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THE FOUNDATIONS OF PERSONALITY

BY
ABRAHAM MYERSON, M.D.




CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I. THE ORGANIC BASIS OF CHARACTER

II. THE ENVIRONMENTAL BASIS OF CHARACTER

III. MEMORY AND HABIT

IV. STIMULATION, INHIBITION, ORGANIZING ENERGY, CHOICE
AND CONSCIOUSNESS

V. HYSTERIA, SUBCONSCIOUSNESS AND FREUDIANISM

VI. EMOTION, INSTINCT, INTELLIGENCE AND WILL

VII. EXCITEMENT, MONOTONY AND INTEREST

VIII. THE SENTIMENTS OF LOVE, FRIENDSHIP, HATE, PITY
AND DUTY, COMPENSATION AND ESCAPE

IX. ENERGY RELEASE AND THE EMOTIONS

X. COURAGE, RESIGNATION, SUBLIMATION, PATIENCE, THE
WISH AND ANHEDONIA

XI. THE EVOLUTION OF CHARACTER WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE
TO THE GROWTH OF PURPOSE AND PERSONALITY

XII. THE METHODS OF PURPOSE-WORK CHARACTERS

XIII. THE QUALITIES OF THE LEADER AND THE FOLLOWER

XIV. SEX CHARACTERS AND DOMESTICITY

XV. PLAY, RECREATION, HUMOR AND PLEASURE SEEKING

XVI. RELIGIOUS CHARACTERS. DISHARMONY IN CHARACTER

XVII. SOME CHARACTER TYPES





THE FOUNDATIONS OF PERSONALITY

INTRODUCTION

Man's interest in character is founded on an intensely practical
need. In whatsoever relationship we deal with our fellows, we
base our intercourse largely on our understanding of their
characters. The trader asks concerning his customer, "Is he
honest?" and the teacher asks about the pupil, "Is he earnest?"
The friend bases his friendship on his good opinion of his
friend; the foe seeks to know the weak points in the hated one's
make-up; and the maiden yearning for her lover whispers to,
herself, "Is he true?" Upon our success in reading the character
of others, upon our understanding of ourselves hangs a good deal
of our life's success or failure.

Because the feelings are in part mirrored on the face and body,
the experience of mankind has become crystallized in beliefs,
opinions and systems of character reading which are based on
physiognomy, shape of head, lines of hand, gait and even the
method of dress and the handwriting. Some of these all men
believe in, at least in part. For example, every one judges
character to a certain extent by facial expression, manner,
carriage and dress. A few of the methods used have become
organized into specialties, such as the study of the head or
phrenology, and the study of the hand or palmistry. All of these
systems are really "materialistic" in that they postulate so
close a union of mind and body as to make them inseparable.

But there are grave difficulties in the way of character-judging
by these methods. Take, for example, the study of the physiognomy
as a means to character understanding. All the physiognomists, as
well as the average man, look upon the high, wide brow as related
to great intelligence. And so it is--sometimes. But it is also
found in connection with disease of the brain, as in
hydrocephalus, and in old cases of rickets. You may step into
hospitals for the feeble-minded or for the insane and find here
and there a high, noble brow. Conversely you may attend a
scientific convention and find that the finest paper of the
meeting will be read not by some Olympian-browed member, but by a
man with a low, receding forehead, who nevertheless possesses a
high-grade intellect.

So for centuries men have recognized in the large aquiline nose a
sign of power and ability. Napoleon's famous dictum that no man
with this type of proboscis is a fool has been accepted by many,
most of whom, like Napoleon probably, have large aquiline noses.
The number of failures with this facial peculiarity has never
been studied, nor has any one remarked that many a highly
successful man has a snub nose. And in fact the only kind of a
nose that has a real character value is the one presenting no
obstruction to breathing. The assigned value given to a "pretty"
nose has no relation to character, except as its owner is vain
because of it.

