“I was not defeated. I just found 10,000 ways that don't work,”said American inventor Thomas Edison optimistically. Scientists, in their search for objective truth, have repeatedly put forward false hypotheses or made wrong conclusions from their observations. Some of them turned out to be so far from the truth that they caused serious damage to humanity. Let's recall a few of these theories together.
1. Phrenology
BASIC POSITION: connection of the human psyche with the structure of the surface of his skull.
The main phrenology theorist, Austrian Franz Josef Gall, believed that mental properties, thoughts and emotions of a person are inherent in both hemispheres of the brain, and with a strong manifestation of any feature, this is reflected in the shape of the skull. Gall drew "phrenological maps": the area of the temples, for example, is responsible for addiction to wine and food, the back of the head - for friendship and sociability, and for some reason the area of "love of life" is located behind the ear.
According to Gall, each bulge on the skull is a sign of a high development of a mental trait, and a depression is an insufficient manifestation of it. All this is reminiscent of Hirosophy - the doctrine of the relationship between the shape of the hand and the lines on the palms with the character, worldview and fate of a person.
Phrenology was incredibly popular at the beginning of the 19th century: many slave owners from the south of the United States were fond of this theory, because the material for conducting experiments was always at hand. In Django Unchained, the hideous hero Leonardo DiCaprio also studies phrenology. This science is closely related to racial theory and other pseudo-scientific rationales for discrimination. In the same "Django," slave owner Calvin Candy uses a skull to explain why all blacks are naturally predisposed to be slaves.
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The mass fascination with phrenology sharply subsided with the development of neurophysiology in the 1840s: it was proved that the mental properties of a person did not depend in any way either on the relief of the brain surface or on the shape of the skull.
2. Focal sepsis (theory of focal infection)
BASIC POSITION: mental and physical illnesses appear due to toxins absorbed into the blood from the focus of inflammation in the body. To cure the disease, you need to find and neutralize the guilty organ.
The theory of focal sepsis gained popularity in the mid-19th century and lasted until World War II. Because of her, a huge number of people underwent unnecessary operations and injuries. Doctors believed that a cluster of bacteria inside the body could be the cause of mental retardation, arthritis and cancer. As a result, the removal of teeth, appendix, parts of the intestine and other potentially dangerous organs has become a common practice.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the English doctor William Hunter wrote an article that all ailments are caused by insufficient oral hygiene, and the treatment of a diseased tooth is meaningless, since it does not eliminate the focus of infection. As a result, in Europe and America, on suspicion of caries, patients began to remove teeth, tonsils and adenoids.
In 1940, it was proved that the theory of focal infection is untenable. The operations harmed patients, the toxins allegedly released by infected teeth could not affect the psyche in any way, and in most cases, diets and other sparing methods of treatment could help patients.
Despite the refutation of the theory, for several decades, the children were unnecessarily removed tonsils and adenoids in order to prevent angina (but then they bought ice cream).
3. Maslow's pyramid of needs
The theory of motivation, based on the pyramid of needs, has little to do with the research of Abraham Maslow, the founder of humanistic psychology.
Maslow himself believed that a standardized hierarchy of needs could not exist, since it depends on the individual characteristics of a person. In addition, his research focused on a specific type of people and varied depending on the age group.
According to Maslow, groups of needs become relevant in the process of growing up. For example, young children need to eat and sleep on time during the day, it is more important for adolescents to gain respect among their peers, and people in adulthood need to feel satisfaction from their position in the family and in society. The scientist's attention was initially focused on self-actualization - the top of the pyramid, that is, a person's desire for self-expression and personal development. Active and successful creative people such as Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln were the objects of his research.
The pyramid is an artificially constructed simplification that does not represent the needs of most people. The use of Maslow's pyramid as a scientific basis in management, marketing and social engineering in most cases does not give the desired results, but it provides space for speculation. Not surprisingly, the very theory of the hierarchy of needs, on the basis of which the pyramid is constructed, has not been confirmed by empirical research.
