55.
Malnutrition, Personality Disorder And Crime
Dr. Weston A. Price
Malnutrition is a cause of not only physical injury, but also personality disturbances, the most common of which
is a lower than normal mental efficiency and acuteness, chiefly observed as so-called mental backwardness which includes the group of children in the schools who are unable to keep up with their classmates.
Their I.Q.’s are generally lower than normal and they readily develop inferiority complexes growing out of their handicap. From this group or parallel with it a certain percentage develop personality disturbances which have their expression largely in unsocial traits.
A government survey has shown that 66 per cent of the delinquents who have been treated in the best institutions and released as cured, later have developed their unsocial or criminal tendencies, strongly emphasizes the urgent necessity that if preventive methods are to be applied these must precede and forestall the primary injuries themselves.
While it has been known that certain injuries were directly related to an inadequate nutrition of the mother during the formative period of the child, my investigations are revealing evidence that the problem goes back still further to defects in the germ plasms as contributed by the two parents. These injuries, therefore, are related directly to the physical condition of one or of both of these individuals prior to the time that conception took place.
A very important phase of my investigations has been the obtaining of information from these various primitive racial groups indicating that they were conscious that such injuries would occur if the parents were not in excellent physical condition and nourishment.
Indeed, in many groups I found that the girls were not allowed to be married until after they had had a period of special feeding. In some tribes a six months period of special nutrition was required before marriage. An examination of their foods has disclosed special nutritional factors which are utilized for this purpose.
The forces involved in heredity have in general been deemed to be so powerful as to be able to resist all impacts and changes in the environment. These data will indicate that much that we have interpreted as being due to heredity is really the result of intercepted heredity.
Incidents in the life of the individual such as disappointments, fright, etc., are largely responsible for disturbed behavior. Normal brain functioning has not been thought of as being as biologic as digestion. It can be safely said that associated with disturbances in the development of the bones of the head, disturbances may at the same time occur in the development of the brain.
Such structural defects usually are not hereditary factors even though they appear in other members of the family or parents. They are products of the environment rather than hereditary units transmitted from the ancestry.
In the light of these data important new emphasis is placed on the quality of the germ cells of the two parents as well as on the environment provided by the mother. The new evidence indicates that the paternal contribution may be an injured product and that the responsibility for defective germ cells may have to be about equally divided between the father and mother.
The blending of races has been blamed for much of the distortion and defects in body form in our modern generation. It will be seen that these face changes occur in all the pure blood races studied in even the first generation, after the nutrition of the parents has been changed.
There is an intimate relationship between delinquency and physical deficiency.
is a lower than normal mental efficiency and acuteness, chiefly observed as so-called mental backwardness which includes the group of children in the schools who are unable to keep up with their classmates.
Their I.Q.’s are generally lower than normal and they readily develop inferiority complexes growing out of their handicap. From this group or parallel with it a certain percentage develop personality disturbances which have their expression largely in unsocial traits.
A government survey has shown that 66 per cent of the delinquents who have been treated in the best institutions and released as cured, later have developed their unsocial or criminal tendencies, strongly emphasizes the urgent necessity that if preventive methods are to be applied these must precede and forestall the primary injuries themselves.
While it has been known that certain injuries were directly related to an inadequate nutrition of the mother during the formative period of the child, my investigations are revealing evidence that the problem goes back still further to defects in the germ plasms as contributed by the two parents. These injuries, therefore, are related directly to the physical condition of one or of both of these individuals prior to the time that conception took place.
A very important phase of my investigations has been the obtaining of information from these various primitive racial groups indicating that they were conscious that such injuries would occur if the parents were not in excellent physical condition and nourishment.
Indeed, in many groups I found that the girls were not allowed to be married until after they had had a period of special feeding. In some tribes a six months period of special nutrition was required before marriage. An examination of their foods has disclosed special nutritional factors which are utilized for this purpose.