One might go on indefinitely discussing the various features of
the face and discovering that only a vague relationship to
character existed. The thick, moist lower lip is the sensual lip,
say the physiognomists, but there are saints with sensual lips
and chaste thoughts. Squinty eyes may indicate a shifty
character, but more often they indicate conjunctivitis or some
defect of the optical apparatus. A square jaw indicates
determination and courage, but a study of the faces of men who
won medals in war for heroism does not reveal a preponderance of
square jaws. In fact, man is a mosaic of characters, and a fine
nature in one direction may be injured by a defect in another;
even if one part of the face really did mean something definite,
no one could figure out its character value because of the
influence of other features--contradictory, inconsistent,
supplementary. Just as the wisest man of his day took bribes as
Lord Chancellor, so the finest face may be invalidated by some
disharmony, and a fatal weakness may disintegrate a splendid
character. Moreover, no one really studies faces disinterestedly,
impartially, without prejudice. We like or dislike too readily,
we are blinded by the race, sex and age of the one studied, and,
most fatal of all, we judge by standards of beauty that are
totally misleading. The sweetest face may hide the most arrant
egoist, for facial beauty has very little to do with the nature
behind the face. In fact, facial make-up is more influenced by
diet, disease and racial tendency than by character.

It would be idle to take up in any detail the claims of
phrenologist and palmist. The former had a very respectable start
in the work of Broca and Gall[1] in that the localization of
function in the various parts of the brain made at least partly
logical the belief that the conformation of the head also
indicated functions of character. But there are two fatal flaws
in the system of phrenological claims. First, even if there were
an exact cerebral localization of powers, which there is not, it
would by no means follow that the shape of the head outlined the
brain. In fact, it does not, for the long-headed are not
long-brained, nor are the short-headed short-brained. Second, the
size and disposal of the sinuses, the state of nutrition in
childhood have far more to do with the "bumps" of the head than
brain or character. The bump of philoprogenitiveness has in my
experience more often been the result of rickets than a sign of
parental love.

[1] It is to be remembered that phrenology had a good standing at
one time, though it has since lapsed into quackdom. This is the
history of many a "short cut" into knowledge. Thus the wisest men
of past centuries believed in astrology. Paracelsus, who gave to
the world the use of Hg in therapeutics, relied in large part for
his diagnosis and cures upon alchemy and astrology.


Without meaning to pun, we may dismiss the claims of palmistry
offhand. Normally the lines of the hand do not change from birth
to death, but character does change. The hand, its shape and its
texture are markedly influenced by illness,[1] toil and care. And
gait, carriage, clothes and the dozen and one details by which we
judge our fellows indicate health, strength, training and
culture, all of which are components of character, or rather are
characters of importance but give no clue to the deeper-lying
traits.

[1] Notably is the shape of the hand changed by chronic heart and
lung disease and by arthritis. But the influence of the
endocrinal secretions is very great.


As a matter of fact, judgment of character will never be attained
through the study of face, form or hand. As language is a means
not only of expressing truth but of disguising it, so these
surface phenomena are as often masks as guides. Any sober-minded
student of life, intent on knowing himself or his fellows, will
seek no royal road to this knowledge, but will endeavor to
understand the fundamental forces of character, will strive to
trace the threads of conduct back to their origins in motive,
intelligence, instinct and emotion.

We have emphasized the practical value of some sort of character
analysis in dealing with others. But to know himself has a hugely
practical value to every man, since upon that knowledge depends
self-correction. For "man is the only animal that deliberately
undertakes while reshaping his outer world to reshape himself
also."[1] Moreover, man is the only seeker of perfection; he is a
deep, intense critic of himself. To reach nobility of character
is not a practical aim, but is held to be an end sufficient in
itself. So man constantly probes into himself--"Are my purposes
good; is my will strong--how can I strengthen my control, how
make righteous my instincts and emotions?" It is true that there
is a worship--and always has been--of efficiency and success as
against character; that man has tended to ask more often, "What
has he done?" or, "What has he got?" rather than, "What is he?"
and that therefore man in his self-analysis has often asked, "How
shall I get?" or, "How shall I do?" In the largest sense these
questions are also questions of character, for even if we discard
as inadequate the psychology which considers behavior alone as
important, conduct is the fruit of character, without which it is
sterile.

[1] Hocking.


