Kanner was taken aback when his hero Meyer showed deference to a man who didn’t seem to know his basic neurology. After Schilder mentioned that he had treated a schizophrenic teenager with psychoanalysis because the “sex center” and “fear center” of the brain are adjacent, he could no longer contain himself. Kanner pointedly asked if people call their spouses “honey” because the sex center and the sugar center of the brain are also close together. A pained silence fell over the room, and Meyer quietly instructed the stenographer to strike Kanner’s remark from the record.
