Samuel George Smith
Published: 2015-06-17
Total Pages: 400
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Excerpt from Social Pathology This volume is an introduction to the principal subjects connected with the defeats of human society. It is an effort to furnish points of view for the study of the problems of charities and correction. The field is so vast that it is manifest much important matter must be omitted, and the sense of proportion in such a task will depend altogether upon the nature and extent of the reader's investigations. The central doctrine in this book is that both society and the individual are dominated by psychical influences. The civilized social group is bound together by those processes which distinguish men from the other animals. There is a great gulf between human society and the animal world. The importance of the individual depends upon the efficiency of society. The individual is successful to the extent that he is controlled by social forces. In this statement there is no denial of a certain range of individual responsibility, but the question of personal responsibility is largely academic. The insane person is not responsible for his delusions, though he may be responsible for having become insane. The pauper and the confirmed criminal, from many points of view, are no more responsible than the insane; but in the period before they became social outcasts some one was responsible. The feeble-minded constitute a class by themselves, and state guardianship and control are indicated for a very large number. The ordinary studies in what is known as degeneration commence too late. It is easy enough to show that the pauper, the criminal, and the insane may be included under the vague term "degenerate." The point to discover is where the departure from normal human life began, and what were the malign influences that caused it. The inductions of this book, upon which a large body of practical workers in all the various fields substantially agree, indicate that most children are well born, and are afterward ruined by physical accident or disease, or else by the failure of the home and the state. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.