This book does not aim at any short cuts by which man may know
himself or his neighbor. It seeks to analyze the fundamentals of
personality, avoiding metaphysics as the plague. It does not
define character or seek to separate it from mind and
personality. Written by a neurologist, a physician in the active
practice of his profession, it cannot fail to bear more of the
imprint of medicine, of neurology, than of psychology and
philosophy. Yet it has also laid under contribution these fields
of human effort. Mainly it will, I hope, bear the marks of
everyday experience, of contact with the world and with men and
women and children as brother, husband, father, son, lover,
hater, citizen, doer and observer. For it is this plurality of
contact that vitalizes, and he who has not drawn his universals
of character out of the particulars of everyday life is a
cloistered theorist, aloof from reality.



CHAPTER I. THE ORGANIC BASIS OF CHARACTER

The history of Man's thought is the real history of mankind. Back
of all the events of history are the curious systems of beliefs
for which men have lived and died. Struggling to understand
himself, Man has built up and discarded superstitions, theologies
and sciences.

Early in this strange and fascinating history he divided himself
into two parts--a body and a mind. Working together with body,
mind somehow was of different stuff and origin than body and had
only a mysterious connection with it. Theology supported this
belief; metaphysics and philosophy debated it with an acumen that
was practically sterile of usefulness. Mind and body "interacted"
in some mysterious way; mind and body were "parallel" and so set
that thought-processes and brain-processes ran side by side
without really having anything to do with one another.[1] With
the development of modern anatomy, physiology and psychology, the
time is ripe for men boldly to say that applying the principle of
causation in a practical manner leaves no doubt that mind and
character are organic, are functions of the organism and do not
exist independently of it. I emphasize "practical" in relation to
causation because it would be idle for us here to enter into the
philosophy of cause and effect. Such discussion is not taken
seriously by the very philosophers who most earnestly enter into
it.

[1] William James in Volume 1 of his "Psychology" gives an
interesting resume of the theories that consider the relationship
of mind (thought and consciousness) to body. He quotes the
"lucky" paragraph from Tyndall, "The passage from the physics of
the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is
unthinkable. Granted that a definite thought and a definite
molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously; we do not
possess the intellectual organ, or apparently any trace of the
organ which would enable us to pass by a process of reasoning
from one to the other." This is the "parallel" theory which
postulates a hideous waste of energy in the universe and which
throws out of count the same kind of reasoning by which Tyndall
worked on light, heat, etc. We cannot understand the beginning
and the end of motion, we cannot understand causation. Probably
when Tyndall's thoughts came slowly and he was fatigued he
said--"Well, a good cup of coffee will make me think faster." In
conceding this practical connection between mind and body, every
"spiritualist" philosopher gives away his case whenever he rests
or eats.


The statement that mind is a function of the organism is not
necessarily "materialistic." The body is a living thing and as
such is as "spiritualistic" as life itself. Enzymes, internal
secretions, nervous activities are the products of cells whose
powers are indeed drawn from the ocean of life.

To prove this statement, which is a cardinal thesis of this book,
I shall adduce facts of scientific and facts of common knowledge.
One might start with the statement that the death of the body
brings about the abolition of mind and character, but this, of
course, proves nothing, since it might well be that the body was
a lever for the expression of mind and character, and with its
disappearance as a functioning agent such expression was no
longer possible.

It is convenient to divide our exposition into two parts, the
first the dependence upon proper brain function and structure,
and the second the dependence upon the proper health of other
organs. For it is not true that mind and character are functions
of the brain alone; they are functions of the entire organism.
The brain is simply the largest and most active of the organs
upon which the mental life depends; but there are minute organs,
as we shall see, upon whose activity the brain absolutely
depends.

Any injury to the brain may destroy or seriously impair the
mentality of the individual. This is too well known to need
detailed exposition. Yet some cases of this type are fundamental
in the exquisite way they prove (if anything can be proven) the
dependence of mind upon bodily structure.

In some cases of fracture of the skull, a piece of bone pressing
upon the brain may profoundly alter memory, mood and character.
Removal of the piece of bone restores the mind to normality. This
is also true of brain tumor of certain types, for example,
frontal endotheliomata, where early removal of the growth
demonstrates first that a "physical" agent changes mind and
character, and second that a "physical" agent, such as the knife
of the surgeon, may act to reestablish mentality.

In cases of hydrocephalus (or water on the brain), where there is
an abnormal secretion of cerebro-spinal fluid acting to increase
the pressure on the brain, the simple expedient of withdrawing
the fluid by lumbar puncture brings about normal mental life. As
the fluid again collects, the mental life becomes cloudy, and the
character alters (irritability, depressed mood, changed purpose,
lowered will); another lumbar puncture and presto!--the
individual is for a time made over more completely than
conversion changes a sinner,--and more easily.

