Cultivating the Cortex in German Neuroanatomy
Cultivating the Cortex in German Neuroanatomy
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德国神经解剖学中的大脑皮层培养
DOI：
10.1017/s0269889701000242
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发表时间：
2001
影响因子：
0.3
通讯作者：
M. Hagner
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Hagner
【论据】心理功能的脑定位是现代脑研究的核心内容之一。尽管在世纪的最后30年里，神经科学的历史学家们都认为本地化范式在文化和社会的交织中取得了成功，但人们也普遍认为，本地化在1900年左右受到了威胁。除了对心理功能局限性的所谓整体性抗议之外，神经解剖学方法本身也受到了实验心理学、精神疾病分类学和精神分析学的挑战。这个故事低估了一个事实，即基于解剖学的定位在应对这些多重挑战时仍然很强大。这意味着对工具、概念和实践的神经解剖学修正。但这也意味着大脑皮层的培养从一个更哲学的议程转向了一个更具体的政治主张。更具体地说，大脑皮层是人类最高贵的部分的观点得到了关于其“Höherzüchtung”的建议的补充。我将分两步分析这种重新定位和激进化。首先，我简要地讨论了西奥多·迈纳特的解剖学和哲学描述，然后转向保罗·弗莱希格，他在世纪晚期将创造文化和文明的能力刻进了大脑皮层。其次，我重点介绍神经解剖学家奥斯卡和塞西尔·沃格特，他们于1900年左右开始了自己的职业生涯，并扩大了皮质的培养范围。甚至在第一次世界大战之前，他们就宣布了“大脑卫生”。因此，福格茨夫妇将他们创新的神经解剖学研究与新兴的遗传学、种族卫生学和优生学领域联系起来。在魏玛共和国早期，福格茨公开支持社会主义思想，并致力于在苏联莫斯科建立一个大脑研究所，在那里对列宁的大脑进行分析。到了魏玛共和国末期，福格茨家族的言论已是赤裸裸的独裁主义。根据对所谓精英和罪犯大脑的一些解剖学检查，他们对优生学和培养“片面天才领导者”提出了具体建议。鉴于福格茨在1930年前后的非凡声望，他们的计划是一个重要的例子，说明他们傲慢地以科学权威为基础预测和指导未来的发展。福格茨一家从未同情过国家社会党的政治目标，却被迫在纳粹德国以有影响力的威廉皇帝科学家的身份结束了自己的职业生涯，这可以被视为一个具有讽刺意味的报应。男人总是梅尔一个韦尔登。(Vogt（1912年，第309页）
Argument The cerebral localization of mental functions is one of the centerpieces of modern brain research. Though the localization paradigm in its cultural and social interwovenness has been characterized as successful in the last third of the nineteenth century by a variety of historians of the neurosciences, there is also general agreement that localization came under threat around 1900. Besides the so-called holistic protest against the localization of mental functions, the neuroanatomical approach itself was challenged by experimental psychology, psychiatric nosology, and psychoanalysis. This story underestimates the fact that anatomically-based localization remained powerful in response to these multiple challenges. This meant a neuroanatomical revision of tools, concepts, and practices. But this meant also a shift in the cultivation of the cortex from a more philosophical agenda to rather concrete political claims. More specifically, the idea of the cortex as the noblest part of man was supplemented by suggestions concerning its “Höherzüchtung.” I will analyze this re-orientation and radicalization in two steps. First, I briefly discuss the anatomical and philosophical account of Theodor Meynert and then turn to Paul Flechsig who in the late nineteenth century inscribed the ability to create culture and civilization into the cortex. Second, I focus on the neuroanatomists Oskar and Cécile Vogt, who began their careers around 1900 and expanded the cultivation of the cortex. Even before World War I, they proclaimed a “cerebral hygiene.” Consequently, the Vogts linked their innovative neuroanatomical researches with the rising field of genetics, racial hygiene, and eugenics. In the early Weimar Republic, the Vogts openly supported socialist ideas and were engaged in establishing an Institute for Brain Research in Soviet Moscow, where Lenin’s brain was analyzed. By the end of the Weimar Republic, the rhetoric of the Vogts was bluntly authoritarian. Based on a few anatomical examinations of so-called elite brains and the brains of criminals, they made concrete suggestions for eugenics and the breeding of “one-sidedly gifted leaders.” Given the remarkable popularity of the Vogts around 1930, their program is an important example of the hubris of predicting and guiding future developments on the basis of scientific authority. It can be regarded as an ironic nemesis that the Vogts – never sympathizing with the political aims of the National Socialists – were forced to finish their careers as influential Kaiser Wilhelm scientists in Nazi-Germany. Der Mensch wird immer mehr ein Hirntier werden. (Vogt 1912, 309)