Clinical: M. Hamblin Smith. The Definition and Diagnosis of Moral Imbecility. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 1926, Vol. VI, p. 47.

Hamblin Smith refuses to recognize the existence of moral imbecility as all the alleged cases which he has seen could either have been defined as feeble-mindedness, or else have been cases of definite psychosis, or of mental conflict and repression. The definition is superfluous and misleading. The term should be dropped. He dismisses the idea that any absolute system of morality can exist and points out that those observers who contend for the existence of a 'moral sense' seemed compelled, logically, to assert the existence of some absolute system and appear to think that their system is infallible, or that the so-called absolute system is variable. Every person is born without moral sense; later, when the pleasure-principle comes into conflict with the reality-principle, the individual adapts himself to his environment. The existence of the herd instinct does not imply that man is born with a desire to adapt himself to society. Many instances of so-called moral imbecility are actually cases of mental conflict which theoretically are curable. Many cases exhibiting active anti-social characteristics are really cases of dementia præcox; these are the only ones which could properly be called 'moral imbeciles'.