The Background of Mass Psychology in Niccolò Machiavelli’s Thought
Abstract
This article traces certain conceptual elements inherent to the psychoanalytic notion of mass psychology in two of the most important works of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527): The Prince and the Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy. It is possible to find in the works of this Florentine a psychological theory that offers an expression of human desires and affections. The author bases this form of thought on acute empirical observation and knowledge of the past. Machiavelli analyzes the city as a locus of conflicting desires: the desire of the people not to be oppressed versus the unlimited ambition of the nobles. It is possible to find incipient elements typical of mass psychology developed later by Freudian psychoanalysis in Machiavelli's account of conflicting desires, but above all in the relationship between the prince, the nobles and the people, as well as in the characterization of the latter.
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