The Foundations of Personality | Page 7

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