The forces involved in heredity have in general been deemed to be so powerful as to be able to resist all impacts and changes in the environment. These data will indicate that much that we have interpreted as being due to heredity is really the result of intercepted heredity.
Incidents in the life of the individual such as disappointments, fright, etc., are largely responsible for disturbed behavior. Normal brain functioning has not been thought of as being as biologic as digestion. It can be safely said that associated with disturbances in the development of the bones of the head, disturbances may at the same time occur in the development of the brain.
Such structural defects usually are not hereditary factors even though they appear in other members of the family or parents. They are products of the environment rather than hereditary units transmitted from the ancestry.
In the light of these data important new emphasis is placed on the quality of the germ cells of the two parents as well as on the environment provided by the mother. The new evidence indicates that the paternal contribution may be an injured product and that the responsibility for defective germ cells may have to be about equally divided between the father and mother.
The blending of races has been blamed for much of the distortion and defects in body form in our modern generation. It will be seen that these face changes occur in all the pure blood races studied in even the first generation, after the nutrition of the parents has been changed.
There is an intimate relationship between delinquency and physical deficiency.
Most repeated offenders are far from robust; they are frail, sickly, and infirm. Indeed, so regularly is chronic moral disorder associated with chronic physical disorder that many have contended that crime is a disease, or at least a symptom of disease, needing the doctor more than the magistrate, physic rather than the whip.
The frequency among juvenile delinquents of bodily weakness and ill health has been remarked by almost every recent writer. In my own series of cases nearly 70 per cent were suffering from such defects; and nearly 50 per cent were in urgent need of medical treatment. . . . Of all the psychological causes of crime, the commonest and the gravest is usually alleged to be defective mind. The most eminent authorities, employing the most elaborate methods of scientific analysis, have been led to enunciate some such belief.
In England, for example, Dr. Goring has affirmed that “the one vital mental constitutional factor in the etiology of crime is defective intelligence.” In Chicago, Dr. Healy has likewise maintained that among the personal characteristics of the offender “mental deficiency forms the largest single cause of delinquency.” And most American investigators would agree.
Thrasher, (The Gang, University of Chicago Press, 1936) in discussing the nature and origin of gangs, expresses this very clearly:
Gangs are gangs, wherever they are found. They represent a specific type or variety of society, and one thing that is particularly interesting about them is the fact that they are, in respect to their organization, so elementary, and in respect to their origin, so spontaneous.
The frequency among juvenile delinquents of bodily weakness and ill health has been remarked by almost every recent writer. In my own series of cases nearly 70 per cent were suffering from such defects; and nearly 50 per cent were in urgent need of medical treatment. . . . Of all the psychological causes of crime, the commonest and the gravest is usually alleged to be defective mind. The most eminent authorities, employing the most elaborate methods of scientific analysis, have been led to enunciate some such belief.
In England, for example, Dr. Goring has affirmed that “the one vital mental constitutional factor in the etiology of crime is defective intelligence.” In Chicago, Dr. Healy has likewise maintained that among the personal characteristics of the offender “mental deficiency forms the largest single cause of delinquency.” And most American investigators would agree.
Thrasher, (The Gang, University of Chicago Press, 1936) in discussing the nature and origin of gangs, expresses this very clearly:
Gangs are gangs, wherever they are found. They represent a specific type or variety of society, and one thing that is particularly interesting about them is the fact that they are, in respect to their organization, so elementary, and in respect to their origin, so spontaneous.
Formal society is always more or less conscious of the end for which it exists, and the organization through which this end is achieved is always more or less a product of design. But gangs grow like weeds, without consciousness of their aims, and without administrative machinery to achieve them.
They are, in fact, so spontaneous in their origin, and so little conscious of the purposes for which they exist, that one is tempted to think of them as predetermined, foreordained, and “instinctive,” and so, quite independent of the environment in which they ordinarily are found.
