Phrenology

A 19th century phrenology chart. The inscription on the neck reads, "Know yourself."

Phrenology is a theory which claims to be able to determine character, personality traits and criminality on the basis of the shape of the head (i.e., by reading "bumps" and "fissures"). Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall around 1800, phrenology was based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions (see in particular, Brodmann's areas) or modules. These areas were said to be proportional to a given individual's propensities and the importance of a given mental faculty, as well as the overall conformation of the cranial bone to reflect differences among individuals.

The discipline was very popular in the 19th century, influentencing early psychiatry and modern neuroscience. Phrenology, which focuses on personality and character, should be distinguished from craniometry, which is the study of skull size, weight and shape, and physiognomy, the study of facial features. However, these disciplines have claimed the ability to predict personality traits or intelligence (in fields such as anthropology/ethnology), and were sometimes posed to "scientifically" justify racism.

Etymology

The term phrenology comes from a combination of the Greek words φρήν, phrēn, which translates as "mind", and λόγος, logos, which means "knowledge". Phrenology, hence, is the study of the mind.

History

A definition of phrenology with chart from Webster's Academic Dictionary, circa 1895

Phrenology was not the first academic discipline to attempt to connect specific human characteristics with parts of the body: the Greek philosopher Aristotle attempted to localize anger in the liver, and Renissance medicine claimed that human's were composed of the Four humors. Phrenology was certainly influenced by these earlier practices.

The German physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) was one of the first to consider the brain to be the source of all mental activity and is considered the founding father of phrenology. In the introduction to his main work The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular, Gall makes the following statement in regard to his doctrinal principles, which comprise the intellectual foundation of phrenology:

• That moral and intellectual faculties are innate
• That their exercise or manifestation depends on organization
• That the brain is the organ of all the propensities, sentiments and faculties
• That the brain is composed of as many particular organs as there are propensities, sentiments and faculties which differ essentially from each other.
• That the form of the head or cranium represents the form of the brain, and thus reflects the relative development of the brain organs.

Through careful observation and extensive experimentation, Gall believed he had linked aspects of character, called faculties, to precise organs in the brain. Gall's most important collaborator was Johann Spurzheim (1776-1832), who successfully disseminated phrenology in the United Kingdom and the United States. He popularized the term phrenology.

Other significant authors on the subject include the Scottish brothers George Combe (1788-1858) and Andrew Combe (1797-1847). George Combe was the author of some of the most popular works on phrenology and mental hygiene, e.g., The Constitution of Man and Elements of Phrenology.

The American brothers Lorenzo Niles Fowler (1811-1896) and Orson Squire Fowler (1809-1887) were leading phrenologists of their time. Orson, together with associates Samuel Wells and Nelson Sizer, ran the phrenological firm and publishing house Fowlers & Wells in New York City. Lorenzo spent much of his life in England where he set up the famous phrenological publishing house, L.N Fowler & Co., where he gained considerable fame with his phrenology head (a china head showing the phrenological faculties), which has become a symbol of the discipline.

1848 edition of American Phrenological Journal published by Fowlers & Wells, New York City.

In the Victorian age, phrenology was often taken quite seriously. Many prominent public figures such as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (a college classmate and initial partner of Orson Fowler) actively promoted phrenology as a source of psychological insight and personal growth. British Prime Minister Lloyd George was known to have a keen interest in the subject, once contriving a meeting with C.P. Snow after noticing that the author had "an interestingly shaped head." Thousands of people consulted phrenologists to get advice in various matters, such as hiring personnel or finding suitable marriage partners. However, phrenology was rejected by mainstream academia, and was excluded from the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The popularity of phrenology fluctuated throughout the 19th century, with some researchers comparing the field to astrology, chiromancy, or merely a fairground attraction, while others wrote serious scientific articles on the subject.

Phrenology was also very popular in the United States, where automatic devices for phrenological analysis were devised. One such Automatic Electric Phrenometer is displayed in the [Collection of Questionable Medical Devices in the Science Museum of Minnesota in Saint Paul.

In the early 20th century, phrenology benefitted from revived interest, partly fueled by the studies of evolutionism, criminology and anthropology (as pursued by Cesare Lombroso). The most prominent British phrenologist of the 20th century was the famous London psychiatrist Bernard Hollander (1864-1934). His main works, The Mental Function of the Brain (1901) and Scientific Phrenology (1902) are an appraisal of the Gall's teachings. Hollander introduced a quantitative approach to the phrenological diagnosis, defining a methodology for measuring the skull, and comparing the measurements with statistical averages.

Phrenology was practiced by some scientists promoting racist ideologies, including Nazism. They used (often self-contradictory) phrenological claims, among other "biological evidence," as a "scientific" basis for Aryan racial superiority.

