New Perspectives on Insanity and Criminality

Abstract

Gall was interested in seeing his new science applied to major problems facing society. Two such problems were how to deal with the insane and criminals, both of which already interested him when he began to formulate his doctrine in Vienna. He did not write separate treatises on these subjects, but he did write extensively about them, providing considerable history in the two sets of volumes presenting his doctrine. Following Pinel and others, he argued that the insane should be treated more humanely and that they should be classified as being curable or unresponsive to treatments. His approach, however, was more brain oriented. He was especially interested in the “monomanias” (partial manias), since these disorders could be associated with specific faculties of the mind, though he also wrote about the causes of melancholia and suicide. Among criminals, he again distinguished those likely to benefit from remediation or incarceration from those with cerebral organizations too wanting to be overcome, while also explaining types of crimes with brain physiology. For Gall, the crime itself was one part of the story, but another, too frequently overlooked in the courts, was the criminal’s brain.