No doubt, many cities have been provided, as has Cleveland, with a special school for delinquent boys. The institution there has been given the appropriate title, the “Thomas A. Edison School.” It usually has an enrollment of 800 to 900 boys. Dr. Watson, (Organization and administration of a public school for pre-delinquent boys in a large city) who has been of outstanding service in the organization of this work, makes an important comment on the origin of the student population there:
The Thomas A. Edison student population consists of a group of truant and behavior boys, most of them in those earlier stages of mal-adjustment which we have termed predelinquency. .... In general, they are the products of unhappy experiences in school, home and community. They are sensitive recorders of the total complex of social forces which operate in and combine to constitute what we term their community environment.
It will be seen from these quotations that great emphasis has been placed upon the influence of the environment in determining factors of delinquency.
Very important contributions have been made to the forces that are at work in the development of delinquents through an examination of the families in which affected individuals have appeared. Sullenger, (Social Determinants in Juvenile Delinquency) in discussing this phase, states:
They are, in fact, so spontaneous in their origin, and so little conscious of the purposes for which they exist, that one is tempted to think of them as predetermined, foreordained, and “instinctive,” and so, quite independent of the environment in which they ordinarily are found.
No doubt, many cities have been provided, as has Cleveland, with a special school for delinquent boys. The institution there has been given the appropriate title, the “Thomas A. Edison School.” It usually has an enrollment of 800 to 900 boys. Dr. Watson, (Organization and administration of a public school for pre-delinquent boys in a large city) who has been of outstanding service in the organization of this work, makes an important comment on the origin of the student population there:
The Thomas A. Edison student population consists of a group of truant and behavior boys, most of them in those earlier stages of mal-adjustment which we have termed predelinquency. .... In general, they are the products of unhappy experiences in school, home and community. They are sensitive recorders of the total complex of social forces which operate in and combine to constitute what we term their community environment.
It will be seen from these quotations that great emphasis has been placed upon the influence of the environment in determining factors of delinquency.
Very important contributions have been made to the forces that are at work in the development of delinquents through an examination of the families in which affected individuals have appeared. Sullenger, (Social Determinants in Juvenile Delinquency) in discussing this phase, states:
This is a typical mongoloid
defective. Note
the marked lack of development
of the middle
third of the face and
nose with the upper
arch too small for the
lower. Individuals of
this type look alike and
act alike and all have
typical speech and behavior
defects. These
are now associated
with definite defects in
the brain. Nearly all
are either a first or last
child. A large percentage
are born to mothers
over forty years of
age.
Abbott and Breckinridge found in their Chicago studies that a much higher percentage of delinquent boys than girls were from large families. However, Healy and Bronner found in their studies in Chicago and Boston that the large family is conducive to delinquency among children in that the larger the family the greater percentage of cases with more than one delinquent. They were unable to detect whether or not this fact was due to parental neglect, poverty, bad environmental conditions, or the influence of one child on another. In each of the series in both cities the number of delinquents in families of different sizes showed general similarity.
There is distinct possibility of children being born without sufficient spacing and being brought up with poor nutrition in large families. Hence this assertion by Abbott and Breckinridge.
The problems of modern degeneration can in general be divided into two main groups, those which relate to the perfection of the physical body and those which relate to its function. The latter include character as expressed in behavior of individuals and of groups of individuals which thus relate to national character and to an entire culture.
There is distinct possibility of children being born without sufficient spacing and being brought up with poor nutrition in large families. Hence this assertion by Abbott and Breckinridge.
The problems of modern degeneration can in general be divided into two main groups, those which relate to the perfection of the physical body and those which relate to its function. The latter include character as expressed in behavior of individuals and of groups of individuals which thus relate to national character and to an entire culture.
