Gustave Le Bon’s Psychology of Crowds is one of the key texts for understanding how the social sciences have shaped the concepts of ‘public opinion’ and ‘political communication’. In particular, signs and their meaning play the same role in current theories as in the old psychology of crowds. According to Le Bon, in fact, signs are tools that the leader chooses to manipulate the masses, while their meaning is reducible to the mental images they evoke in the mind of the crowd. Political communication and its signs are thus degraded to mere instruments of power. The aim of the article is to show, through the analysis of Le Bon’s texts, how this semantic theory has been an obstacle to the integration and dialogue between semiotics and social sciences. The historical-critical analysis of this theory of meaning is a starting point for a more adequate understanding of political communication.

Alle origini dell’"opinione pubblica": Le Bon e il ruolo dei segni nel governo delle folle / Ferretti, Andrea. - (2022), pp. 241-256.

Alle origini dell’"opinione pubblica": Le Bon e il ruolo dei segni nel governo delle folle

Andrea Ferretti
Primo
2022

Abstract

Gustave Le Bon’s Psychology of Crowds is one of the key texts for understanding how the social sciences have shaped the concepts of ‘public opinion’ and ‘political communication’. In particular, signs and their meaning play the same role in current theories as in the old psychology of crowds. According to Le Bon, in fact, signs are tools that the leader chooses to manipulate the masses, while their meaning is reducible to the mental images they evoke in the mind of the crowd. Political communication and its signs are thus degraded to mere instruments of power. The aim of the article is to show, through the analysis of Le Bon’s texts, how this semantic theory has been an obstacle to the integration and dialogue between semiotics and social sciences. The historical-critical analysis of this theory of meaning is a starting point for a more adequate understanding of political communication.
2022
Quaderni del Dottorato in Scienze documentarie, linguistiche e letterarie. 1. Prismi
978-88-5526-770-0
Le Bon; psychology of crowds; public opinion; semantic theories; social sciences
02 Pubblicazione su volume::02a Capitolo o Articolo
Alle origini dell’"opinione pubblica": Le Bon e il ruolo dei segni nel governo delle folle / Ferretti, Andrea. - (2022), pp. 241-256.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1669237
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