The Psychologist Paul P. Broca

The psychologist Paul Pierre Broca was a French man was born in the year 1824 in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande. He studied medicine in Paris the French capital, and at the age of early 20s, Broca had already graduated both as an anthropologist, surgical pathologist, an anatomist and a well-known psychologist (Rutten, 2017). In the field of science and research, Broca bagged several awards. He is well known for his early works on scientific research in the field of cartilage and bone histology. Significantly, Broca is also praised for taking a study in cancer pathology and several types of research on aneurysm treatment. Paul Broca majorly contributed in research on science and disserved the accolades of being the first to venture into the study of physical anthropology. He is also among the founders of anthropological institutions in the late 1850s in France.

History of medicine fraternity identifies his monumental contributions in the field of neurosciences, especially where he dedicated his study on aphasic patients (the person who lack the talking abilities). Despite these remarkable attributes, Broca was staunch Christian, but still, he went ahead to establish the society of free-thinkers, one can argue that Broca was indeed sympathizer of Darwin’s theory of natural selection (Rutten, 2017). Significant work by Broca's revolved around a comprehensive study of the cranium of the human race. His focus was to study the structure, form, and the topography of the human skull and brain to identify the distinctive features in the human race. Broca’s theory was that it is beneficial if there is a mixture of directly related races and that it is harmful where there is a mixture of more different races. Regarding this, therefore, this forms the departing point why this paper will focus on Broca's theories and psychological works.

Having been born of Benjamin Broca a surgeon and medical practitioner from Bordeaux in the late June of 1824, Paul Pierre Broca schooled locally at his hometown Sainte Foy-la-Grande (Ashok, 2017). After his school, he joined the Paris medical school the French capital at age 17 and exceptionally graduated at age 20 when his age mates were joining medical schools. As an intern Broca worked with Philippe Richard an urologist and dermatologist in Hospital du Midi as an apprentice, later he worked with the famous Francois Leuret in Bicetre and significantly had that opportunity to be an apprentice of a well-known anatomist and surgeon Nicolas Gerdy. It was later in 1948 at age 24 when Broca founded the infamous society of free thinkers; this society were ardent followers of the Darwinian Theory, an inspiration for the creation theory. According to Ashok (2017), Broca is said to be a believer in the evolution theory. Primarily as a consequence of the activities of the new found society of free-thinkers, Broca fueled up conflicts with the then church who described him as a corrupter of the youth.

Career-wise, Paul Broca had several accolades. He was significantly advancing both in research and medical practice and also outside the medical field. It is noted that he was appointed the prosector of anatomy by the Paris University medical school in the year 1948 (Turnbull, 2015). The following year, Paul Broca had become the Societe Anatomie secretary a position that saw him being awarded a doctorate in medicine. Broca’s successes were epitomized further when he performed his first experiment by the utilization of anesthesia dubbed as hypnosis for the first time. Turnbull (2015) indicates that Broca's advancement was also epitomized in the early 1850s especially when attained the position of professor, he was also elevated as the Chirurgien des hôpitaux in the same University before rising to the position of a clinical surgery professor and the same time working at St. Antoine Hospital. During this period Broca had other interest he equally pursued. For instance, his interest in anthropology materialized in the late 1850s when he co-founded the society of anthropologists in Paris, the French capital. This society was a novel and a pioneering move in the world, in the same breath, Broca also founded the Revue d'anthropologie , this was an institute of anthropology that was vehemently opposed by the then church to the extent of conducting widespread campaigns against Brocas works. However, this rather gave him some political mileage as he was nominated as a lifetime member of the French Senate until his death, in late 1880 leaving behind a wife and two children.

Another work by Broca revolved around his comparative studies of the bone and cartilage histology. In the same breath, he also studied and worked tirelessly to understand the pathology of cancer, and the treatment of aneurysms, the studies that propelled him the positions of a refined neuroanatomist and majorly focused on physical anthropology despite opposition from the Christian fraternity in the whole country (Serletis & Pait, 2016). His works were also shown when authored literal materials focusing on the Darwinian Theory dubbed as the transformism. More of his literal works were in public health and education especially, women emancipation and women education. The landmark was when Broca epitomized his research capabilities on the comparative anatomy of the human brain and skull. In this research, Broca focused on the concept of localizing speeches and the human brain functionalities (Corballis, 2017). Indeed this was the greatest point of departure towards fame and laying the ground for more human research discoveries.

