BPS Core Textbooks Series

Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society

Chapter 12 – ‘Three Generations of Imbeciles Are Enough’: Psychology, Biopower, and the Apparatus of Eugenics

Chapter Summary

This chapter explores the entanglement between psychology and the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century. It examines how psychological science became a mechanism through which people and populations were categorised, evaluated, and managed. Psychologists developed tools such as intelligence tests, classification systems, and statistical models which, far from being neutral instruments, became technologies of power. These methods legitimised policies of segregation, institution-alisation, immigration control, and forced sterilisation. The chapter introduces Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower as its critical thinking tool. Biopower refers to the way modern states regulate life through expert knowledge, including psychological expertise, in order to exert control over biological processes. The chapter uses this concept to analyse how psychological ideas about intelligence and deviance were embedded in institutional practices across Britain, the United States, and Scandinavia. While highlighting the central roles played by psychologists, the chapter also includes critical voices that questioned biological determinism and emphasised the role of environment and social inequality. Through a critical historical lens, the chapter invites us to reflect on psychology’s complicity in exclusionary systems of power and its legacy in contemporary debates around intelligence, genetics, and social policy. It argues that understanding this history is essential not only for ethical reflection but also for reimagining the role of psychology in promoting equity and justice.

Chapter 12 – Quiz

  • Chapter 12 – Flashcards

    Press Enter or Space to flip the card

  • Chapter 12 – Key Readings

    Bangham, J. (2015). What Is Race? UNESCO, mass communication and human genetics in the early 1950s. History of the Human Sciences, 28(5), 80-107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695115600581 

    Beccalossi, C., Fisher, K., & Funke, J. (2023). Sexology and development. History of the Human Sciences, 36(5), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951231213970 

    Broberg, G., & Roll-Hansen, N. (2005). Eugenics and the welfare state: Sterilization policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Michigan State University Press. 

    Germann, P. (2021). Race in post-war science: The Swiss case in a global context. History of the Human Sciences, 35(1), 216-241. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951211010385 

    Jarska, N., Lišková, K., & Wahl, M. (2024). Early state socialism and eugenics: Premarital medical certificates in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Poland in the aftermath of World War II. History of the Human Sciences, 38(1), 51-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951241270931 

    Kelly, E., Manning, D. T., Boye, S., Rice, C., Owen, D., Stonefish, S., & Stonefish, M. (2021). Elements of a counter-exhibition: Excavating and countering a Canadian history and legacy of eugenics. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 57(1), 12–33. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.22081 

    Kevles, D. J. (1985). In the name of eugenics: Genetics and the uses of human heredity. Harvard University Press. 

    Lombardo, P. A. (2022). Three generations, no imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. Johns Hopkins University Press. 

    Pilgrim, D. (2023). Verdicts on Hans Eysenck and the fluxing context of British psychology. History of the Human Sciences, 36(3-4), 83-104. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951221143888 

    Sims-Schouten, W. (2021). ‘A troublesome girl is pushed through’: Morality, biological determinism, resistance, resilience, and the Canadian child migration schemes, 1883–1939. History of the Human Sciences, 35(1), 87-110. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951211036553 

    Stern, A. M. (2016). Eugenic nation: Faults and frontiers of better breeding in modern America (Second edition). University of California Press. 

    Teicher, A. (2022). How family charts became Mendelian: The changing content of pedigrees and its impact on the consolidation of genetic theory. History of the Human Sciences, 37(3-4), 85-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951221107558 

    Weizmann, F. (2010), From the ‘Village of a Thousand Souls’ to ‘Race Crossing in Jamaica’: Arnold Gesell, eugenics and child development. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 46(3), 263-275. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.20440 

  • Chapter 12 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does the concept of biopower help us understand about psychology’s role in eugenics? 
    2. In what ways did intelligence testing support systems of social inequality in the 20th century? 
    3. How did eugenics operate differently in Britain, the United States, and Scandinavia? 
    4. Why is it important to include dissenting voices, like Leta Hollingworth’s, in the history of psychology? 
    5. What are the legacies of eugenic thinking in psychology today?

  • Chapter 12 – Weblinks

    Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement – Dolan DNA Learning Centre, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (Educational Resource)

    http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/list3.pl

    This website contains a massive amount of educational information on the American Eugenics Movement, including articles on the scientific and social origins, research methods and popularization of the theory and its resulting social impacts.

    Bad Blood: The Story of Eugenics (Documentary Radio Series)

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001fd39

    This BBC Radio 4 Documentary series contains 6 30-minute episodes discussing the theoretical basis and history of Eugenics across the world, providing extensive information for students wanting to learn about the real-world implications of a theory like this.

    Race after Technology: The New Jim Code – Ruha Benjamin (Video Lecture)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSK2ygnuXxE

    This 1-hour lecture delivered by Ruha Benjamin engages with eugenics theories in a contemporary context, and provides excellent links to the biopower aspect of this chapter.

    Superior: The Return of Race Science – Angela Saini (Author Lecture)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oeDVTgkYVc

    This 1-hour and 30 minute YouTube lecture features author Angela Saini discussing the history of race science and its apparent re-emergence in the modern day. The lecture is both informative generally about eugenics theories and useful for students wanting to engage with this information in a contemporary context.

    Digital Public Library of America – Social Eugenics Pamphlets and Posters (Educational Archive)

    https://dp.la/search?q=eugenics

    This website offers extensive archived documentation of various pamphlets, books and posters concerning eugenics from the time in which these theories were being popularised, giving students access to real-world examples of the ways that these theoretical concepts were originally being presented.