CONCLUSION 
261 
between individuals, and, conscious of the fact that with 
the change in emphasis to the functional aspect of social 
life the method of analogy had lost its usefulness, he advo- 
cated an actual first-hand study of the processes of inter- 
action. He did not overindulge in his own medicine, how- 
ever, and his work has many of the shortcomings of the 
organic school, but among much that is obsolete today 
there is much that has a very modern sound. In Germany, 
where he has been not only talked about but actually read, 
he exerted a great deal of influence and definitely prepared 
the way for the psychological point of view. 
This change in viewpoint was largely determined by 
the important development in the field of psychology in 
the second half of the century. Out of the school of Her- 
bart in Germany came the work of Waitz, Lazarus, and 
Steinthal in ethnological psychology, and indirectly the 
work of Bastian. Within this group the concept of the fun- 
damental psychological nature of society found complete 
expression. It took in some cases the form of a conceptual 
realism, and the Zeitgeist, the social mind, the spirit of the 
people, was sometimes thought of as an entity with onto- 
logical existence; but this was a preliminary philosophical 
formulation which was later changed to a formulation in 
terms of functional relationships. The important contribu- 
tion of this group was their rejection of analogy as a meth- 
od of study. They did not free themselves completely from 
its influence, as their realistic conceptions show, but they 
undertook at least an actual investigation of group con- 
duct and of group feeling on the basis of a comparison of 
historical appearances. 
A similar change of emphasis appeared in France, also 
influenced by a renewed interest in psychological study. 
Folk psychology did not find the same amount of accept- 
ance as it did in Germany. The work of Taine, which most