Note 716 — Chapter VII · ORIGINS OF THESE BELIEFS—end Origin of the Idea of the Totemic Principle or Mana

Thus we see how erroneous those theories are which, like the geographical materialism of Ratzel (see especially his Politische Geographie), seek to derive all social life from its material foundation (either economic or territorial). They commit an error precisely similar to the one committed by Maudsley in individual psychology. Just as this latter reduced all the psychical life of the individual to a mere epiphenomenon of his physiological basis, they seek to reduce the whole psychical life of the group to its physical basis. But they forget that ideas are realities and forces, and that collective representations are forces even more powerful and active than individual representations. On this point, see our Représentations individuelles et représentations collectives, in the Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, May, 1898.