402 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



background of antisocial behavior. It cannot be too strongly 

 stated that the dynamics of conduct tendencies within the 

 human individual include not only the emotional and affec- 

 tive phenomena which we have already discussed, but even 

 more strongly center in his ideational hfe. More provocative 

 of conduct and more directly causatively antecedent to it 

 than anythmg else are ideas. This is a fundamental con- 

 sideration. The nature of the ideational Hfe or, at least, of 

 parts of it and the manner in which certain ideas are handled 

 by the individual, these are what immediately create conduct 

 norms and deviations. It is to the mental content, then, 

 to what notions or ideas are held by the individual, and to 

 what, through his emotional life, he does with his ideas that 

 we must essentially turn for understanding his delinquent or 

 criminal activities. 



All conduct, as being behavior related to one's fellow 

 beings, is a social phenomenon. All conduct is the direct 

 result of mental life. These are truisms too often neglected. 

 Whether as the result of sudden impulse or deliberate 

 intent, human action, which is called conduct, follows upon 

 mental representation. The idea is there before the act. 

 The biologist perceives that some physical deviations or 

 pathologies, structural or functional, particularly in the 

 central nervous system, are conducive in some measure to 

 antisocial conduct, but it is to be noted that even in such 

 cases the path to action must lead through the ideational 

 field of mental life. It is these considerations that lead us to 

 see clearly that delinquency, crime, and antisocial conduct 

 in general are psychosocial phenomena. 



METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS 



At this point it may be fairly asked: What have the 

 sciences of human nature so far mainly contributed to the 

 understanding of antisocial conduct, or more particularly, 

 to the understanding of delinquency and crime? The best 

 answer seems to me to be that they have contributed a new 

 methodology, based on case studies. The earlier general 

 theorizings when brought face to face with the special 

 problems in an individual case generally failed entirely to 



