# Auguste Forel: His Life and Enlightment

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Abdu'l-Missagh Ghadirian, Auguste Forel: His Life and Enlightment, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Auguste Forel; His Life and Enlightenment*
> A. M. Ghadirian, M.D.
> 
> I  n the autumn of 1921 a celebrated scientist, entomologist and psychiatrist of Europe became the recipient of “one
> of the most weighty” tablets ever written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “Lover of truth” (1), as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called him, Dr.
> Auguste Henri Forel (1848–1931) was renowned for his original scientific research and his dedicated services to the
> world of humanity.
> Born in 1848 at “La Gracieuse”, a country house near Morges, Switzerland, he spent his early childhood in
> Lonay and Nice. As a child he was extremely shy and bashful and he remained so throughout his youth. His mother,
> very fond of him, was over-anxious and unduly protective toward him and this limited to a great extent his
> relationship with other people. But out of his childhood isolation his imagination grew and he began to establish a
> profound friendship with nature and the insects. His fascination and genuine interest in the life and behavior of ants
> grew rapidly and from the age of 5 he began to collect different species of ants and study about them. This interest
> stayed with him all through his life and won him outstanding scientific credits for his original work and discoveries.
> Religion played quite an important role in his early life, although he never really had a deep feeling for it.
> His mother, an orthodox Christian, was quite anxious to see him learning the Old Testament and New Testament,
> although he preferred the Tales of the Thousand and One Nights and the stories of Tom Thumb and Little Red
> Riding-Hood. He began his school, first at Maison Muret near Neuchâtel and then continued in Morges and
> Lausanne, Switzerland. While in Lausanne he was firmly instructed by his mother to attend the church with absolute
> regularity and he did so. But doubts about religion continued to grow in his mind. The confirmation class of Pastor
> Bridal, which he was to attend faithfully, became quite boring for him. The answers he received to his frank and
> serious questions were “unwilling and evasive” (3) Then came the end of the class in 1864 and the decisive moment
> for young Forel to declare his belief in God and Christianity on confirmation day. With downcast eyes and trembling
> hands as he appeared in Pastor Bridal’s office before the ceremony, he expressed his lack of belief in what he was
> expected to believe. He was disdained by the angry Pastor and cried bitterly on his way home. He never returned
> and gave up church and religion altogether. Although very profound in his love for and dedicated in his service to
> humanity he remained quite skeptical about the subject of God and religion. He was particularly critical of the
> hypocrisy and disharmony which he saw in religious fanatics and their system of dogmas.
> Forel entered medicine at the University of Zurich and all through his medical school years he faithfully
> pursued his interest in the study of ants. His collection of colonies of ants expanded and he perfected himself in
> every aspect of his knowledge of this insect; physiology, biology, anatomy, systematic and even posology, as he
> experimented with the effect of some biochemical agents on them. His genuine zeal and unceasing curiosity in
> entomology, particularly learning about ants, constituted an enjoyable and productive part of his life as is reflected
> in his own memoirs. On a professional trip to Canada, he stopped once in Montreal. It was Sunday and he writes,
> “...of course, all the pious Canadians went to church on Sunday, so that on that day the business of the Lodge had to
> be suspended. I went into the great public park, where I spent the whole day looking for ants and there, I found a
> new slaveless variety of our European slave-holding ant, Formica Sanguinea!” (3) The collection of the colonies of
> ants in his lifetime was so vast and huge that after his death it took 7 truck-loads to carry them to the museum in
> Geneva (6).
> 
> Entomology and Medicine
> In the years 1871–74, the following important events took place in Forel’s life: He completed his prize essay and his
> book on the “Ants of Switzerland”. Upon the appearance of this excellent scientific treatise in entomology the Swiss
> Natural History Society awarded him the Schafli prize. In 1874 he published his book on the “Ants of Switzerland”
> and was awarded another prize, the Thore prize given by the Paris Academy of Science. Forel corresponded with
> Charles Darwin about his work on ants, sent him a volume of his book and received encouraging responses.
> In 1872, Forel completed his study of medicine and he began to show interest in psychiatry. At his medical
> graduation dinner, one of his guests raised this question: “Why is Forel deserting the ants for psychiatry?” The
> answer he got was, “Forel s’occupait de fourmis (fous remis) maintenant il passe aux fous à remettre!”* (3)
> Another important event in these years was a trip he took to Vienna where Forel spent seven months
> working with the brilliant brain specialist of his time, Meynert. Brain anatomy was a special area of his interest and
> he was known with respect and distinction in this field. In the spring of 1873, he went to Paris where he visited
> mental hospitals and explored psychiatric advancements.
