What are the fundamental mechanisms that drive the formation of crowds and the consolidation of political power? Elias Canetti, a Nobel Prize-winning author, investigates the psychological and social dynamics that transform individuals into a collective mass. By synthesizing historical observations, anthropological data, and psychological theory, he constructs a framework that explains how the fear of being touched or overwhelmed by others leads to the creation of power structures and the eventual dissolution of the individual within the crowd.

Experts recognize this work as a foundational, albeit dense, interdisciplinary study of social behavior. Readers frequently note the challenging, aphoristic nature of the prose, which demands careful engagement with its complex theoretical arguments.