Blondel, Charles

Blondel, Charles 

Born Oct. 10, 1876, in Lyon; died Feb. 19, 1939, in Paris. French psychologist. Professor of psychology at the universities of Strasbourg and Paris.

In his studies, Blondel tried to unite E. Durkheim’s concepts of collective ideas and the social determination of human behavior with H. Bergson’s irrationalist interpretation of the intellect. In his attempt to show the specific character of mental life, Blondel distinguished between the “purely psychological,” or individual, in the structure of the psyche, and its opposite, the other spheres of human spiritual life that express social, suprapersonal influences. Blondel treated the “purely psychological” as either the totality of normal mental relations or, on the other hand, as pathological mental relations (destructive qualities of the personality). According to Blondel, pathological mental relations are the source of mental illness. Blondel’s studies of the social psychology of emotions are well known.

WORKS

La Conscience morbide. Paris, 1914.
La Psychoanalyse. Paris, 1924.
La Mentalité primitive. Paris, 1926.
Introduction à la psychologie collective. Paris, 1928.
Le Suicide. Paris, 1933.

A. P. OGURTSOV