The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is Charles Darwin's third major work of evolutionary theory, following On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Initially intended as a chapter in Descent of Man, Expression grew in length and was published separately in 1872. Darwin explores the biological aspects of emotional behaviour and the animal origins of human characteristics like smiling and frowning, shrugging shoulders, the lifting of eyebrows in surprise, and the baring of teeth in an angry sneer.
Though Expression has never been out of print since its first publication, it has also been described as Darwin's "forgotten masterpiece". Psychologist Paul Ekman has argued that Expression is the foundational text for modern scientific psychology.
Before Darwin, human emotional life had posed problems to the traditional philosophical categories of mind and body.see, for example, Sartre, Jean-Paul (1971) Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions (with a Preface by Mary Warnock) London: Methuen & Co., originally published (1939) as Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions.Young, Robert M. (1970) Mind, Brain and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century Oxford: Clarendon Press; reprinted (1990) in History of Neuroscience Series New York: OUP. . Darwin's interest in the subject can be traced to his time as an Edinburgh medical student and the 1824 edition of Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression by Charles Bell, which argued for a spiritual dimension to the subject. In contrast, Darwin's biological approach links emotions to their origins in animal behaviour and allows cultural factors only an auxiliary role in shaping the expression of emotion. This biological emphasis highlights six different emotional states: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. It also appreciates the universal nature of expression, implying a shared evolutionary heritage for the entire human species. Darwin also points to the importance of emotional communication with children in their psychological development.
Darwin sought out the opinions of some leading psychiatrists, notably James Crichton-Browne, in preparation for the book, which forms his main contribution to psychology.
The book's development involved several innovations: Darwin circulated a questionnaire during his preparatory research; he conducted simple psychology experiments on the recognition of emotions with his friends and family;Snyder, Peter J. et al (2010) Charles Darwin's Emotional Expression "Experiment" and His Contribution to Modern Neuropharmacology Journal of the History of Neurosciences, 19:2, pp. 158–70 and (like Duchenne de Boulogne, a physician at the Salpêtrière Hospital) he uses photography in his presentation of scientific information. Darwin's publisher warned him that including the photographs would "make a hole in the profits" of the book.
Expression is also a landmark in the history of book illustration.
The book's development: biographical aspects
Background
In the weeks before Queen Victoria's coronation in 1838, Charles Darwin sought medical advice for his mysterious physical symptoms. He then travelled to Scotland for rest and a "geologising expedition" but also revisited the old haunts of his undergraduate days. On the day of the coronation, 28 June 1838, Darwin was in Edinburgh. Two weeks later, he opened a private notebook—Notebook M—for philosophical speculation, and, over the next three months, filled it with his ideas about hereditary influences on the psychological aspects of life. Darwin also made his first attempt at autobiography in August 1838.Darwin, Charles (2002) Autobiographies, edited by Michael Neve and Sharon Messenger, and introduced by Michael Neve. London: Penguin Classics. In his Introduction (pp. ix–xxiii), Neve makes a detailed survey of this complex area of Darwin's psychological life.
Darwin fully grasps his conception of natural selection towards the end of September 1838, after encountering the sixth edition of the Essay on Population (1826) by Thomas Malthus.Ospovat, Dov (1981) The Development of Darwin's Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University PressMayr, Ernst (1991) One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the genesis of modern evolutionary thought Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press However, Malthus and his essay are strangely unmentioned in Notebook M, their acknowledgement delayed till October 1838 in Notebook N.
In Notebook M, Darwin describes conversations with his father—a successful doctor with a special interest in psychiatric problems—about recurring patterns of behavior in successive generations of his patients' families. Howard Gruber comments that these passages are suggestive concerning the genetics of emotions and thought, and there is an emphasis on the continuity between sane and insane.
Darwin was concerned about the materialistic drift in his thinking and the suspicions this might arouse in early Victorian England. At the time, he was mentally preparing for marriage with his cousin Emma Wedgwood, who held firm Christian beliefs. On 21 September 1838, Notebook M discloses a "confusing" dream where Darwin found himself involved in a public execution; the corpse had come to life and joked about not running away and facing death like a hero.Browne, E. Janet (1995) Charles Darwin: Voyaging, London: Jonathan Cape, pp. 383–84.
Darwin assembled the central features of his evolutionary theory while developing an appreciation of human behavior and family life; during this period, he was experiencing some emotional turmoil, largely expressed in physical symptoms.
A detailed discussion of the significance of Notebook M can be found in Paul H. Barrett's Metaphysics, Materialism and the Evolution of Mind – Early Writings of Charles Darwin (1980).
Development of the text in 1866–1872
In its public management, Darwin understood that his evolutionary theory's relevance to human emotional life could provoke an anxious and hostile response.
