Robert Maxwell Young's first book Mind, Brain and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century (1970), written from 1960 to 1965, still merits reading as a study of the naturalization of mind and its relation to social thought in Victorian Britain. I examine the book from two perspectives that give the volume its unique character: first, Young's interest in psychology, which he considered should be used to inform humane professional practices and be the basis of social reform; second, new approaches to the history of scientific ideas. I trace Young's intellectual interests to the Yale Philosophy Department, the Cambridge Department of Experimental Psychology and a new history and philosophy of science community. Although Young changed his political outlook and historiography radically after 1965, he always remained faithful to ideas about thought and practice described in Mind, Brain.

罗伯特·麦克斯韦·杨（Robert Maxwell Young）的第一本书《十九世纪的思想，大脑与适应》（1970年），写于1960年至1965年，仍然值得一读，因为它是对维多利亚时代英国思想的自然化及其与社会思想的关系的研究。我从两种角度审视这本书，这本书赋予了本书独特的特征：首先，扬对心理学的兴趣，他认为扬对心理学的兴趣应该被用来指导人性化的专业实践，并成为社会改革的基础。第二，科学思想史的新方法。我将杨的学术兴趣追溯到耶鲁大学哲学系，剑桥大学实验心理学系以及一个新的历史和科学界。尽管扬在1965年后从根本上改变了他的政治观和史学，但他始终忠实于《头脑，大脑》中描述的思想和实践观念。