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Localising the Moral Sense Jan Verplaetse Localising the Moral Sense Neuroscience and the Search for the Cerebral Seat of Morality, 1800–1930 123 JanVerplaetse GhentUniversity Universiteitstraat4 9000Ghent Belgium [email protected] ISBN978-1-4020-6321-3 e-ISBN978-1-4020-6322-0 DOI10.1007/978-1-4020-6322-0 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009926834 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2009 Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorby anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recordingorotherwise,withoutwritten permissionfromthePublisher,withtheexceptionofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurpose ofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Acknowledgments Itisapleasuretoacknowledgethemanypeoplewhohaveassistedatallstagesof research, writing, translation and publishing. Peter Koehler, Kenneth Ögren, Jorge Moll, Stephan Schleim, Mark Van Vugt, Malcolm Macmillan, Michael Hagner, GenevièveAubert,DanielCarey,JohanBraeckman,RafDeBont,JennekeChristi- aensandDirkDeRidderwereasourceofencouragementandideas.PeterSillman andSilviaLoeschmadeavailabletheOskarandCécileVogtArchivesinDüsseldorf. Dirk Carius, Richard Benedikt and Kai Sammet passed on useful information on Flechsig,BenediktandBrodmann.TheNationalLibraryofFranceandthelibrary oftheParisFacultyofMedicineprovidedhospitalitybetween1997and2003.Iam gratefultoKatiaBrysandMilaBaldafortheirenormousefforttotranslatethisorigi- nallyDutchpublication.Theirperseverancetotranslateahistoricalbookabounding withtechnicalmedicaltermsisquiteimpressive.IamindebtedtotheBelgianUni- versityFoundationandtheDepartmentofJurisprudenceandLegalHistory(Ghent University)forfinancialsupport.Last,butnotleastIamindebtedtoFritzSchmuhl, MarionWagenaarandJolandaVoogd(SpringerPublishingHouse)formakingthis bookpossible. v Contents 1 TheNewShapesoftheOldConscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Conscientia,Syneidesis,Synderesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 ThePhilosophicalAssaultonConscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 ConscienceasMoralSense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ConscienceasMoralFaculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 MoralSenseandMoralFacultyinFrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 ConscienceasInstinct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 TheInfluenceofDarwinandSpencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 FrenchPositivismandNaturalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 ConscienceDuringthefindesiècle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 TheNewInstinctTheoryinEnglandandAmerica . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 TheEndofPhysicalMetaphors? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 2 ConscientiousnessortheMoralOrganinPhrenology . . . . . . . . 29 Dieuetcerveau,rienqueDieuetcerveau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 PhrenologicalSocieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 TheCriminalAntihero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 TheMoralOrgan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 FélixVoisin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 PhrenologyasOccultism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 TheGermanAlternative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 3 TheExperimentalNeurologyoftheMoralCentre . . . . . . . . . . 55 TheNewLocalisationDoctrinefromthe1860sOnwards . . . . . . . . 55 APhysiologicalExplanationofWillPower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 TheFlourishingoftheExperimentalTraditioninGermany . . . . . . . 61 EduardHitzig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 DavidFerrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 FriedrichGoltz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 LeonardoBianchi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 TheDissectionofMorality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Broca’sThermometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Lombroso’sLetter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Mosso’sLongingtoPenetratetheInnerLifeofNerveCells . . . . . . . 75 TheGalvanicDreamofFleischlvonMarxov. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 vii viii Contents 4 TheClinicalNeurologyoftheMoralCentre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 AcquiredMoralInsanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Traumas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Tumours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 PaulSchuster’sMagisterialReview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Welt’sDaringLocalisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 AbuseofHealthyProgress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 TheHypothesisofaCorticalCentreoftheMoralSense . . . . . . . . . 96 WilliamBrowning’sLocalisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 PenetratingTraumasoftheFrontalLobes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 MorallyInsaneGreatWarVeterans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 GermanExceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 KarlKleistandtheLocalisationoftheGemeinschafts-Ich . . . . . . . . 