Nuit debout' movement, the use of collective manifestation as a means to achieve a common goal is a collective solution that cannot be used in the context of an individual problem. In addition, this movement also illustrates the concept of 'psychological crowd' or 'organized crowd' of Le Bon, a collective movement bringing together a crowd of individuals transformed into a unique organism, a whole entity turned towards a single common goal, whose deep character will be defined by external conditions that will be its own. [...]
[...] In addition, according to Norbert Elias, the relationship between the individual and the collective seems to be challenged by violent struggles between these two parameters, within debates that often lead to a binary interpretation of the problem: either the individual is at the center and the collective is secondary, or it's the opposite. However, it seems that it would be this opposition that we should fight, in order to be able to uncover another way of approaching the relationship between the individual and society. Indeed, upon closer inspection, the individual and society cannot exist one without the other. In fact, in his article published in Télérama in 2016 'Nuit debout: "ça flotte, bien sûr que ça flotte. [...]
