Gustave Le Bon (FRA)

Gustave Le Bon (7 May 1841 – 13 December 1931) was a French social psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist, inventor, and amateur physicist. He is best known for his 1895 work The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. His writings incorporate theories of national traits, racial superiority, herd behavior and crowd psychology.

Le Bon began his writing career working in the new field of anthropology. In the 1870s he invented a pocket cephalometer, or as he called it, a "Compass of Coordinates", which was an instrument that allowed one to quickly measure the head's various angles, diameters, and profiles. In effect, the instrument was able to reproduce the measurements of any 3-D solid figure. Because it was small and portable the device was easily incorporated into the research programs of anthropologists. Le Bon himself, in 1881, used the cephalometer to measure the heads of 50 inhabitants of the remote Tatras Mountains region of southern Poland. His paper, "The Pocket Cephalometer, or Compass of Coordinates" is written in the style of a user's manual, and stands as an important historical document that details how 19th Century anthropologists initially practiced their science.

Le Bon's physical theories generated some mild controversy in the physics community. In 1896 he reported observing a new kind of radiation, which he termed "black light". Not the same as what today people call black light, though it was later discovered not to exist. His theory of the nature of matter and energy was expanded upon in his book The Evolution of Matter. The book was popular in France, going through 12 editions. The major premise of the book is matter is an inherently unstable substance and slowly transforms into luminiferous ether. One major supporter was Henri Poincaré, however by 1900 physicists had rejected his formulation.

Selected works:
Anatomical & Mathematical Researches into the Laws of the Variations of Brain Volume & Their Relation to Intelligence (1879)
This paper received an award from both the French Academy of Sciences and the Anthropology Society of Paris.
The Pocket Cephalometer, or Compass of Coordinates
Experimental Researches on the Variations of the Volume of the Brain and Skull (1878)
In this 1878 presentation to the Anthropology Society of Paris, Dr. Gustave Le Bon summarizes his extensive research on the volume of the brain and skull. The major findings of his study are: (1) "what constitutes the superiority of one race over another is that the superior race contains many more voluminous skulls than the inferior race;” (2) "comparing the largest skulls belonging to the superior races to the largest skulls of the inferior races, the difference amounts to the enormous number of 400 cubic centimeters;" (3) "the difference existing between the brain weight of a man and woman progressively increases as a people's level of civilization rises." These conclusions were based on patterns contained in the measurements he obtained by grouping data in a statistical progressive series.
L'Homme et les Sociétés (1881); Man and Society
The Study of Races and Present-day Anthropology (1881)
In this 1881 treatise Dr. Gustave Le Bon strongly criticizes his fellow anthropologists for merely calculating the averages of the various craniological measurements in their data set. Such "averages are fictitious values that provide a totally false idea of the elements that have served to constitute them," he says. Instead, he urges his fellow scientists to analyze their data by utilizing a series statistical method which will accurately determine the intelligence level of a race. Le Bon concludes the paper with two claims, (1) "skull volume directly corresponds with intelligence," and (2) "the superior race contains a certain number of quite voluminous skulls, whereas the inferior race does not.
On the Applications of Photography to Anthropology with Respect to the Photographs Taken of the Fuegians Housed at the Jardin d'Acclimatation (1881)
In this November 17, 1881 presentation to the Anthropology Society of Paris, Dr. Gustave Le Bon describes several photographs that he took of individuals from Tierra del Fuego who were housed at the time at the Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris. Employing a new photography method, which involved the use of a dry emulsion of gelatino-silver bromide, Le Bon was "able to operate in an instantaneous manner." He comments that his Fuegian subjects were, "caught in the most diverse, but at the same time the most natural, poses." Gustave Le Bon presented this paper as a helpful introduction to the much longer presentation by Dr. Leonce Manouvrier, who had taken detailed measurements of 50 different body parts (foot length, etc.) on the same Tierra del Fuegian individuals Le Bon had photographed. See, "The Fuegians of the Jardin d'Acclimatation" by Leonce Manouvrier).
La Civilisation des Arabes (1884); The World of Islamic Civilization (1974)
Applications of Psychology to the Classification of Races (1886)
In this 1886 paper Dr. Gustave Le Bon analyzes the various races of India from a psychological point of view. This viewpoint represents a dramatic change in Le Bon’s approach to anthropology. After his departure from anthropology it appears that he took up the idea that a race can be best defined by its psychological qualities, rather than by its physical characteristics. In this study he classifies the peoples of India into three large groups, the largest of which is composed of the Hindus. He has two major conclusions: (1) the psychological qualities of the Hindus are submissiveness, absence of energy, fatalism, and lack of precision in thought; and (2) the mass of the Hindu population is intellectually equal to Europeans. Although he qualifies this finding with the remark that the "former, unlike the latter, does not possess a certain number of superior intellects." The paper is illustrated with reproduced photos to illuminate his findings.
Les Lois Psychologiques de l'Évolution des Peuples (1894); The Psychology of Peoples (1898)
La Psychologie des Foules (1895); The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1896)
Psychologie du Socialisme (1896); The Psychology of Socialism (1899)
L'Évolution de la Matière (1905); The Evolution of Matter (1907)
L'Évolution des Forces (1907); The Evolution of Forces (1908)
La Révolution Française et la Psychologie des Révolutions (1912); The Psychology of Revolution (1913); The French Revolution
and the Psychology of Revolution (1980).
Enseignements Psychologiques de la Guerre Européenne (1915); The Psychology of the Great War (1916)
Psychologie des Temps Nouveaux (1920); The World in Revolt (1921)
Le Déséquilibre du Monde (1923); The World Unbalanced (1924)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Le_Bon