109 Grey, My Friend, Is All Theory, but Green Is the Golden TreeofLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 5 TheMicroscopyandEndocrinologyoftheMoralCentre . . . . . . 117 ATime-ConsumingChore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 TheodorMeynert’sModel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 CriminalBrainsinSlices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Campbell’sLectureintheShadowofLanternSlides . . . . . . . . . . . 122 PaulFlechsig’sRectorialAddress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 TotheSomaestheticRegionandBack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 AnEthicalAristocracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 TheRevenantsofArthurVanGehuchten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Hormones,AutocoidsandHomeostasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 ConstantinVonMonakow’sSyneidesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Cain’sEndocrinologicalMark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 6 TheLocalisationofMoralityinCriminalAnthropology . . . . . . . 145 ApelikeThumbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 TheRiseofCriminalAnthropology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 TheFrenchandGermanResponsestoLombroso’sBornCriminal . . . 148 TheRemorselessCriminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 TheLocationoftheAbsentMoralSense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 NeanderthalVersusCro-Magnon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 MoritzBenedikt’sThreeLectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 TheMoreManPossessesaMoralOrgan,theMoreApelike HisBrainBecomes(Meynert) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Seelenkunde(1895)orBenedikt’sSecondLocalisationofMorality . . . 165 BenediktasFreethinker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 TheCriminal’sBrainTissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 LuigiRoncoroni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 LaminaGranularisInterna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 EncountersinAlexandersbad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 LaminaPyramidalis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 MoralAssociationChains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Contents ix 7 MoralInsanityasaDisorderoftheMoralSense . . . . . . . . . . . 191 BenjaminRush:AnomiaandMicronomia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 PinelandEsquirol:ManiaandMonomania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 JamesCowlesPrichard:MoralInsanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 InhibitoryInsanityinEngland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 TowardsanEthicalInterpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 TheEthicalInterpretationofMoralInsanityinGermany . . . . . . . . 200 The“psychopathischePersönlichkeit”andthe“perversinstinctif” . . . 203 APsychologicalMisnomer(CyrilBurt) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 TheInfluenceoftheLocalisationDoctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 ThereisOnlyEmptySpace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 NoRadicalLocalisationsofMoralInsanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 8 Encephalitis Lethargica: A Brain Disease oftheMoralSense? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 The1915–1927EpidemicEncephalitisPandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 PersonalityDisorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 PostencephaliticMoralInsanity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 TheCorticalLocalisationoftheMontpellierSchool . . . . . . . . . . . 233 KarlBonhoeffer’sKonkordanz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 PostencephaliticMoralInsanityUndertheMicroscope . . . . . . . . . 238 JeanCamus’CentresRégulateurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 9 Conclusion—LocalisingtheMoralSense:BelieversandDisbelievers 243 AnExceptionalPhenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 TheFrustrationoftheNeuropsychiatrist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 TheFrustrationoftheForensicPsychiatrist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 TheVoiceintheBlood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 NameIndex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 SubjectIndex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Introduction ScienceFiction In the 1950s Miss Castilly, a French medical student, successfully defended her doctoral thesis, entitled Sur l’influence de certains bacilles des circonvolutions cérébrales sur les caractères et tendances bonnes ou maivaises de l’être humain (On the impact of certain bacilli inthe cerebral convolutions on the moral charac- teristicsanddispositionsofman),attheParisFacultyofMedicine.Hersurprising findings won her the concours, an exam medical students had to pass in order to workinastatehospital.Sheheldtheprospectofabrilliantmedicalcareer.Atthe