12 BRAIN MECHANISMS AND LEARNING 



writing than by that of Darwin. Though not in time to influence prepara- 

 tion of the Reflexes of the Brain (1863), both Darwin's and Spencer's works 

 were early translated into Russian: the Orii^iii of Species in 1864, by Pro- 

 fessor S. A. Rashinsky of Moscow University, of whose efforts Pisarev 

 was highly critical; and a year later in shorter exposition, by K. A. 

 Tiniiryazev, the leading Russian Darwinist (Platonov, 1955). Spencer 

 (1904) learned of a Russian translation of his First Principles in 1866 and, a 

 decade later, heard with surprise, from Professor Sontchitzici, of the 

 University of Kiev, that all of his works had then been translated into 

 Russian, excepting the Sociology, which was soon to be added to the list. 



In his Elements of Thought, published in 1883, Sechenov (1935) wrote: 

 'Darwin's great theory of the evolution of species has placed the idea of 

 evolution on such a firm basis that it is at present accepted by the vast 

 majority of naturalists. This logically necessitates the recognition of the 

 principle of evolution of psychical activities. Spencer's hypothesis may 

 actually be called the application of Darwinism to the sphere of psychical 

 phenomena.' 



And later: 'Another and no less important success in the study of the 

 mental development of man in general we owe to the famous English 

 scientist, Herbert Spencer. It is only on the ground of Spencer's hypothesis, 

 concerning the sequence of stages of 'neuropsychical development from 

 age to age that we can solve the ancient philosophical problem of the 

 development of mature thought from initial infantile forms. To Spencer 

 we owe the establishment, on the basis of very wide analogies, of the 

 general type of mental development in man, as well as the proofs of the 

 fact that the type of evolution of mental processes remains unchanged 

 through all stages of the development of thought. The present essay is 

 based on the theories of Spencer; therefore, our first task will be to 

 expound the main principles of his theory. It even appeared at the same 

 time as Darwin's theory and is practically a part of the general theory of 

 organic evolution.' 



Signiund Freiid. Passing now to Freud, his autobiography refers to the 

 influences leading him to medicine as a career: 'At the time the theories 

 of Darwin, which were then of topical interest, strongly attracted me, for 

 they held out hopes of an extraordinary advance in our understanding of 

 the world; and it was hearing Goethe's beautiful essay on Nature read 

 aloud at a popular lecture, just before I left school, that decided me to 

 become a medical student.' 



There are singularly few other allusions to Darwin in Freud's writings, 

 and the factors responsible for his visualization of the psychic apparatus 



