This entry explores the connections between the broader “eugenics” movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the evolving fields of theoretical psychology and clinical psychiatry. The term “eugenics”—meaning the science of improving genetic stock—was coined by British polymath and early psychologist Francis Galton (1822–1911) in his Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development (1883). Galton conducted pioneering empirical research into the biological and hereditary bases of mental traits such as intelligence, addiction, and criminal behavior. His work addressed general questions around heredity and social conditions, focusing on phenomena like social deprivation, degeneracy, and the prevalence of mental illness overall. In the domain of theoretical psychology and clinical psychiatry, these ideas intersected with emerging concepts of mental pathology. The notion of “irritable weakness,” for example, was introduced by Swiss-French psychiatrist Benedict A. Morel (1809–1873) in his Traité des dégénérescences physiques, et intellectuelles et morales de l’espèce humaine (~Treatise on the Physical, Intellectual and Moral Degeneration of the Human Race, 1857/58). In German-speaking academic circles, this concept gained further traction through the publications of Berlin-based psychiatrist Wilhelm Griesinger (1817–1868), who applied the idea of nervous degeneration more narrowly to hereditary diseases of the brain and mind. Later, Munich psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926) advanced these ideas in his 1908 article “On Degeneration,” where he argued that disorders such as neurasthenia—as well as social deviance, prostitution, and criminality—were rooted in the broader circumstances of modern life. These interpretations of nervous degeneration would come to shape influential approaches within both social psychology and psychoanalysis. During the interwar period, they were further embraced by eugenics administrators who framed such conditions as deliberate behaviors of the so-called “unfit.” Prominent psychiatrists, including Kraepelin, increasingly used the rhetoric of nervous degeneration to support their eugenic agendas, particularly within debates on the social consequences of urbanization and industrialization. In doing so, they positioned themselves as scientific agents within an increasingly politicized academic and healthcare system. In their research programs, publications, and academic lectures, psychologists, and neuropsychiatrists reflected the broader cultural climate of early twentieth-century Europe. Many grappled with the profound social and political transformations brought about by modernity. Public discourse at the time was marked by intense debate over the health effects of urbanization, industrialization, and the psychological dimensions of the so-called labor question. Within this context, psychiatric theories of degeneration reinforced widespread cultural anxieties about what came to be known as the “Age of Nervousness,” a period perceived as characterized by psychological instability and societal decline across much of Europe. Theoretical psychologists and clinical psychiatrists continued to respond to these conditions throughout the twentieth century, using the language of eugenics and advocating for interventions such as patient segregation, marriage counselling, and early reproductive health-related and genetic proposals.

Eugenics

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发表日期：

2026年

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Frank W. Stahnisch

摘要

This entry explores the connections between the broader “eugenics” movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the evolving fields of theoretical psychology and clinical psychiatry. The term “eugenics”—meaning the science of improving genetic stock—was coined by British polymath and early psychologist Francis Galton (1822–1911) in his Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development (1883). Galton conducted pioneering empirical research into the biological and hereditary bases of mental traits such as intelligence, addiction, and criminal behavior. His work addressed general questions around heredity and social conditions, focusing on phenomena like social deprivation, degeneracy, and the prevalence of mental illness overall. In the domain of theoretical psychology and clinical psychiatry, these ideas intersected with emerging concepts of mental pathology. The notion of “irritable weakness,” for example, was introduced by Swiss-French psychiatrist Benedict A. Morel (1809–1873) in his Traité des dégénérescences physiques, et intellectuelles et morales de l’espèce humaine (~Treatise on the Physical, Intellectual and Moral Degeneration of the Human Race, 1857/58). In German-speaking academic circles, this concept gained further traction through the publications of Berlin-based psychiatrist Wilhelm Griesinger (1817–1868), who applied the idea of nervous degeneration more narrowly to hereditary diseases of the brain and mind. Later, Munich psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926) advanced these ideas in his 1908 article “On Degeneration,” where he argued that disorders such as neurasthenia—as well as social deviance, prostitution, and criminality—were rooted in the broader circumstances of modern life. These interpretations of nervous degeneration would come to shape influential approaches within both social psychology and psychoanalysis. During the interwar period, they were further embraced by eugenics administrators who framed such conditions as deliberate behaviors of the so-called “unfit.” Prominent psychiatrists, including Kraepelin, increasingly used the rhetoric of nervous degeneration to support their eugenic agendas, particularly within debates on the social consequences of urbanization and industrialization. In doing so, they positioned themselves as scientific agents within an increasingly politicized academic and healthcare system. In their research programs, publications, and academic lectures, psychologists, and neuropsychiatrists reflected the broader cultural climate of early twentieth-century Europe. Many grappled with the profound social and political transformations brought about by modernity. Public discourse at the time was marked by intense debate over the health effects of urbanization, industrialization, and the psychological dimensions of the so-called labor question. Within this context, psychiatric theories of degeneration reinforced widespread cultural anxieties about what came to be known as the “Age of Nervousness,” a period perceived as characterized by psychological instability and societal decline across much of Europe. Theoretical psychologists and clinical psychiatrists continued to respond to these conditions throughout the twentieth century, using the language of eugenics and advocating for interventions such as patient segregation, marriage counselling, and early reproductive health-related and genetic proposals.