4. Dale Carnegie's theory of effective communication
BASIC POSITION: rejection of one's own "I".
The renowned American communication specialist has described his theories of effective communication in books with meaningful titles, such as How to Make Friends and Influence People, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. His works were supposed to help people become happy, easily find a common language and avoid conflicts.
Carnegie's ideas for success were incredibly influential. Until now, many people believe that a successful (and therefore happy) person should be able to speak in public, actively make new acquaintances, charm interlocutors and devote himself to work. But the concept of success, with which Carnegie so famously operated, cannot be standardized, as well as the criteria for personal effectiveness (which is why it is personal).
Modern psychologists point out many of the mistakes Carnegie made in his self-maid theory of happiness. In his works, Carnegie systematically encourages the abandonment of one's own self in order to make communication more effective. This is his main mistake.
Perceiving the value system of another person in order to please him, a person can really manipulate the interlocutor and use him for his own purposes. But the rejection of one's own opinion and the ability to express it badly affects the psyche. As a result, accumulated stress, feelings of depression and non-compliance with the criteria for success translate into psychosomatic disorders. Simply put, trying to be Carnegie's success helps you achieve artificial goals, but doesn't make you happier.
Carnegie's top tip "Smile!" works well for extroverts who already smile constantly, but for introverts it is unnatural and painful.
Carnegie imposed on readers the same ideas about what a person should strive for, and his ideas eventually became the cause of complexes, psychological problems and feelings of guilt.
5. Racial theory
BASIC POSITION: division of humanity into several unequal races.
There is no single racial theory: in different works from 4 to 7 main races and several dozen small anthropological types are distinguished. Racology did not appear in vain in the era of slavery. The system in which some people dominate all spheres of social life, while others are weak-willed to obey them, needed a scientific justification.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Frenchman Joseph Gobineau declared the Aryans the superior race, destined to dominate the rest. Subsequently, racial theory served as a scientific basis for the Nazi policy of "racial hygiene" aimed at discriminating and exterminating "inferior" people, primarily Jews and Gypsies. The ideas expressed by Gobineau were developed in the pseudoscientific racial theory of Gunther, which attributed certain mental abilities and character traits to each anthropological type. It was she who became the basis of Nazi racial politics, the catastrophic consequences of which need not be listed.
Modern science denies the division of people into races: most Western scientists believe that the external differences found within our species are not significant enough to divide into additional categories and have nothing to do with mental abilities. After World War II, all racial theories were deemed untenable.
6. Eugenics
BASIC POSITION: human selection for the purpose of developing valuable qualities.
The idea of selection in relation to humans was put forward by Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin. The goal of eugenics, which became popular in the early decades of the 20th century, was to improve the gene pool.
Advocates of "positive eugenics" argue that it can promote the reproduction of people with qualities that are valuable to society. But what qualities are valuable? Many people with high intelligence and creative potential suffer from congenital somatic defects, which means that they may be overboard in the selection process. In addition, the mechanisms of inheritance of such traits as a predisposition to drunkenness or, conversely, good health and high IQ, are equally poorly understood: many of these traits are manifested only when exposed to the environment in which a person is brought up and lives.
Eugenics as a science was discredited in the 1930s, when its provisions served as the rationale for the racial policies of Nazi Germany. In the Third Reich, "negative eugenics" developed more actively: first of all, the Nazis wanted to stop the reproduction of people with hereditary defects and those who were considered racially inferior. Eugenics programs for the forced sterilization of people who committed serious crimes or "mentally disabled" existed in Sweden, Finland, USA, Denmark, Estonia, Norway and Switzerland, in some countries they operated until the 1970s.
At the end of the 20th century, when experiments on cloning higher mammals were successfully carried out, and geneticists had the opportunity to make changes in DNA, the question of the ethics of improving the human gene pool again became relevant.
Now the fight against hereditary diseases is carried out within the framework of genetics.