According to Corballis (2017), speech research was the greatest discovery by Broca; this was the discovery of that part of the human brain that is responsible for the production of speech referred contemporary as the Brocas area. It was through researching persons who could not talk otherwise referred to as the aphasic patients. Brocas’s initial patient was the famous Leborgne, who was also named as Tan because he never had any other word/syllable in his speech other the phrase ‘tan.' Through a conducted autopsy, Broca discovered that tan had a lesion in the left cerebral hemisphere. It is this lesion that had caused speech inabilities on Tan. In the field of anthropology, Broca focused on studying human skull and bones in what was referred as cranium anthropometry (Leblanc, R. (2018). At this level Broca aimed at demystifying the theories that the Caucasian brains were more superior to any other races.

Broca's theory was founded on trepanation; this happened after the discovery of trepanned skulls in the French soils. He theoretically believed that for over several decades ago, human beings had the knowledge of trepanning skulls and also perform surgery/operations on living humans (Buckingham, 2014). Significantly, Broca theorized that this trepanning procedure was not merely for as a matter of accidents, injuries but rater performed to treat convulsions in infants. In this theory, he skillfully integrated and utilized his anthropological skills and the expansive medical knowledge to create that favorable environment or niche for all other neurosurgeons to discover more on brain surgical operations. Broca's intention was basically to emancipate or educate human race that accidents, defects or gnawing did not cause the holes in the discovered skulls of animals. He also sought to demystify and incorporate these new research findings into one theoretical framework to explain trepanation as performed by the ancient man (Buckingham, 2014). In the same plane, Broca also posted that a brain theory; the brain theory proposed that the classic hemispheric characteristics are associated with each side of the brain. There was a contention where scientists, scholars, and researchers had argued, debated and believed that the left side of the brain has that high faculty, is more dominant than the right side of every human brain structure.

Primarily, Broca being a reformed psychologist and anthropologist greatly supported polygenism theory in his works, research, and discoveries (polygenism is that believe that human origin belongs to different races). In the same breath, Broca never advocated for monogenism (this is a theory that posits that human races are of the same origin (Lawson et al. 2015).    Broca argued that human race was estimated from different origins, he viewed humanity as that framework which composed of aspects of independent ethnic groupings. He further posited in his works that each race group originates from its geographic location. In his research work, Broca also argues that each race or group of race has that particular physical characteristic that makes the difference from one group to another. He also went further to share his empirical evidence not merely placing reliance on human reasoning.

Regarding contribution both to society and psychology, Broca had uncountable impacts to the society especially in public health sector and the community at large (Pessoa & Hof, 2015). His major contributions majorly revolved around anthropology, science, research, and psychology. Among these significant contributions by Broca include; firstly the most significant discovery of the speech production center of the brain. This discovery was a milestone in the world regarding science and medical research (Fuchs et al. 2014). This speech production is nowadays referred to as the Broca's area. Fundamentally, it is important to note that this discovery opened ways, did set the pace and to a greater extent sparked or triggered novel and new methods of research and scientific venturing into the actualization or lateralization of the human brain study and functionalities. Significantly this also led to a much more improved comprehension of the features of human brain form, structure, topography and functionality of its anatomy. Interestingly, these discoveries did not only lead to more related discoveries, but it also leads to real discoveries regarding remedies, curative and advanced treatment of human conditions and syndromes such as brain tumor, aphasics, cancer and many others (Serletis & Pait, 2016). Noteworthy, it is discernible to note that majority of Broca’s scientific discoveries led to revolutions regarding medical and scientific research. In this sense, the revelations led to a revolutionized understanding of the speech process and language production and communication. Broca tentatively resolved the debates and uncertainties that existed on the aphasic patients. As a consequence of his research findings, Paul Broca triggered more research on discovering other brain functionalities such as the wernickers area. In the same breath, research also enabled find curative means and treatment and most importantly find out that dysfunction causes speech disorders in the brain.

Related to the above, it is equally important to note that, Paul Broca also significantly contributed to the general development anatomical research, cranium histology, and the most important was the development of physical anthropology (May & Schaller, 2018). It is realizable that this was a novel venture and actually, Broca and his society were the pioneers of in this field of human research. Physical anthropology has several subfields, this include; craniotomy and bone histology. In this lane, craniology is that science of being able to measure the human skull. In this aspect, it is realizable that invented/innovated several instruments used to measure or cover measurements of human skulls for better research findings.

