320 Abnormal Psychology
body was preserved by the thesis that madness results when
pathological functioning of the nervous system deceives the
mind of the patient, interfering with the exercise of his reason
and thus his moral liberty. The exercise of free will and ratio-
nality of the mind is possible only in a healthy body, the body
(specifically the nervous system) being the instrument of the
mind. The sane person possesses rationality and free will; the
insane patient lacks both as a result of a diseased body.
Not all proponents of the hereditary degeneracy theory
were clear about what exactly began the process of degen-
eration. A significant body of opinion held that the problem
lay in the unhealthy nature of city life. The steady movement
of rural dwellers into the large cities had exacerbated the
already intense overcrowding in city slums. Low standards
of nutrition, difficulties in maintaining cleanliness, poor or
nonexistent sanitation, promiscuity, heavy drinking, and
crime were endemic in the warrens of London, New York,
and the large cities of Europe. Many argued that all this weak-
ened the constitution and morals of the previously healthy
countryman, and that this acquired debility was somehow
transmitted by hereditary to offspring, getting more intense
with each succeeding generation.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, promi-
nent French psychiatrists such as Morel and Moreau not only
endorsed the belief that insanity was caused by hereditary
transmission of a predisposition to nervous system pathol-
ogy, but further proposed that this degeneracy, endemic
among the lower classes, was the cause of political unrest in
those strata. An ideal multipurpose theory that could account
for phenomena as diverse as psychopathology and social
unrest, degeneracy theory would form a central plank in the
eugenic and racist platform.
In Germany, Darwinian ideas found a reception so enthu-
siastic that it rapidly transformed into an all-encompassing,
mystical quasi-religious system of belief. The German biolo-
gist, Ernst Haeckel, a leading proponent of this movement,
proposed that forces in nature were moving always to the im-
provement of the species, affecting man in precisely the same
way as any other animal. It was the moral duty of the people
to further nature’s purposes and to take active steps to prevent
the decay of degeneracy. This notion of a moral imperative to
further the alleged purposes of nature would appear in the de-
velopment and spread of eugenic ideas in Europe and North
America, culminating in the murder of thousands of mentally
ill in the gas chambers of Nazi Germany (Düffler, 1996).
Eugenics
The concept of eugenics was first developed in England by a
cousin of Charles Darwin’s, Francis Galton (1822–1911),
who proposed that measures be taken to prevent the spread of
hereditary defect in society. Galton’s ideas included financial
allowances for children born to “superior” parents and dis-
couragement or prohibition of marriage and reproduction
among those of lesser quality (Galton, 1909). In one essay,
Galton proposed that the value of a prospective child might
be calculated in terms of its future economic contribution or
cost to society, and this would determine what amount might
be spent to encourage the potential parents to reproduce. In
the case of severe degenerate defect, sterilization might be
considered. As the presence of a degenerate taint might not be
visible in a particular individual, a history of disorder in one’s
ancestors would be adequate grounds for the application of
eugenic measures.
Galton’s ideas found a particular promoter in Karl
Pearson, a professor of eugenics at the University of London,
who opened a eugenics laboratory and became the driving
force in the eugenics society that Galton founded. Pearson
also presented the eugenics program in a series of publica-
tions (Pearson, 1909, 1910, 1911). These ideas found support
in the United States, where some states legalized sterilization
of mentally retarded people. Goddard’s (1912) then-famous
study of the Kallikak family reinforced the argument for
sterilization.Early Role of HypnosisAfter Mesmer was discredited in 1784, reputable study of
hypnotic phenomena in France languished until the 1870s
and the work of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), a physi-
cian and director of research in neurological disorders at the
Salpêtrière. Harrington (1987) presents a history of neomes-
merism in late nineteenth century French psychiatry, and the
background to Charcot’s involvement with hypnosis.
In 1876, Victor Burq, a physician, sent to Claude Bernard,
then president of the Sociéte de Biologie of Paris, an account
of how he had cured women who suffered from hysterical
hemianesthesia by applying metallic discs to the afflicted side
of their bodies (a procedure known as “metalloscopy”), with a
request that Bernard arrange for his work to be investigated
and validated. Bernard appointed a committee, consisting of
Charcot, Jules Bernard Luys, and Amédee Dumontpallier. A
year later, the committee reported that they had confirmed that
Burq’s claimed metallic effects were genuine, although it was
not clear if these effects were lasting. Furthermore they had
found that the symptoms of hysterical hemianesthesia could
be transferred from one side of the body to the other with ap-
plication of metal disks (and later, magnets). When sensation
was restored to a region on one side of the body, symmetrical
regions on the healthy side lost normal sensibility. It was