Leonard Woolf's 'Communal Physcology'

Leonard Woolf thought that is era was characterised by the emergence of a new ‘communal psychology’. Outline what he meant by this, and assess whether the concept is consistent with the speeches of Jean Jaurès (1907-14) and the Stuttgart declaration of the Socialist [second] International (1907). Were Jaurès and the International utterly unrealistic?

Leonard Woolf believed that his era, the time of the First World War, was characterised by the emergence of what he called a new ‘communal psychology’ . Woolf’s theory on the rise of socialism as a relatively new way of thinking is evident in the speeches made by Jean Jaurès, a French patriot, and the Stuttgart declaration of the Socialist [second] International. Jaurès and the International show Woolf’s idea of ‘The Dead Mind’, which is one of the reasons why they were unrealistic in attempting peace in Europe .

Woolf believed that his hypothesis on communal psychology was somewhat alarming as “…noth...