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582 UN DEBAT : LES MENTAUTfiS COLLECTIYES 10

between 1918 and 1922). The social and morał bourgeois values, apparently deeply i^ote^in ą wojld with.>^ąs),ing, jorgaphatipn*P£ it seeiped to be before 1014, began to disSolve, a procesS still under Wuy tbuay. The iliusory character of some appaiently; Pbsulute* perhiahedtl values, has been proved, giving thus birth to extensive political, ideological and ethical debates with implications on the historical research as well, a researeh morę and morę aware of the relative, evolutive character of mind-sets and ideologies. Jt wpę mpinly the epocbp of crisis, of “breach” pnd ^ejr analogy to our century, that aroused tfye Jłistęrian^’ ^iteiestr For instpncą, tfye trpnsitipp froip the Middle Agep to the ipodern era, in a classicpl work spchas Johąn Huizinga’p on, the “decline of the rWjddle Ages” (puftlished in 1919, one of the firpt ątudies ip pnie łpstory o,f ipind-sets) pję in the yemyrkablę books pf hucien Febvre, concerping' the Benaisąąnęe meptalitie* (Un ęlestin; Martin Luthęr_r ; Lq próbleme dę Vyicroyance au JQ[l^e Hfdąr la religion de Rubeląis, ip4? i Autpur dp VSeptąmśron, 191-1),

Another imporfant element ipthpoutlipe of a nep’independent field fp* fhe study of mentajities was the tendepcy of tyanscending fhe Europo-ceptrisip and, geuerally speaking, the history alpiost e\e)usivq(y focused op fhe pivilization of thę western, World. In such ąn enlarged peivspective_r the necessjty for a compared history¹ aą well ps tjhe pelatiyity of spiritual yalues has been evęn ipore plearly evipced. At the same timp, as a resulfc of the progress of ethnology, knowledge of fhe primitive societies has much enlarged the field of research in collective psychology- The influencę of ethnology and sociology on the history of mentalities was decipivę. A book such as James Fram-’s llie fioldcn Bough (1911—1915), a compa-rative study on the beliefs and rites of ancient peoples and of primitive contempprary societies. or Lucien Levy-Bruhl’s La vientalit'ó primitire (1922) have drhwn the attention of historians concerned with mental problemS. A certain influence of the two above Works isfelt, for ipstance, in IMarc Bloch’sbook, Fois thaumaturges (1924), one of the Piost beautifpl woi ks in this field of research ihthe ipterwar period. An ĆKcluSively bor der-linę domain, the history of mentalities kad permanently collaboiated “with other fields, without the contribution of which it could not have actually esisted as' P truły scientific study, Together with advances in sociology and ethnology, the remarkable achievements in individual Pnd collective psychology ovei the same period of time must also be mentioned. The impact óf Freud’s Work, he himself concerned with the application of psychanalytichl methods to the study of history, Was begin-ning to be felt apd it increased even morę after the jSecond World War.

But. althotigh haring already become an independent field, the history of mentalities cannot and should not be absolutely isolated from the other branches of history. Along this linę, we should merition Iorga’s words that are true for this domain as well as for any* other bianch of history r “There is oiily one Way of evolution and all the expressions of life are connected with it.’? First, one cannot make a clear-ćut distinction belween the cónfecious and the less cónscious actiortS of man, therefore, between the domaiii of ideas or ideológy and that of ńienfalities prpper. At the same time, any spiritual expressiohs cari only be pnderstood in th^ wider and morę Cómpler Socio-economic and ideologie cbnteit. The ultimate aim of an independent research of mentalities continues to be