S. Milgram’s experiment through the lens of historical psychology

The article presents a look at the results of the classical experiment of S. Milgram from the point of view of the theories of B. Porshnev and D. Jaynes. A review of the provisions of both theories that are relevant to the analysis of the experiment of S. Milgram is given. A comparative analysis was carried out. It is shown that both theories postulate the existence in human history of a period when our ancestors were guided in their behavior not by their own motives, goals and objectives, but by other people’s speech commands — either given by real leaders (B. Porshnev), or their “doubles” — voice-hallucinations (D. Jaynes). If we agree with the authors of these theories, the unquestioning obedience to “authority”, demonstrated by the majority of subjects in the experiment of S. Milgram, is in a certain sense a recurrence of those psychological mechanisms and behaviors that existed in a person in that historical era of total suggestion (according to B. Porshnev) or “bicameral mind” (according to D. Jane).

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