same time Castilly’s findings stirred the academic community. For the first time a neuroscientisthadsucceeded inisolatingbrainsubstancesthataffectedthehuman characterandmorality.Allofasuddenthefutureofpost-warEuropeappearedabit brighter.Ifthese“moralbacilli”couldbereproducedartificially,theethicalquality of mankind might be improved substantially. To criminologists Castilly’s experi- mentsopenedupunprecedentedperspectives.Adefinitivesolutiontothehandling of criminaland antisocialbehaviour was nolonger animprobable prospect;inthe near future, physicians might be able to convert criminals and psychopaths into modelcitizens. Castilly’s “moral bacilli” never made history, though. What is more, she never wrote a doctoral thesis. Actually, Miss Castilly and her provocative research was a figment of the imagination of the popular French science fiction novelist Albert Robida in his Voyage de fiançailles au XXe siècle (The betrotheds’ journey in the twentieth century, 1892).1 In this novel Robida forecasted that Castilly’s “moral bacilli” would be considered the most spectacular technological innovation of the year 1954, along with the téléphonoscope and the aéroflénette. Robida was cer- tainlyrightaboutthelatterinventions.Televisionandairplanesbecamereality,but uptothepresentnoonehaseverdetectedbrainsubstancesthatpositivelyinfluence the moral sensibility of humans, let alone invent brain enhancement techniques to transform criminals into honest people. Robida’s prophecy was set in a different period,afindesiècleinwhichmedicalviewsoncrimeandimmoralityhadreached 1Robida(1892,62). xi xii Introduction theirclimax.2 Morethan50yearslatertheintellectualclimateinacademiccircles was to change completely. After World War II the germs of crime and immorality were no longer located in the human body, the brain or the genes, but in the psy- cheofthecriminalandthepsychopath.Crimeandimmoralbehaviourweremainly understood as antisocial reactions resulting from an unfavourable environment or education.Criminalconductwasarrangedinthecriminal’smindandnolongerin thebody.Consequently,itwasnolongerthemedicalexpert,butthehumanorsocial scientistthatbecameentitledtoinquireintotheoriginsofdeviantbehaviouroranti- socialpersonality.Howeverdisappointingthequestmightseemandhowevernaïve, fanciful or pseudoscientific Robida’s ideas about “moral bacilli” might appear to the modern reader, this book will demonstrate that the quest for the location of moralityinthebrainwasnotonlyconfined tosciencefictionliterature.Anumber ofdedicatednineteenth-andtwentieth-centurymedicalscientistsalsoattemptedto locatethemoralsenseinthehumanbody.Therefore,wedonothavetoacceptthe possibility only because ofthe fantasies of science fiction novelists. The extensive literature on the subject, widespread in medical circles from the first decades of the nineteenth century onwards, proves to be a more reliable witness. The numer- ous journals, mostly on neurology, psychiatry and criminal anthropology, edited bynationalandinternationalmedicalsocietiesshowusaglimpseofthisscientific journey. Despite all efforts, the whole enterprise ended in failure. No neurologist actu- allydiscoveredtheneuralcorrelatesofmorality,regardlessoftheflowofpremature speculations put forward by the most optimistic researchers. Moreover, the enthu- siasm was far from universal. Many experts who dealt with this topic continued tobelievethatthisenterprisewasboundtobedoomedfromtheoutset.Despitethe widespreadevolutionaryviewsontheoriginofmoralityandcrimeandthesuccesses ofthelocalisationdoctrineinneuroscience,scepticalbrainresearcherslabelledthis projectasridiculous,grotesqueandawasteoftime.Theseharshrepliesdemonstrate thatthesuggestedlocalisationsofmoralitywerecontroversial,nottosaytaboo.The German physiologist and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt even retorted that to him, 2Robidawasnoexception.Othernineteenth-centurynovelistsexpectedthatmedicalsciencemight discover the neurophysiological origin of good and evil as well. In his Les diaboliques (1874) JulesBarbeyD’AurevillyrelatedastoryaboutacertainDoctorTortywhoonceaskedhis“old buddy”DoctorBroussaistoteachhimmoreaboutthepreciselocationofthemoralconscience. AlthoughBroussaiswasadedicatedphrenologist,headmittedthathecouldnotlocalisethisorgan inthebrain.“Iadmit”,thedisillusioneddoctormadecleartohisfriendTorty,“thatafterthirty yearsofdissections,Ihavenotbeenabletofindeventheslightesttraceofthatsmallanimal.”2 (BarbeyD’Aurevilly,1882,217).EventherenownedSpanishneurologistandNobelprizewinner SantiagoRamonyCajal,whowrotefictionstoriesaswell,dedicatedoneofhistalestothisfantasy (Thefabricatorofhonor).Abrilliantandcharismaticphysiciandiscoversamoralvaccineoranti- passionserum:heinjectsitintoeveryinhabitantofaSpanishtown.Theresultisacitywithout viceorcrime,butsodullthateventhecityrulersurgethedoctortofindanantidote.Inactual fact the moral vaccine was fake, as was the antidote. Interestingly, the physician’s remarkable moraltreatmentwasbasedonhypnosisandsuggestion,notonturn-of-the-centuryneurological conjecturesabouttheseatofmoralityinthebrain(seeRamonyCajal,2001,38–68).

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