Critically, considering Paul Broca's work, it is epitomized that major of his research work revolved around the process of analyzing his patients’ brains after conducting an autopsy. Primarily the two brains had been damaged and had been preserved in the Paris’ museum (May & Schaller, 2018). The two brains belonged to Lelong and Leborgne; it was noted that their brains were damaged and there existed injuries on the frontal area on the left side, from this discoveries, it became known that and presumed that the damages areas are the areas that are responsible for speech processing in human beings. In the same breath, it is noticeable that Broca preserved the brains of alcohol and kept them for posterity. When the two brains were later re-examined and interpreted, it was discovered that the damage identified by Broca was much wider than what Broca had identified as ‘Broca’s area .' Interestingly, this discovery dents and punches holes into Broca’s discoveries in relation to human speech processing functionalities. This may primarily lead to misconceptions, a problem that may result in misdiagnosis of patients’ with language impairments. This may occur if reliance is solely placed or an assumption is made that only a small area of the brain is responsible for language and speech processing and production.

Related to the above, it is noteworthy that the discovery is of Neanderthal Man tremendously drew Broca into massive research and deep into physical anthropology, the ostensible controversy on the interpretation of this man was on the human skull, the arguments were whether it was the human skull or primate. This controversy motivated Broca more, to further his research he also conducted extensive comparative anatomy on the primates existing Neanderthal man skull, primates, and human beings. Broca’s view was focused on comparing the aspects of dominant craniometry in terms of intelligence. Amazingly, Broca in his interpretation was proposing that basically, black men or Negroes form the immediate link or area closely related to apes than they are to Caucasians or European people (May & Schaller, 2018). Thinking, this is not real scientific reach or discoveries, indeed this can be epitomized as an expedition towards racism or what may be termed as scientific racism by the contemporary world.

In conclusion, it is evident that Paul Pierre Broca had a myriad of skills and professionalism both in science, medicine, psychology, anthropology among other disciplines. Noteworthy, Broca is famed for conceptualizing the discoveries in the functionalities of the particular parts of the human brain, it is notable that he achieved this discovery through an autopsy process conducted by doing a postmortem analysis on his patients had suffered speech disorders. Broca had associated this problem theoretically as being related to the damage on the frontal part of the human brain. Through these discoveries, it is noted that all human and animals have a way of communicating with each other through the use of speech or language. Communication in living primates is achieved by use of gestures, signs, postures, facial functionalities among others. Interestingly, it is through this language that connection is achievable. Relatively, it is through this language and communication that evolution has been possible through interaction and organizations. Having noted this importance of human speech, this has triggered science and researchers to further on finding out more on the physical precondition of speech. This has tremendously helped in finding proper curative or treatment mechanisms, reduced cases misdiagnosis cases especially in patients with speech disorders.

References

Ashok, S. S. (2017). The history of race in anthropology: Paul Broca and the question of human hybridity (Maters Thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Buckingham, H. (2014). Leonard L. LaPointe. Paul Broca and the origins of language in the brain . San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-1-59756-478-6.

Corballis, M. C. (2017). Fearful asymmetry: Bouillaud, Dax, Broca, and the localization of language, Paris, (1825-1879). Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 3 (4), 501-503.

Devinsky, O., & Samuels, M. A. (2016). The brain that changed neurology: Broca's 1861 case of aphasia. Annals of Neurology, 80 (3), 321-325.

Fuchs, A. H., Evans, R. B., & Thomas, R. K. (2014). History of Psychology: Recurring errors among recent history of psychology textbooks . Retrieved on 11 April 2018, from http://125.22.40.134:8082/jspui/bitstream/123456789/195/1/History%20of%20Psychology.pdf.

Lawson, R. B., Graham, J. E., & Baker, K. M. (2015).  A history of psychology: Globalization, ideas, and applications . Routledge.

Leblanc, R. (2018). Beyond descriptive neurology: Broca, cerebral hemodynamics, and cortical function.  Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 27 (1), 36-55.

May, A. T., & Schaller, K. (2018). Geert-Jan Rutten: The Broca-Wernicke Doctrine: a historical and clinical perspective on localization of language functions . New York: Springer. 

Pessoa, L., & Hof, P. R. (2015). From Paul Broca's great limbic lobe to the limbic system.  Journal of Comparative Neurology, 523 (17), 2495-2500.

Rutten, G. J. (2017). Broca and the Birth of Localization Theories. In The Broca-Wernicke Doctrine  (pp. 1-21). Springer, Cham.

Serletis, D., & Pait, T. G. (2016). Early craniometric tools as a predecessor to neurosurgical stereotaxis. Journal of Neurosurgery, 124 (6), 1867-1874.

Turnbull, P. (2015). Australian Museums, Aboriginal Skeletal Remains, and the Imagining of Human Evolutionary History, c. 1860-1914.  Museum and Society, 13 (1), 72-87.