Editing Harold Lasswell (section)

=== Political psychology ===
Lasswell's work was also important in the post-World War II development of [[behavioralism]]. Lasswell is credited with being the founder of the field of political psychology, the intersection of psychology and political science, in the 1930s and 1940s.<ref name="Ascher-2004">{{Cite journal |last1=Ascher |first1=William |last2=Hirschfelder-Ascher |first2=Barbara |date=2004 |title=Linking Lasswell's Political Psychology and the Policy Sciences |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4532613 |journal=Policy Sciences |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=23–36 |doi=10.1023/B:OLIC.0000035460.18318.b0 |jstor=4532613 |s2cid=144459330 |issn=0032-2687}}</ref>

His works on political psychology include ''Psychopathology and Politics'', ''World Politics and Personal Insecurity'', and ''Power and Personality''.<ref name="Encyclopedia Britannica-2023" />

His psychoanalytic study of political leaders introduced Freudian psychoanalytic theory to the social sciences and focused on power dynamics.<ref name="Encyclopedia Britannica-2023" /> Lasswell was particularly influenced by Freud's ideas of the aimlessness of instinctual drives and the malleability of human perspectives.<ref name="Marvick-1980" /> In ''Politics: Who Gets What, When, How'', he viewed the elite as the primary holders of power.<ref name="Encyclopedia Britannica-2023" />

While studying in Vienna and Berlin with [[Theodor Reik]], a devotee of Freud, Lasswell was able to appropriate Freud's methods. Lasswell built a laboratory in his social science office at the University of Chicago to conduct experiments on volunteers and students. Lasswell also used psychoanalytical interviewing and recording methods that he appropriated from his time of studying with [[Elton Mayo]] at [[Harvard University]].<ref name="Everett-1994" />