Isaac Newton.
Isaac Newton.
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艾萨克·牛顿。
DOI：
10.1136/bmj.291.6511.1779
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发表时间：
1985
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
A. Storr
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Storr
艾萨克·牛顿被公认为是有史以来最伟大的创造性天才之一。碰巧的是，他表现出了许多惊人的个性异常，他的同时代人一度认为他疯了。此外，在我看来，他的早年经历使他长大后变得古怪也不足为奇。我想研究两个可能相关也可能不相关的问题。首先，他成年后的怪癖在多大程度上是他童年环境的结果；其次，他的科学成就与他的个性有任何联系吗？甚至在精神科医生中，也有人否认童年早期的经历对成人性格的形成有任何重要作用，认为这是遗传的结果，几乎不受环境的影响。虽然我认识到，遗传不仅会影响孩子对不利环境的反应，还可能决定他认为哪些经历是有害的，但我并不属于这种人。然而，正如我们将看到的，牛顿的早期童年是如此典型的创伤，以至于我很难相信它在塑造他的个性方面没有发挥重要作用。他的个性和他的成就之间的关系更令人怀疑。有些人喜欢相信科学发现完全是智力与应用相结合的结果。当我大胆地提出牛顿的性格结构和他的发现可能有关系时，卡尔·波普尔爵士（Karl Popper）说：“我不相信目前流行的对牛顿的精神病理学解释。我认为牛顿的理论是对一个明确问题的明确回答
Isaac Newton is generally acknowledged to have been one of the greatest creative men of genius who ever existed. It also happens that he showed many striking abnormalities of personality, and at one time was considered mad by his contemporaries. His early history, moreover, is such that, to my mind, it is not surprising that he grew up to be eccentric. I want to examine two questions that may or may not be related. Firstly, how far were his adult peculiarities the consequences of his childhood circumstances, and, secondly, were his scientific achievements in any way connected with his personality?There are those, even among psychiatrists, who deny that the experiences of early childhood play any important part in the formation ofadult character, believing this to be the consequenceof inheritance, hardly modified by circumstance. I do not find myself among their number, although I recognise that heredity must not only influence a child's response to adverse circumstance but may also determine which experiences he perceives as harmful. Newton's early childhood, however, was, as we shall see, so classically traumatic that I find it impossible to believe that it did not play a major part in shaping his personality. The relation between his personality and his achievement is more dubious. Some like to believe that scientific discovery is entirely the result of intelligence combined with application. When I ventured to suggest that the structureof Newton's character and his discoveries might be related Sir Karl Popper, who was at the meeting at which I spoke, said:" I donot believe in the currently fashionable psychopathological interpretation of Newton. I think that Newton's theory is a clear answer to a definite problem