ABSTRACT
Whenever a psychologist or physiologist of today states an opinion like Sechenov's he can expect a general reaction similar in tone, if not in intensity, to the response elicited by the unconventional comments of this influential Russian physiologist and anatomist. The St. Petersburg Censors' Committee brought legal action against Sechenov for his book, Reflexes of the Brain, which contained numerous passages of this kind. Their indictment incIuded the charges that his theory reduced man to the level of a machine devoid of free will, swept away good and evil by destroying the
concept of human responsibility, corrupted the moral foundations of society, and subverted the religious doctrine of life after death.
