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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 of neurosurgery. He was also known
for his studies concerning social psychology, most notably for his
concept of the herd instinct, which he outlined first in two published
papers in 1908, and later in his famous popular work 'Instincts of the
Herd in Peace and War' (1916), 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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Working at University College Hospital in London as professor of
surgery, he had 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 relocation to England. He was consulted about Freud's
terminal cancer, in 1938.  He was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society in May 1931.

Trotter was also the surgeon, at University College London for whom
Wilfred Bion worked as a resident during 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,"

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".


                            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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