Take the case of the disease known as General Paresis, officially
called Dementia Paralytica. This disease is caused by syphilis
and is one of its late results. The pathological changes are
widespread throughout the brain but may at the onset be confined
mostly to the frontal lobes. The very first change may be--and
usually is--a change in character! The man hitherto kind and
gentle becomes irritable, perhaps even brutal. One whose sex
morals have been of the most conventional kind, a loyal husband,
suddenly becomes a profligate, reckless and debauched, perhaps
even perverted. The man of firm purposes and indefatigable
industry may lose his grip upon the ambitions and strivings of
his lifetime and become an inert slacker, to the amazement of his
associates. Many a fine character, many a splendid mind, has
reached a lofty height and then crumbled before the assaults of
this disease upon the brain. Philosopher, poet, artist,
statesman, captain of industry, handicraftsman, peasant,
courtesan and housewife,--all are lowered to the same level of
dementia and destroyed character by the consequences of the
thickened meninges, the altered blood vessels and the injured
nerve cells.

Now and then one is fortunate enough to treat with success an
early case of General Paresis. And then the reversed miracle
takes place, unfortunately too rarely! The disordered mind, the
altered character, leaps upward to its old place,--after being
dosed by the marvelous drug Salvarsan, created by the German
Jewish scientist, Paul Ehrlich.

Of extraordinary interest are the rare cases of loss of personal
identity seen after brain injury, say in war. A man is knocked
unconscious by a blow and upon restoration of consciousness is
separated from that past in which his ego resides. He does not
know his history or his name, and that continuity of the "self"
so deeply prized and held by all religions to be part of his
immortality is gone. Then after a little while, a few days or
weeks, the disarranged neuronic pathways reestablish themselves
as usual,--and the ego comes back to the man.

One might cite the feeble-mindedness that results from
meningitis, brain tumor, brain abscess, brain wounds, etc., as
further evidence of the dependence of mind upon brain, of its
status as a function of brain. No philosopher seriously doubts
that equilibrium and movement are functions of the brain, and yet
to prove this there is no evidence of any other kind than that
cited to prove the relationship of mind to brain.[1] And what
applies to the intelligence applies as forcibly to character, for
purpose, emotion, mood, instinct and will are altered with these
diseases.

[1] Except that equilibrium does not itself judge of its
relationship to brain, whereas mind is the sole judge of its
relationship and dependence on brain. Since everything in the
world is a mental event, mentality cannot be dependent upon
anything, and everything depends upon mind for its existence, or
at least its recognition. But we get nowhere by such "logic" gone
mad. Apply the same kind of reasoning to brain-mind, body-mind
relationship which anatomists and physiologists apply to other
functions, and one can no longer separate body and mind.


Interesting as is the relationship between mind and character and
the brain, it is at the present overshadowed by the fascinating
relationship between these psychical activities and the bodily
organs. What I am about to cite from medicine and biology is part
of the finest achievements of these sciences and hints at a
future in which a true science of mind and character will appear.

Certain of the glands of the body are described as glands of
internal secretions in that the products of their activity, their
secretions, are poured into the blood stream rather than on the
surface of the body or into the digestive tract. The most
prominent of these glands, all of which are very small and
extraordinarily active, are as follows:

The Pituitary Body (Hypophysis)--a tiny structure which is
situated at the base of the brain but is not a part of that
organ.

The Pineal Body (Epiphysis)--a still smaller structure, located
within the brain substance, having, however, no relationship to
the brain. This gland has only lately acquired a significance.
Descartes thought it the seat of the soul because it is situated
in the middle of the brain.

The Thyroid gland, a somewhat larger body, situated in the front
of the neck, just beneath the larynx. We shall deal with this in
some detail later on.

The Parathyroids, minute organs, four in number, just behind the
thyroid.

The Thymus, a gland placed just within the thorax, which reaches
its maximum size at birth and then gradually recedes until at
twenty it has almost disappeared.

