Classics in Psychology

Robert H. Wozniak - Bryn Mawr College

William Benjamin Carpenter: Principles of Mental Physiology (1874)

Scientific psychology has historical roots in both mental philosophy and physiology. When it first appeared, it
was even commonly referred to as the new physiological psychology. While this undoubtedly reflected the
influence of Wilhelm Wundts great compendium of the new science, the Grundzge der physi-ologischen
Psychologie; 95 Wundt was by no means the first to talk in terms of a physiological psychology. 96 Nor was
he the first to focus on the border between physiological and philosophical analysis or to eschew (or in
Wundts case postpone) purely metaphysical for empirical analysis and observation.
In England, in the period between 1850 and 1875, a small group of physicians developed what was, in effect,
a school of physiological psychology built around just these principles. 97 The primary assumptions of the
group were that biology and medicine, not metaphysics, would provide the necessary foundation for
psychology, that mind must be understood in its relationship to nervous function, and that mind and body exist
in mutual inter-action. At the same time, however, there was also recognition that mind and body are not
identical and that mind plays an active, determining role in human affairs.
The intellectual leader of this group was a physician/physiologist by the name of William B. Carpenter. 98 In
1852, Carpenter incorporated a large section on physiological psychology into the fourth edition of what was,
at the time, the leading English language text on human physiology. 99 Rewritten, expanded, and published in
1874 as a separate volume entitled Principles of Mental Physiology, 100 Carpenters work provided the
definitive statement of the mid-19th century British physiological psychology point of view. It was also the
first English language text of its type to employ systematic discussion of abnormal mental phenomena in the
service of furthering an understanding of the nature of the mind and its relationship to physiological
mechanism. 101
The basic premise of Carpenters analysis was that the mind is composite in nature, consisting of both
unconscious cerebration and conscious process. By unconscious cerebration, Carpenter meant the
automatic, reflex activity of the cerebrum that yields properly intellectual results (e.g., reasoning processes or
even the exercise of the imagination) without the processes themselves being accessible to consciousness.
Although Carpenter was anticipated in this doctrine by Laycock among others, 102 it was through his clear and
forceful articulation of this view in the Principles of Mental Physiology 103 and his use of the term unconscious
cerebration to physiologize the concept that the doctrine became widely accepted.
Recognition of the composite nature of mind led Carpenter to two other highly characteristic views, one having
to do with the nature of the causal determination of mental process, the other with the nature of the
mind/body relation. With regard to mental causality, Carpenter argued that in terms of its unconscious,
automatic, reflex activity, mind was clearly determined by physical circumstance. In its conscious activity,
however, it was influenced by the intervention of an active mental force of Will. Although he recognized the
inherent contradiction between these points of view, he was unable to abandon either. As he put it: It will, I
doubt not, be considered by many, that there is a palpable inconsistency between the two fundamental
doctrines which are here upheld;that of the dependence of the Automatic activity of the Mind upon
conditions that bring it within the nexus of Physical Causation; and that of the existence of an independent
Power, controlling and directing that activity, which we call Will. I can only say that both are equally true to my
own consciousness. 104
This same adherence to common sense observation at the expense of logical coherence also characterized
Carpenters discussion of the relationship between mind and body. In common with others in his group, he
held a strict mind/body inter-actionism. Indeed, his discussion of interactionism is possibly the clearest and
most unambiguous in all of the 19th century mind/body literature.
Nothing, Carpenter wrote, can be more certain, than that the primary form of mental activity, Sensational
consciousness, is excited through physiological instrumentality. A certain Physical impression is made, for
example, by the formation of a luminous image upon the Retina of the EyeLight excites Nerve-force, and
the transmission of this Nerve-force excites the activity of that part of the Brain which is the instrument of our

Visual Consciousness. Now in what way the physical change thus excited in the Sensorium is translated (so
to speak) into that psychical change which we call seeing the object whose image was formed upon our
Retina, we know nothing whatever; but we are equally ignorant of the way in which Light produces Chemical
changeAnd all we can say is, that there is just as close a succession of sequencesas intimate a causal
relation between antecedent and consequentin the one case, as there is in the other. 105
Conversely, the like Correlation may be shown to exist between Mental states and the form of Nerve-force
which calls forth Motion through the Muscular apparatuseach kind of Mental activity, Sensational,
Instinctive, Emotional, Ideational, and Volitional, may express itself in Bodily movementJust as a perfectly
constructed Galvanic battery is inactive while the circuit is interrupted, but becomes active the instant that the
circuit is closed, so does a Sensation, an Instinctive tendency, an Emotion, an Idea, or a Volition, which
attains an intensity adequate to close the circuit, liberate the Nerve-force with which a certain part of the
Brainis always charged. 106
Thoroughgoing interactionism of this sort, coupled with the notion of unconscious cerebration and a belief in
unconscious psychic determinism led Carpenter to emphasize the relevance of abnormal mental states to his
analysis of mind. Thus most of the second half of the Principles of Mental Physiology was devoted to topics
such as reverie and abstraction, sleep, dreaming, and somnambulism, mesmerism and spiritualism,
intoxication and delerium, and insanity, with each analyzed in terms of the relationship between unconscious
cerebration and conscious mental process. Through this discussion, as well as through his emphasis on
unconscious process, Carpenter helped legitimize the study of exceptional mental states within general
psychology.
95

Wundt, W. (1874). Grundzge der physiologischen Psychologie. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann; for a
discussion of the content and significance of Wundts work, see the essay on Wundts Grundzge in this
volume.
96

Although there may have been still earlier uses of this term, the earliest that I have been able to identify is
that of Chardel. C. (1831). Essai de psychologie physiologique. Paris: Au Bureau de lEncyclopdie Portative.
97

Included in this group were Benjamin Collins Brodie (17831862), William Benjamin Carpenter (181385),
Robert Dunn (17991877), Henry Holland (17881873), Thomas Laycock (181276), John Daniel Morell
(181691), and Daniel Noble (181085).
98

181385. For biographical information on Carpenter, see Carpenter, J.E. (1888). Memorial sketch. In W.B.
Carpenter. Nature and Man. Essays Scientific and Philosophical. London: Kegan Paul, Trench.
99

Carpenter, W.B. (1852). Principles of Human Physiology (4th edition). London: Churchill.

100

Carpenter, W.B. (1874). Principles of Mental Physiology, with Their Applications to the Training and
Discipline of the Mind, and the Study of its Morbid Conditions. London: Henry S. King.
101

Taine had done much the same thing in French, see essay on Taine in this volume; Maudsley had also
argued for the relevance of psychopathological phenomena to general psychology but had yet to treat these
phenomena systematically in this regard, see essay on Maudsley in this volume.
102

Laycock, T. (1860). Mind and Brain; Or, The Correlations of Consciousness and Organisation; with Their
Applications to Philosophy, Zoology, Physiology, Mental Pathology, and the Practice of Medicine. Edinburgh:
Sutherland and Knox.
103

Carpenter (1874), op. cit., Chapter 13, pp. 51543.

104

Ibid., pp. ixx.

105

Ibid., pp. 1213.

106

Ibid., pp. 1314.

Extracted from Classics in Psychology, 18551914: Historical Essays

ISBN 1 85506 703 X
Robert H. Wozniak, 1999
Classics in Psychology, 18551914 Historical Essays - Contents