The Glands Regulating Personality

Berman, Louis, 1893-1946Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9
Word count
710K words
Chapters
71

Tags

English Originals Psychology ResearchMedicine Personality StudiesPsychobiologyScience EnlightenmentBehavioral InsightHealth ScienceAcademic Study

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Glands Regulating Personality by Louis BermanAuthor: Berman, Louis, 1893-1946,Language: English, Class: QP: Science: Physiology, Release Date: Nov 1, 2003

Editor's review

This is a popular physiology book written by Louis Berman in the early twentieth century, discussing the relationship between the endocrine glands and personality and temperament. The author attempts to link the functions of glands such as the thyroid, adrenal, and gonads to character traits, reflecting the eager imagination of both academia and the public during the rise of endocrinology regarding "glands determining personality." Its value lies mainly in the history of science and the history of ideas: readers can see the problematics, terminological habits, and modes of inference of early endocrine research, and also understand why the scientific community later remained wary of overly simplistic glandular determinism. Some views in the book have been revised by modern research and should not be taken as contemporary medical advice. It is suitable for readers interested in the history of science and mind-body issues, as well as researchers examining early twentieth-century popular science writing.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and conclusion first to grasp the author's core claims before reading the arguments chapter by chapter.
  2. Mark outdated terminology and inferences as you read, and look up the corresponding modern endocrinology knowledge separately.
  3. Read alongside introductory works on the history of science, understanding it in the context of the early twentieth century.
  4. After finishing, write a short review distinguishing the usable historical information from views that have been revised.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71

FAQ

Do the views in this book still hold today? They cannot be adopted wholesale. Endocrine glands do affect physical and mental states, but the author's era tended to explain personality differences simply through glandular function, and such deterministic inferences have been substantially revised by modern research. It should be read as a text in the history of science, not as current medical conclusions.
Can I understand it without a medical background? Yes, but it requires some patience. The book involves basic concepts such as the thyroid, adrenal glands, and gonads, and the author writes for a general audience in an expository style. It is advisable to first acquire high-school-level knowledge of hormones and to look up technical terms as needed; this will noticeably reduce the reading burden.
Is this book suitable as a health reference? No. It is a work from a century ago, lacking modern clinical evidence and safety boundaries; it should not be used to judge one's own health or adjust medication. For health concerns, consult a professional doctor; this book is suitable only as reading material for understanding the evolution of scientific ideas.

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About the author

Berman, Louis, 1893-1946 Author · American · 1893–1946

Berman, Louis (1893–1946) was an American physician and endocrinologist, whose dates and nationality are recorded in the library's holdings. He focused on the relationship between the glands and personality as well as diet, seeking to explain individual differences and physical and mental states from an endocrine perspective—an approach that was fairly representative of endocrine research and popular medical writing in the first half of the twentieth century. The library holds one work by him, The Glands Regulating Personality, whose title points directly to the regulatory role of the glands in personality and suggests that his writing combines medical discussion with a popularizing style aimed at general readers. Details of his life, such as his education, institutional affiliations, and academic connections, are limited in publicly available sources and are not conjectured here. Overall, his work reflects the contemporary scholarly interest in linking glandular function with personality and behavior, and offers later readers a reference point for understanding endocrine ideas of that period.