HEREDITY AND THE MIND 
Many Kinds of Logical Evidence that Mental Traits Are Inherited in the Same 
Way and to the Same Extent as Physical Characters—Educators Must 
Deal with This Fact, and not Be Misled by Dogmas of 
Speculative Psychology 
THE EDITOR 
some psychologists and educators, 
to attack the inheritance of mental 
traits. Of course, it is granted that 
some sort of a groundwork must be 
transmitted, but we are asked by the 
extremists to believe that this is little 
more than a clean slate on which the 
environment, particularly during the 
early years of life, writes its autograph. 
‘“What is often called heredity,’’ we 
are told,! “‘is merely the expression of 
the subconscious ego, whose origin can 
often be traced back to early childhood, 
to the time when the acts of their 
parents and their example left their 
impress in the unconscious.” 
“Tdiosyncrasies of action, peculiari- 
ties, sympathies, likes and dislikes, 
prejudices, preformed judgments, ag- 
gressiveness, passivity, marked artistic 
ability and tendencies, temperament, 
these and many more traits,’’ we are 
informed,” ‘‘have been explained on the 
basis of acquired complexes. And as 
far as the evidence and explanations are 
concerned, they both seem quite valid.” 
“Every child,’’ we are assured,* “at 
the outset of his life is a little impulsive 
being, pushed indifferently toward good 
or evil according to the influences which 
surround him.”’ 
Such criticisms are a useful stimulus, 
but they must be given no more weight 
than they deserve. 
If it were true that heredity can deal 
only with the physical, and not with 
the mental, then eugenics would have 
|: IS the fashion nowadays, among 
! Waldstein, L. 
Grenzfr. des Nerven u. Seelenlehre, Band 9 (1908), Heft 62, p. 8. 
Journav or Herepity, Vol. VII (1915), p. 450. 
* Kohs, S. C. New Light on Eugenics. 
%’ Bruce, H. Addington, in The Century Magazine. 
little excuse for existence; for its primary 
object is to increase the amount of 
ability in the race, and it depends for 
success on the belief that differences in 
ability are due to differences in heredity. 
But is it true? Has genetics no valid 
evidence that mental traits are inherited ? 
PROGRESS IN ANALYSIS IS SLOW 
It must be admitted that the analysis 
of the inheritance of mental traits is 
proceeding slowly. This is not the 
fault of the geneticist, but rather of 
the psychologist, who has not yet been 
able to furnish the geneticist with the 
description of definite traits of such a 
character as to make possible the ex- 
haustive analysis of their individual 
inheritance. That department of psy- 
chology is only now being formed. 
We might even admit that no in- 
herited ‘“‘unit character” in the mind 
has yet been isolated; but it would be 
a great mistake to assume from this 
admission that proof of the inheritance 
of mental qualities, in general, is 
lacking. 
The psychologists and educators who 
think so appear either to be swayed by 
the necessity of supporting dogmatic or 
metaphysical views of the mind, or else 
they think that resemblance between 
parent and offspring is the only evi- 
dence of inheritance that we can offer. 
The father dislikes cheese; the son dis- 
likes cheese. ‘“‘Aha, you think that is 
the inheritance of a dislike for cheese,”’ 
cries the psychologist, “but we will 
Das unterbewusste Ich und sein Verhaltnis zu Gesundheit und Erziehung. 
Quoted by Kohs, infra. 
The phrase is borrowed from Pascal, a 
fact which gives an idea of Bruce’s psychological orientation. 
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