What is the distinction between the human form of life and the life of the hogs and dogs? What is the difference? The difference is that the hogs and dogs, whole day they are searching after eatables: "Where there is some food? Where there is some food?" That is hogs' and dogs' life, the condemned life. They cannot have any peaceful life. They cannot do any intelligent work. They cannot produce food from the earth. They have no intelligence. The same earth is there, the dogs and hogs are there, the human being is also there, but human being has developed a civilization, comfortable life; the hogs and dogs, they cannot do that. Although they have got the same opportunity, but they cannot do it. So human life is meant for living very comfortably, brain clear to understand what is Absolute Truth, what is our life, what is the goal of life, because the hogs and dogs, they will also die and we will also die, but we can understand what is the goal of life; the dogs and hogs, they do not know what is the goal of life.
~Srila Prabhupada (Lecture, Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.6 -- Mauritius, October 5, 1975)
In an enumeration of the phases in which there is a progressive decline of modern civilization, it is essential that we keep in mind that in addition to an analysis of the forces responsible for individual degeneration, the ethical standards of the whole group cannot be higher than those of the individuals that compose it. That recent mass degeneration is in progress is attested by daily events throughout the world.
Sir Alfred Zimmern in his address on the decline of international standards said that “Recent events should convince the dullest mind of the extent to which international standards have deteriorated and the anarchy which threatens the repudiation of law and order in favour of brute force.”
As we study the primitives we will find that they have had an entirely different conception of the nature and origin of the controlling forces which have molded individuals and races.
Buckle, in writing his epoch-making “History of Civilization” about the middle of the last century, summed up his years of historical studies with some very important conclusions, some of which are as follows:
- It is proved by history, and especially by statistics, that human actions are governed by laws as fixed and regular as those which rule in the physical world.
- Climate, soil, food, and the aspects of Nature are the principal causes of intellectual progress.
Sir Alfred Zimmern in his address on the decline of international standards said that “Recent events should convince the dullest mind of the extent to which international standards have deteriorated and the anarchy which threatens the repudiation of law and order in favour of brute force.”
As we study the primitives we will find that they have had an entirely different conception of the nature and origin of the controlling forces which have molded individuals and races.
Buckle, in writing his epoch-making “History of Civilization” about the middle of the last century, summed up his years of historical studies with some very important conclusions, some of which are as follows:
- It is proved by history, and especially by statistics, that human actions are governed by laws as fixed and regular as those which rule in the physical world.
- Climate, soil, food, and the aspects of Nature are the principal causes of intellectual progress.
By the time the age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size,
Cows will be like goats, Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf sami trees. and all human beings will have become like asses.
~ Srimad Bhagavatam - 12.2.12-16
- Religion, literature, and government are, at best, but the products, and not the cause of civilization.
Mayor Harold Burton of Cleveland, stressed very important phases. He stated that the American boys “are making irrevocable choices” between good and bad citizenship which “may make or wreck the nation. It may be on the battlefield of crime prevention that the life of democracy will be saved.” He described great industrial cities as battlefields where “the tests of democracy are the newest and sharpest.” “For centuries,” he said, “we have fought crime primarily by seeking to catch the criminal after the crime has been committed and then through his punishment to lead or drive him and others to good citizenship. Today the greater range of operation and greater number of criminals argue that we must deal with the flood waters of crime. We must prevent the flood by study, control and diversion of the waters at their respective sources.”
One such source of flood waters of crime is our ignorance on how to conceive, nurture and bring up good progeny.
Mayor Harold Burton of Cleveland, stressed very important phases. He stated that the American boys “are making irrevocable choices” between good and bad citizenship which “may make or wreck the nation. It may be on the battlefield of crime prevention that the life of democracy will be saved.” He described great industrial cities as battlefields where “the tests of democracy are the newest and sharpest.” “For centuries,” he said, “we have fought crime primarily by seeking to catch the criminal after the crime has been committed and then through his punishment to lead or drive him and others to good citizenship. Today the greater range of operation and greater number of criminals argue that we must deal with the flood waters of crime. We must prevent the flood by study, control and diversion of the waters at their respective sources.”
One such source of flood waters of crime is our ignorance on how to conceive, nurture and bring up good progeny.