The reflex is physiology below the collar button. Psychology is physiology above the collar button.

Fischer’s epigram draws a deliberately blunt boundary between bodily reflexes and mental life, only to collapse it again. By calling reflexes “physiology below the collar button” and psychology “physiology above” it, he implies that what we label as ‘mind’ is not a separate substance but continuous with bodily processes—especially those of the brain and nervous system. The humor of the collar-button line underscores how arbitrary disciplinary borders can be: the same biological principles govern both spinal reflexes and higher cognition, differing mainly in anatomical location and complexity. The remark fits a broadly materialist, medically inflected view of psychology as grounded in physiology rather than metaphysics.