Table Of ContentLocalising 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
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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).
