First, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the Miltown Lacanian Association, especially to Helen Sheehan and Malachi MacCoy, who always give me such great help with my organization, as well as to all the members of the MLA for inviting me to today’s study day. This event is part of the MLA’s ongoing work this year on Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego and I am deeply honoured to be included in this work through your invitation. I’ll begin by saying a few words about the historical background of Freud’s text, and then I’ll turn to three main points. The first concerns a question that Freud left open — the psychology of leaderless crowds. The second point will focus on the distinctly clinical dimension of the text. And finally, I’ll consider the current tendency to valorise the position of the victim and, at the same time — somewhat paradoxically — the growing fashion for what Lacan might call “authoritarian psychotherapies.”
