The Glands Regulating Personality: A Study of the Glands of Internal Secretion in Relation to the Types of Human NatureBerman, Louis
History
The Glands Regulating Personality: A Study of the Glands of Internal Secretion in Relation to the Types of Human Nature
Berman, Louis
Endocrinology; Personality
There is no better way of illustrating the influence of the internal
secretions upon the normal than the analysis of the variation of
traits with variations in glandular predominances. The general build
of an individual, his skeletal type, the proportion between the size
of his arms and that of his legs, as well as that between his trunk
and his lower extremities, whether he is to be tall, lanky and
loutish, or short, squat and dumpy, are to be considered. Different
facial types are the expressions of underlying endocrine differences.
The head and skull offer a number of clues to the controlling
secretions in the blood and tissues. Whether the forehead is to be
broad or narrow, the distance between the eyes, the character of the
eyebrows, the shape and size and appearance of the eyes themselves,
the mould of the nose and jaws and the peculiarities of the teeth, are
all so determined. The skin, in its color, texture, the quantity
and distribution of its fatty and other constituents, eruptions and
weather reactions, is influenced. Also the mucous membranes, the
color and lustre and structure of the hair, as well as its general
distribution and development, are hieroglyphics of the endocrine
processes below the surface. Whether the muscles are massive or
sparse, atrophied or hypertrophied, soft or hard, easily fatigable
or not, bespeak conditions in the glandular chain. In short, we must
regard the individual as an immensely complicated pattern of designs
traced by the hormones as the primary etchers of his development.
Though it must be admitted that the number of unknown and unsolved
relations in the pattern are still enormously great, enough has
been established to make possible a rough working analysis of the
particular, unique organism placed before us for examination as Mr.
Smith, Mrs. Jones, or Miss Smith-Jones.
WHAT IS THE NORMAL?
Anthropologists, from the beginning of anthropology, have battled
in vain for a satisfactory inclusive definition, or, at least,
description of the normal. With the introduction of the biometric
method, the goal at last appeared within sight. A cocked hat curve
expressing the distribution and range of the normal looks formidable.
The attainable turned out a mirage, for the curves constructable by
the measurement of traits of a population only proved the truth of the
old axiom that all transitions and variations between extremes exist.
The Problem of the Normal seemed more elusive than ever. And the best
that could be done for the elucidation of its mystery, was to apply
and observe the law of averages.
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