Abstract
Cavendish is compared with the psychological profile of today’s scientists. To the extent that the profile applies to scientific investigators in the eighteenth century, it fits Cavendish fairly well. Traits of the profile he lacked are interpersonal in nature, associated with competitive drives. His aristocratic rank more than psychological factors could explain this difference. There is shown to be a continuity of traits in his work and in his life outside it. Consideration is given to how he came by them, some of which obviously served him well in his chosen course, a life of natural philosophy. The possibilities include nervous disorders as they were understood in his day; specifics of his upbringing possibly resulting in eccentricity; shyness, one of his most pronounced traits; introversion, which like shyness is largely inborn; schizoid personality disorder, social phobia; obsessive-compulsive disorder; and more. If Cavendish had a disorder, autism of all possible disorders fits him best. The criteria Sacks used to diagnose Cavendish with autism are examined. The main arguments for and against Cavendish’s autism are weighed. The possibility of Cavendish having eccentric ways, lacking the biological basis of autism, is considered.
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Notes
- 1.
Brougham, Lives 1: 259.
- 2.
Humphry Davy, The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart., ed. J. Davy, vol. 7 (London, 1839), 139; quoted in Wilson, Cavendish, 167.
- 3.
“Nervous,” Oxford Universal Dictionary, 1321.
- 4.
Pepys, quoted in Wilson, Cavendish, 168. Young, “Cavendish,” 444.
- 5.
Thomson, History of Chemistry 1: 337.
- 6.
There was a problem of deciding on the symptoms of nervous disorders. Low spirits and despondency, symptoms of hypochondria in the eighteenth century, belong to what we call “affective disorders” such as depression. The symptom of anxiety did not feature largely in eighteenth-century discussions of nervous disorders. Edward Hare, “The History of ‘Nervous Disorders’ from 1600 to 1840, and a Comparison with Modern Views,” British Journal of Psychiatry 159 (1991): 37–45, on 37–38, 42–43.
- 7.
Young, “Cavendish,” 444.
- 8.
Langford, Englishness, 289.
- 9.
Cannon, Aristocratic Century, 11–12.
- 10.
Brougham, Lives 1: 259.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Timpson, Great English Eccentrics, 83.
- 13.
Caroll E. Izard and Marion C. Hyson, “Shyness as a Discrete Emotion,” in Shyness: Perspectives on Research and Treatment, eds. W. H. Jones, J. M. Cheek, and S. R. Briggs (New York and London: Plenum Press, 1986), 147–60, on 151, 153. Distinctions are made between shyness, embarrassment, and social anxiety, though shyness and embarrassment are similar and are often considered together. W. Ray Crozier, “Social Psychological Perspective on Shyness, Embarrassment and Shame,” in Shyness and Embarrassment: Perspectives from Social Psychology, ed. W. R. Crozier (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 19–50, on 48, 54. Hereafter the short title Shyness and Embarrassment is used for specific contributions to this volume.
- 14.
Arnold H. Buss, “A Theory of Shyness,” in Shyness: Perspectives on Research and Treatment, 39–46, on 44–45.
- 15.
Jonathan M. Cheek and Stephen R. Briggs, “Shyness as a Personality Trait,” in Shyness and Embarrassment, 315–37, on 326.
- 16.
Ibid., 329. Kagan, Reznick, and Snidman, “Biological Bases of Childhood Shyness,” 167–71.
- 17.
Cheek and Briggs, “Shyness as a Personality Trait,” 316.
- 18.
Crozier, “Social Psychological Perspectives on Shyness,” 32.
- 19.
Buss, “Theory of Shyness,” 44.
- 20.
Buss, “Conception of Shyness,” 47. Cheek and Briggs, “Shyness as a Personality Trait,” 328.
- 21.
Thorpe in Cavendish, Scientific Papers 2: 326.
- 22.
In a survey of about 5,000 people, it was found that 10–20 % of shy persons prefer being shy. Philip G. Zimbardo, Shyness: What It Is, What to Do About It (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1977), 20, 141–42.
- 23.
Telltale feelings of shyness – anxiety, unease, and awkwardness – are absent in introversion. Anon, “Extroversion and Introversion,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extroversion_and_Introversion. Anon. “Shyness,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shyness.
- 24.
Anthony E. Kemp, Musical Temperament: Psychology and Personality of Musicians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 36–39, 49. Pervin, Personality, Theory, 283.
- 25.
Kemp, Musical Temperament, 34. Pervin, Personality, Theory, 148–49. Anon., “Extroversion and Introversion.”
- 26.
Weeks and James, Eccentrics, 14–15.
- 27.
Attwood, Asperger’s Syndrome, 199.
- 28.
Ledgin, Asperger’s and Self-Esteem, 28.
- 29.
Rab Houston and Uta Frith, Autism in History: The Case of Hugh Blair of Borgue (Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000). Fitzgerald, Autism and Creativity, 13–14.
- 30.
Houston and Frith, Autism in History, 1–5, 146–50.
- 31.
James, Asperger’s Syndrome, 9.
- 32.
Attwood, Asperger’s Syndrome, 41.
- 33.
Ibid., 37.
- 34.
Sacks, “Henry Cavendish.”
- 35.
Anon., “Autism,” http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism, p. 7.
- 36.
Attwood, Asperger’s Syndrome, 40–41.
- 37.
Wilson, Cavendish, 160.
- 38.
Goode, “A Disorder Far beyond Eccentricity.”
- 39.
Roth, Autism Spectrum, 10.
- 40.
Fitzgerald, Autism, 37–39.
- 41.
John R. Marshall, Social Phobia: From Shyness to Stage Fright (New York: Basic Books, 1995), xviii, 23–24, 56, 110.
- 42.
The relationship between autism and schizoid personality is given in Sula Wolff, Loners: The Life Path of Unusual Children (London: Routledge, 1995). Anon., “Schizoid Personality Disorder,” http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/schizoid-personality-disorder. Anon., “Social Phobia,” http://www.behavenet.com/social-phobia. Anon., “Social Anxiety Disorder,” http://www.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_anxiety_disorder. Anon., “Social Anxiety Disorder,” http://www.socialanxietyinstitute.org/dsm.html. A third to one half of persons who suffer from this disorder experience depression, and also frequently anxiety, panic, and embarrassment. Jeralyn Ross, “Social Phobia: The Consumers Perspective,” Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 54 (1993), Supplement, 5–9, on 5–7.
- 43.
Davis writes that science “is itself an obsessive activity” characterized by repetitive focusing on one subject. He develops this idea in many places in his book, Obsession, a History.
- 44.
Fitzgerald, Autism, 36–41. Frith, Autism in History, 147.
- 45.
Lidbetter would seem to have something like this in mind: only by acknowledging that Cavendish was autistic “can we get anywhere near attempting to understand Cavendish ‘the complete man.’” “Henry Cavendish,” 786.
- 46.
Baron-Cohen, quoted in James, Asperger’s Syndrome, 63. Consistent with the quotation, James says that his profiles “are not to be regarded as case studies,” 11. Cavendish’s profile is on 63–68.
- 47.
Baron-Cohen, Essential Difference, 157.
- 48.
Baron-Cohen, Autism and Asperger Syndrome, 14.
- 49.
This is not the same as saying we cannot consider hypotheses.
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McCormmach, R. (2014). Conclusion. In: The Personality of Henry Cavendish - A Great Scientist with Extraordinary Peculiarities. Archimedes, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02438-7_9
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