> Career in Psychiatry
> Pursuing his interest in psychiatry, he began to work in a mental hospital in Munich, Germany. It was in this hospital
> that Forel initiated the novel concept of opening an observation ward for patients. Emil Kraepelin, world famous
> psychiatrist, who succeeded Forel in that hospital, advanced further this concept and developed a system of
> treatment in observation wards which was then generally adopted.
> His work in Munich led him to recognize the root of alcoholism and the important role of alcohol in mental
> disorders. He then launched a life-long campaign in prevention and treatment of alcoholic problems in society. He
> was an active member of the Anti-Alcoholic Society and the Society for the Improvement of Morality. He travelled
> extensively to numerous countries around the world and fought for his cause against alcoholic consumption and its
> destructive effects on the human mind and body. Forel’s view of alcohol in society and his concern for the right of
> mental patients explain some aspects of his professional ethics. His invaluable service to humanity merited him
> distinguished prizes and honors, particularly in Europe.
> In 1879 when he was only 30 years old he was appointed as the Director of Burgholzli Psychiatric Institute
> and Professor at the University of Zurich. Forel was quite gifted in exploring and explaining different frontiers of
> brain anatomy and psychiatry. His interests covered areas such as neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, forensic
> psychiatry, transitional stages between mental health and disorders, and the role of education in alcoholism and in
> mental health and disorders. He was also interested in true monism or unity between cerebral and psychic
> phenomena. He studied extensively the problem of sexuality and his book on “The Sexual Problem” (1905) gained a
> considerable recognition. (5) His interest in sexuality is more in respect to medical and anthropological curiosities.
> In respect to psychoanalysis, Forel recognizes some truth in Breuer’s cathartic method, but he utterly rejects what he
> considers Freud’s exaggerations concerning infantile sexuality, dream interpretation and so on. Some psychiatrists
> (5) believe that Auguste Forel and Eugene Bleuler (1857–1939) more likely had a basic orientation which had much
> in common with psychoanalysis although they did not subscribe themselves to that school of thought.
> In treatment he used hypnosis which he learned from Hippolyte Bernheim while working with him in
> Nancy, France. He taught hypnosis at the University of Zurich and he wrote a book on this subject (Der
> Hypnotismus, 1889) in which he supports Oskar Vogt’s (1870–1959) view that hypnosis is a “neurodynamic
> inhibition” caused by “cortical exhaustion.” (5) Forel also used psychotherapy and he was the founder of the Society
> of Psychotherapy and Medical Psychology. Adolf Meyer (1866–1950), one of the distinguished psychiatrists of the
> world and the founder of psychobiology, who made a tremendous contribution to modern American psychiatry was
> once a pupil and coworker of Auguste Forel.
> In July 1916 Forel resolved that he was then an active socialist, but his ideology of socialism, like his
> concept of psychiatry, was deeply rooted in ethics. He believed in socialism without violence and he disapproved of
> Communism. To him capitalism and alcoholism had much in common and he fought against both. He defined his
> own concept of socialism saying: “Socialism will either be ethical, or it will not be,” and he perceived ethics in the
> following light: “Ethics consists in practicing the higher altruism, in sacrificing the ego for others and in the highest
> sense for humanity, that is, for the social welfare of all.” (3)
> Forel was active in a number of internationally respected societies and associations. He was awarded an
> honorary degree of doctorate in Philosophy, and also doctorate in Law. He was a noble man with some characteristic
> qualities such as honesty, humility, frankness, and wit. He had a broad vision of the world and deplored ignorance
> and prejudice as some of the causes of wars.
> He married in 1883 and had six children. The eldest one, a son, Edouard, who studied medicine, died in
> 1912 causing Forel deep grief. In the following year he had a stroke with hemiplegia from which he recovered to
> some extent.
> 
> Forel and the Bahá’í Faith
> In December 1917, before he knew about the Bahá’í Faith, he published “Religion of Social Good”. In March 1919,
> he completed this idea by adding the term “Scientific Religion” to it. Then his new and rather elaborated concept of
> religion was called “Scientific Religion of Social Good” (4) which he withdrew when he recognized the Bahá’í.