The Adrenal glands, one on each side of the body, above and
adjacent to the kidney. These glands, which are each made up of
two opposing structures, stand in intimate relation to the
sympathetic nervous system and secrete a substance called
adrenalin.

The Sex organs, the ovary in the female and the testicle in the
male, in addition to producing the female egg (ovum) and the male
seed (sperm), respectively, produce substances of unknown
character that have hugely important roles in the establishment
of mind, temperament and sex character.

Without going into the details of the functions of the endocrine
glands, one may say that they are "the managers of the human
body." Every individual, from the time he is born until the time
he dies, is under the influence of these many different kinds of
elements,--some of them having to do with the development of the
bones and teeth, some with the development of the body and
nervous system, some with the development of the mind, etc. (and
character), and later on with reproduction. These glands are not
independent of one another but interact in a marvelous manner so
that under or overaction of any one of them upsets a balance that
exists between them, and thus produces a disorder that is quite
generalized in its effects. The work on this subject is a tribute
to medicine and one pauses in respect and admiration before the
names and labors of Brown, Sequard, Addison, Graves and Basedow,
Horsley, King, Schiff, Schafer, Takamine, Marie, Cushing, Kendal,
Sajous and others of equal insight and patient endeavor.

But let us pass over to the specific instances that bear on our
thesis, to wit, that mind and character are functions of the
organism and have their seat not only in the brain but in the
entire organism.

How do the endocrines prove this? As well as they prove that
physical growth and the growth of the secondary sex characters
are dependent on these glands. Take diseases of the thyroid gland
as the first and shining example.

The thyroid secretes a substance which substantially is an
"iodized globulin,"--and which can be separated from the gland
products. This secretion has the main effect of "activating
metabolism" (Vassale and Generali); in ordinary phrase it acts to
increase the discharge of energy of the cells of the body. In all
living things there is a twofold process constantly going on:
first the building up of energy by means of the foodstuffs, air
and water taken in, and second a discharge of energy in the form
of heat, motion and--in my belief --emotion and thought itself,
though this would be denied by many psychologists. Yet how escape
this conclusion from the following facts?

There is a congenital disease called cretinism which essentially
is due to a lack of thyroid secretion. This disease is
particularly prevalent in Southern France, Spain, Upper Italy and
Switzerland. It is characterized mainly by marked dwarfism and
imbecility, so that the adult untreated cretin remains about as
large as a three or four-year-old child and has the mental level
about that of a child of the same age. But, this comparison as to
intelligence is a gross injustice to the child, for it leaves out
the difference in character between the child and the cretin. The
latter has none of the curiosity, the seeking for experience, the
active interest, the pliant expanding will, the sweet capacity
for affection, friendship and love present in the average child.
The cretin is a travesty on the human being in body, mind and
character.

But feed him thyroid gland. Mind you, the dried substance of the
glands, not of human beings, but of mere sheep. The cretin begins
to grow mentally and physically and loses to a large extent the
grotesqueness of his appearance. He grows taller; his tongue no
longer lolls in his mouth; the hair becomes finer, the hands less
coarse, and the patient exhibits more normal human emotions,
purposes, intelligence. True, he does not reach normality, but
that is because other defects beside the thyroid defect exist and
are not altered by the thyroid feeding.

There is a much more spectacular disease to be cited, --a
relatively infrequent but well-understood condition called
myxoedema, which occurs mainly in women and is also due to a
deficiency in the thyroid secretion. As a result the patient, who
may have been a bright, capable, energetic person, full of the
eager purposes and emotions of life, gradually becomes dull,
stupid, apathetic, without fear, anger, love, joy or sorrow, and
without purpose or striving. In addition the body changes, the
hair becomes coarse and scanty, the skin thick and swollen (hence
the name of the disease) and various changes take place in the
sweat secretion, the heart action, etc.

Then, having made the diagnosis, work the great miracle! Obtain
the dried thyroid glands of the sheep, prepared by the great drug
houses as a by-product of the butcher business, and feed this
poor, transformed creature with these glands! No fairy waving a
magical wand ever worked a greater enchantment, for with the
first dose the patient improves and in a relatively short time is
restored to normal in skin, hair, sweat, etc., and MIND and
character! To every physician who has seen this happen under his
own eyes and by his direction there comes a conviction that mind
and character have their seat in the organic activities of the
body,--and nowhere else.

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