SOURCE: “Peace and War,” in JAMA, Vol. 255, No. 20, May 23-30, 1986, pp. 2818-19.

Wilmer offers a restrospective view of The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, and points out its limitations.

[Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War: 1916-1919,] has been republished in a handsome limited edition by the British Medical Association because of its present significance. It is a pioneering effort in applied social psychology. It offers insight into the world of today, threatened by the competing herd instincts of different nations, and within it societies gone awry, with actual and potential horrendous consequences.

Trotter's idealistic conclusion that reason and disciplined intelligence will bring about peace or resolution of the herd instinct problems of nations is doubtful. Bearing in mind what is now known about the power of the unconscious and the limitations of reason, disciplined rational thought appears as only one step. Since Trotter...