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=                          Wilfred_Trotter                           =
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                            Introduction
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Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter, FRS (3 November 1872 - 25 November 1939)
was an English surgeon, a pioneer in neurosurgery. He was also known
for his studies on social psychology, most notably for his concept of
the herd instinct, which he first outlined in two published papers in
1908, and later in his famous popular work 'Instincts of the Herd in
Peace and War', an early classic of crowd psychology. Trotter argued
that gregariousness was an instinct, and studied beehives, flocks of
sheep and wolf packs.


                                Life
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Born in Coleford, Gloucestershire in 1872, Trotter moved to London to
attend college at age 16. An excellent medical student, he decided to
specialise in surgery and was appointed Surgical Registrar at
University College Hospital in 1901 and Assistant Surgeon in 1906. He
opened his own practice after obtaining his medical degree. He was
also a keen writer, with an interest in science and philosophy. In
1908, he published two papers on the subject of herd mentality, which
were precursors to his later, more famous, work.

Working at University College Hospital in London as professor of
surgery, he held the office of Honorary Surgeon to King George V from
1928 to 1932. He was also a member of the Council of the Royal Society
that conferred their Honorary Membership on Professor Freud, whom he
had met earlier at psychoanalytic gatherings, and whom he attended
after his move to England. He was consulted about Freud's terminal
cancer, in 1938.  He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May
1931 and elected President of the Association of Surgeons in 1932. In
the last years of his life, he became professor and director of the
surgical unit at UCH and turned to writing on a larger scale. In 1938
he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

He died in Blackmoor, Hampshire in 1939. 'The Collected Papers of
Wilfred Trotter', an anthology of his final essays, was published by
Oxford University Press two years after his death.

Trotter was also the surgeon, at University College London for whom
Wilfred Bion worked as a resident in his own medical training, before
he famously studied groups and trained as a psychoanalyst at the
Tavistock Clinic. In her account of Bion's life "The Days of our
Years," his wife, Francesca, writes of the great influence Trotter had
on the direction of Bion's work on group relations.

Edward Bernays, author of 'Propaganda' and nephew of Freud, also
refers to Trotter and Gustave Le Bon in his writings.

Trotter met Sigmund Freud several times. According to Ernest Jones
(Freud's first biographer), "he was one of the first two or three in
England to appreciate the significance of Freud's work, which I came
to know through him. He was one of the rapidly diminishing group who
attended the first International Congress at Salzburg in 1908".


                            Major works
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Trotter's popular book, 'The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War'
is an analysis of group psychology and the ability of large numbers of
people to be swayed through an innate tendency. In it he popularised
in English the concept, first developed by French sociologist, Gustave
Le Bon, of an instinct over-riding the will of the individual in
favour of the group.

Trotter's writings about herd mentality, which began as early as 1905
and were published as a paper in two parts in 1908 and 1909 are
considered by some to represent a breakthrough in the understanding of
group behaviour, long before its study became important in a variety
of fields, from workplace relations to marketing.


                            Bibliography
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*Trotter, W. (1908). "Herd instinct and its bearing on the psychology
of civilized man - part 1." 'Sociological Review', July.
*Trotter, W. (1909). "Herd instinct and its bearing on the psychology
of civilized man - part 2." 'Sociological Review', January.
*Trotter, W. (1919). 'Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War' - 4th
impression, with postscript. New York, MacMillan.
*Cooke, D. (1987). "Book review - WILFRED TROTTER, Instincts of the
herd in peace and war 1916-1919, London, Keynes Press, 1985." 'Medical
History' 31(1): 113-4.
*Holdstock, D. (1985). Introduction. in: 'Instincts of the herd in
peace and war 1916-1919.' W. Trotter. London, Keynes Press: pp xxviii.
*


                           External links
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*[http://www.division39.org/pub_reviews_detail.php?book_id=221 Review
of 'The Building of Bion'.]
*


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