CONCLUSION

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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 advocated
 an actual first-hand study of the processes of interaction.
 He did not overindulge in his own medicine, however,
 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organic school, but among much that is obsolete today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 Herbart
 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 fundamental
 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 ontological
 existence; but this was a preliminary philosophical
formulation which was later changed to a formulation in
terms of functional relationships. The important contribution
 of this group was their rejection of analogy as a method
 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 conduct
 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 acceptance
 as it did in Germany. The work of Taine, which most