Phrenology

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Phrenology
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In the beginning

• Phrenology came from the theories of the
  idiosyncratic Viennese physician Franz Joseph
  Gall (1758-1828).

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In a nutshell

• Phrenology
• Popular 1819/1820 in Britain (Victorian Period)
• Coined by the physician T.I.M. Forster in 1815.
• Greek Roots phren 'mind' and logos
  'study/discourse'.
• Gall never approved of the term phrenology. He
  called his system simply organology and
  Schädellehre and later simply 'the physiology of
  the brain.

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The basic assumptions of Gall

• That moral and intellectual faculties are innate.
• That their exercise or manifestation depends on
  organization. 
• That the brain is the organ contains all of the
  capacities for sentiments and faculties. 
• That the brain is composed of many particular
  organs that fulfill different intellectual and
  emotional capacities. 
• That the form of the head or cranium represents
  the form of the brain, and thus reflects the
  relative development of the brain organs. 

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The bottom line

• So it was believed that by examining the shape
  and unevenness of a head or skull, one could
  discover the development of the particular
  cerebral "organs" responsible for different
  intellectual aptitudes and character traits.

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Example

• For example, a prominent protuberance in the
  forehead at the position attributed to the organ
  of Benevolence was meant to indicate that the
  individual had a "well developed" organ of
  Benevolence and would therefore be expected to
  exhibit benevolent behavior.

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Abuse of the System

• In the early 19th century, Phrenology gained a
  rapidly growing interest.
• Abuse of the science for commercial purposes in
  the Victorian period
• Phrenological Parlors
• Stain the image of Phrenology as a real science,
  and their bad influence lives up to today

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Twentieth Century Revival

• Evolutionism
• Criminal Anthropology
• London psychiatrist Bernard HOLLANDER The Mental
  Function of the Brain (1901) and Scientific
  Phrenology (1902) are an objective appraisal of
  the teachings of Gall.
• Prof. Bouts, Belgium psychologist. Founded
  institutes for characterology in Canada and
  Brazil. His works "Psychognomie" and "Les
  Grandioses Destinées  

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20th Century Attacks on Phrenology

• Again under attack because of the development of
  psycho-analysis.
• Subjective approach psychoanalysis clearly
  opposed objective approach Phrenology. 
  Furthermore, fascist ideologies like Nazism have
  misused some elements of craniometry in the
  framework of their infamous racist doctrines.
• These theories, albeit completely distinct from
  scientific Phrenology, have given a very bad name
  to the science. 

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