author
Auguste Forel
1848–1931
A Swiss scientist of remarkable range, he moved between psychiatry, brain research, and the close study of ants. His life and work show how nineteenth-century science could be both brilliantly curious and deeply entangled with troubling ideas.
3 Audiobooks
Sexual ethics
by Auguste Forel
About the author
Born in Switzerland in 1848, Auguste Forel became known as a psychiatrist, neuroanatomist, and one of the great early students of ants. He studied medicine in Zürich, later led the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, and gained recognition for research on brain structure as well as for detailed observations of insect behavior.
Forel also wrote widely for general readers, especially about the social life of ants, helping bring entomology to a broader audience. His career reached across medicine, natural history, and public debate, and he was remembered in Switzerland as an influential scientific figure.
At the same time, his legacy is not a simple one. Reliable sources note his support for eugenic ideas, which makes him a figure best understood with both admiration for his scientific curiosity and honesty about the harmful beliefs he also promoted.