While preparing the text of The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication in 1866, Darwin began to explore topics related to human ancestry, sexual selection, and emotional life. After his initial correspondence with the psychiatrist James Crichton-Browne,Pearn, Alison M. (2010) "This Excellent Observer..." : the Correspondence between Charles Darwin and James Crichton-Browne, 1869–75, History of Psychiatry, 21, 160–75 Darwin set aside his material concerning emotional expression to complete Descent of Man, which covered human ancestry and sexual selection. He finished work on The Descent of Man on 15 January 1871. Two days later, he began work on The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals and completed most of the text within four months; progress then slowed because of work required on the sixth (and final) edition of The Origin of Species and a hostile review from St George Jackson Mivart. Darwin finished his work on the proofs on 22 August 1872.
Expression brings Darwin's evolutionary theory close to behavioural science, although several commentators have perceived a spectral Lamarckism within the text.see, for example, Paul Ekman's textual commentary in Darwin, Ekman, Prodger (1998) The Expression of the Emotions, 3rd edition, London: HarperCollins, pp. 45, 54; and see also "Introduction" by Steven Pinker (2008) The Expression of the Emotions London: The Folio Society, pp. xix–xxii.
Universal nature of expression
In the book, Darwin notes the universal nature of expressions: "The young and the old of widely different races, both with man and animals, express the same state of mind by the same movements." This connection of mental states to the neurological organisation of movement, as suggested by the words motive and emotion, is central to Darwin's understanding of emotion.
Darwin displayed several biographical links between his psychological life and locomotion: taking long, solitary walks around Shrewsbury after his mother died in 1817; in his seashore rambles near Edinburgh with the influential Lamarckian thinker Robert Edmond Grant in 1826 and 1827;Desmond, Adrian (1982) Archetypes and Ancestors: Palaeontology in Victorian London 1850–1875 Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 116–21Desmond, Adrian (1989) The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine and Reform in Radical London Chicago: University of Chicago PressStott, Rebecca (2003) Darwin and the Barnacle London: Faber and Faber and in laying out the sandwalk, his "thinking path", at Down House in Kent in 1846.Boulter, Michael (2006) Darwin's Garden: Down House and the Origin of Species London: Constable These aspects of Darwin's personal life are discussed in the psychoanalytic biography Charles Darwin, A Biography (1990) by John Bowlby.Bowlby, John (1990) Charles Darwin, A Biography London: Hutchinson.
Darwin contrasts his notion of a shared human and animal ancestry with the ideas of Charles Bell which were aligned with natural theology. Bell claimed that facial muscles were designed to express uniquely human feelings. In the fifth edition of The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression (1865), Bell stated: "Expression is to passion what language is to thought." In Expression, Darwin reformulates the issues at play: "The force of language is much aided by the expressive movements of the face and body", suggesting links between language and psychomotor function (body language).Bowlby, pp. 6–14
Darwin's sources on emotional expression
Darwin attended debates about psychology at the Plinian Society in December 1826 and March 1827 as a medical student at Edinburgh University. These were prompted by the publication of Charles Bell's Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression (1824). In his presentations, the phrenologist William A.F. Browne ridiculed Bell's theological explanations, pointing instead to the similarities of human and animal biology. Both meetings ended in uproar. Darwin revisits these debates 45 years later and refers to Duchenne de Boulogne's (1862) as he shifts the debate from philosophical to scientific discourse and highlights the social value of facial expression over other forms of expression in vocalisations, tears, and posture.
Darwin's response to Bell's natural theology is discussed in Lucy Hartley's Physiognomy and the Meaning of Expression in Nineteenth Century Culture (2001).Hartley, Lucy (2001) Physiognomy and the Meaning of Expression in Nineteenth Century Culture Cambridge University Press; see especially chapter 5: Universal expressions: Darwin and the naturalisation of expression, pp. 142 - 179.
In the composition of the book, Darwin drew on a variety of sources:
His questionnaire (circulated in the early months of 1867) concerning emotional expression in different ethnic groups Anthropological memories from his time on Conversations with livestock breeders and pigeon fanciers Observations on his infant son William Erasmus Darwin (A Biographical Sketch of an Infant, published in 1877 in the philosophical journal Mind), on his family's dogs and cats, and on the orangutans at London Zoo Simple psychology experiments with members of his family concerning the recognition of emotional expression The neurological insights of Duchenne de Boulogne, a physician at the Salpêtrière asylum in Paris Hundreds of photographs of actors, babies, and children, including photographs by Oscar Rejlander Descriptions of psychiatric patients in West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Wakefield Darwin distributed handwritten copies of his questionnaire in 1867, followed by a printed version in late 1867 or early 1868. Through his correspondence network, he sought observations from missionaries, merchants, and travellers to investigate whether emotional expressions were culturally learned or shared universally.