> Faith. The completion of his creation of a scientific religion coincided with his discovery of the Bahá’í Faith, He
> came to know the Bahá’í Faith at the house of his son-in-law Dr. A. Brauns, who was a Bahá’í, in January 1921. But
> he apparently had some initial contact earlier in 1920 as he mentions in his will.
> Needless to say, his bitter past experiences with religious belief and bigoted clergymen made it extremely
> difficult for him to accept religious truth without reservation. When he heard about the Bahá’í teachings, two
> principles in particular, attracted him. (6) One was his discovery that in the Bahá’í Faith work is respected as
> worship. This excited him tremendously. The other was the Bahá’í position of complete abstinence from alcohol, a
> principle for which he had devoted his life. These and many other social principles attracted his heart, but in his
> searching mind he still needed answers to some of the very fundamental questions. On July 28, 1921 Forel wrote a
> letter to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and in that letter he raised a number of questions. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá answered his questions in a
> lengthy Tablet on September 21, 1921 (1) just about two months prior to His Own passing. The Guardian considered
> this Tablet as “one of the most weighty the Master ever wrote”. (2) In this Tablet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá praises Forel as a
> “revered personage, lover of truth…” He explains for him, among other things, the relationship between the mental
> faculties and the soul by comparing it to the relationship between the rays of the sun and the sun. The power of the
> mind is limited to the condition of the body and its natural senses, while the soul is a power that is free. That is to
> say, if the mind lost its capacity to reason, the power of the soul would still continue to exist. “Abdu’l-Bahá also
> elaborates on the question of Divinity about which Forel had been quite disillusioned and discouraged all through
> his life.
> Upon the receipt of this significant Tablet, Forel was full of joy and gratitude in being able to comprehend
> the divine realities. At last he had found his answers. From then on he proclaimed the Faith to many, either in public
> addresses or in private talks. His wife, Emma Steinherl, embraced the Faith and his daughter Marta Brauns Forel
> who also assisted him as his secretary became a devoted believer of Bahá’u’lláh and rendered meritorious services
> to the progress of the Cause in Europe. The name of the Faith began to ring in many scientific circles in which Forel
> was greatly respected. His beautiful nine-sided arbour overlooking Lac Leman in Switzerland was a gathering place
> on Sundays where he used to give the message of Bahá’u’lláh to many of his guests and visitors, including some of
> his fellow scientists. (6) Even during the last night of his life he was teaching his gardeners about the Faith. He
> believed that, “There is bound to be a world state, a universal language, and a universal religion.” He also stated,
> “The Bahá’í Movement for the oneness of mankind is, in my estimation, the greatest movement today working for
> universal peace and brotherhood”. (2)
> He died in 1931 and in his will he states, “In 1920 I learned at Karlsruhe of the supraconfessional world
> religion of the Bahá’ís, founded in the Orient seventy years ago by a Persian, Bahá’u’lláh. This is the real religion of
> ‘Social Welfare’ without dogmas or priests, binding together all men of this small terrestrial globe of ours. I have
> become a Bahá’í. May this religion live and prosper for the good of humanity! This is my most ardent desire.” (3)
> 
> * “Forel was busy with the ants; now he’s going to cure the mad!” It’s a play on words between fourmis (ants) and
> fous remis (recovered madmen).
> 
> References
> 1. ‘Abdul-Bah: “Tablet to Dr. Forel”. The Bahá’í Revelation; Bahá’í Publishing Trust, London W. C., I, 1955, 220–
> 231.
> 
> 2. Shoghi Effendi: God Passes By; Bahá’í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 1944, 307, 375.
> 
> 3. Auguste H. Forel: Out of My Life and My Work, (Translation) W. W. Norton & Company Inc. Publishers, N. Y.,
> 1937.
> 
> 4. Auguste H. Forel: ‘The World Vision of a Savant”. The Bahá’í World; volume III, 1930, Bahá’í Publishing
> Committee, New York, N. Y., 284—287.
> 
> 5. Alexander, F. C. and Selesnick, S. T.: The History of Psychiatry; Harper & Row, Publishers, N. Y., 1966, 173–
> 174.
> 
> 6. Zabih, I.: “Auguste Forel”. Journal of Ahang-i-Badí: no. 12: 117 B. E., Iran, PP. 378-380.
>
> — *Auguste Forel: His Life and Enlightment (Used by permission of the curator)*