Within the past few years, a new school has arisen, which contends that
the ductless glands in the body (or rather their secretions) affect
personality to a very great extent, and that, in fact, personality is
largely dependent upon them for its peculiarities and general make-up.
A good example of such teaching is to be found in Dr. Louis Berman’s
book, “The Glands Regulating Personality.” Here, _e. g._, we read:
“Acuteness of perception, memory, logical thought, imagination,
conception, emotional expression or inhibition, and the entire content
of consciousness are influenced by the internal secretions.... All
the different _nuances_ of personality are expressions of a peculiar
relationship, transitory or permanent, between the endocrines and
the viscera and muscles. Conversely, behavior shows what a person
actually _is_ chemically; that is, what endocrine and vegetative
factors predominate in his make-up. The constructive imagination, one
of the few truly precious gifts of a personality, is probably the
expression of a certain balanced activity of the ante-pituitary and the
post-pituitary (glands).... It is possible to speak of thyroid moods,
adrenal moods, ante-pituitary or post-pituitary moods, gonadal moods.
Each of these is the echo in the mind of cells stimulated or depressed,
by concentration or dilution in the blood of particular internal
secretions....”
Whether or not such arguments will “hold water” must be proved by
further investigation. The _pros_ and _cons_ cannot be argued in this
place. It may be said, however, that such extreme views as those
outlined above are not yet generally accepted, either by the medical
profession or by psychologists, and it seems an extreme statement of a
partial truth. The mental life is certainly influenced by the secretion
of the internal glands, but to what extent it is fundamentally altered
by them is still _sub judice_.