In Belgium, Paul Bouts (1900-1999) began studying phrenology from a pedagogical background, using the phrenological analysis to define an individual pedagogy. Combining phrenology with typology and graphology, he coined a global approach known as psychognomy.

Prof. Bouts, a Roman Catholic priest, became the main promoter of renewed 20th century interest in phrenology and psychognomy in Belgium. He was also active in Brazil and Canada, where he founded institutes for characterology. His works Psychognomie and Les Grandioses Destinées individuelle et humaine dans la lumière de la Caractérologie et de l'Evolution cérébro-cranienne are considered standard works in the field. In the latter work, which examines the subject of paleoanthropology, Bouts developed a teleological and orthogenetical view on a perfecting evolution, from the paleo-encephalical skull shapes of prehistoric man, which he considered still prevalent in criminals and savages, towards a higher form of mankind. Bouts died on March 7, 1999, after which his work has been continued by the Dutch foundation PPP (Per Pulchritudinem in Pulchritudine), operated by Anette Müller, one of Bouts' students.

Empirical refutation induced most scientists to abandon phrenology as a science by the early 20th century. For example, various cases were observed of clearly aggressive persons displaying a well-developed "benevolent organ," findings that contradicted the logic of the discipline. With advances in the studies of psychology and psychiatry, many scientists became skeptical of the claim that human character can be determined by simple, external measures.

Methodology

Phrenology was a complex process that involved feeling the bumps in the skull to determine an individual's psychological attributes. Franz Joseph Gall first believed that the brain was made up of 27 individual 'organs' that created one's personality, with the first 19 of these 'organs' believed to exist in other animal species. Phrenologists would run their fingertips and palms over the skulls of their patients to feel for enlargements or indentations. The phrenologist would usually take measurements of the overall head size using a caliper. With this information, the phrenologist would assess the character and temperament of the patient and address each of the 27 "brain organs." This type of analysis was used to predict the kinds of relationships and behaviors to which the patient was prone. In its heyday during the 1820s-1840s, phrenology was often used to predict a child's future life, to assess prospective marriage partners and to provide background checks for job applicants.

Gall's list of the "brain organs" was lengthy and specific, as he believed that each bump or indentation in a patient's skull corresponded to his "brain map." An enlarged bump meant that the patient utilized that particular "organ" extensively. The 27 areas were highly varied in function, from sense of color, to the likelihood of religiosity, to the potential to commit murder. Each of the 27 "brain organs" was found in a specific area of the skull. As the phrenologist felt the skull, he could refer to a numbered diagram showing where each functional area was believed to be located.

The 27 "brain organs" were:

1. The instinct of reproduction (located in the cerebellum).

2. The love of one's offspring.

3. Affection and friendship.

4. The instinct of self-defense and courage; the tendency to get into fights.

5. The carnivorous instinct; the tendency to murder.

6. Guile; acuteness; cleverness.

7. The feeling of property; the instinct of stocking up on food (in animals); covetousness; the tendency to steal.

8. Pride; arrogance; haughtiness; love of authority; loftiness.

9. Vanity; ambition; love of glory (a quality "beneficent for the individual and for society").

10. Circumspection; forethought.

11. The memory of things; the memory of facts; educability; perfectibility.

12. The sense of places; of space proportions.

13. The memory of people; the sense of people.

14. The memory of words.

15. The sense of language; of speech.

16. The sense of colors.

17. The sense of sounds; the gift of music.

18. The sense of connectedness between numbers.

19. The sense of mechanics, of construction; the talent for architecture.

20. Comparative sagacity.

21. The sense of metaphysics.

22. The sense of satire; the sense of witticism.

23. The poetical talent.

24. Kindness; benevolence; gentleness; compassion; sensitivity; moral sense.

25. The faculty to imitate; the mimic.

26. The organ of religion.

27. The firmness of purpose; constancy; perseverance; obstinacy.

Phrenology as a Pseudoscience

Phrenology has long been dismissed as a pseudoscience, in the wake of neurological advances. During the discipline's heyday, phrenologists including Gall committed many errors in the name of science. In the book, The Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method by Stephen S. Carey, it is explained that pseudoscience can be defined as "fallacious applications of the scientific method" by today's standards. Phrenologists inferred dubious inferences between bumps in people's skulls and their personalities, claiming that the bumps were the determinant of personality. Some of the more valid assumptions of phrenology (e.g., that mental processes can be localized in the brain) remain in modern neuroimaging techniques and modularity of mind theory. Through advancements in modern medicine and neuroscience, the scientific community has generally concluded that feeling conformations of the outer skull is not an accurate predictor of behavior.

Popular culture

• Charlotte Brontë, as well as her two famous Bronte sisters, display the belief in phrenology in their works.

• The television personality Stephen Colbert, played by the comedian of the same name, claims to be a proponent of phrenology. In the February 8, 2007 episode of The Colbert Report, Colbert waved off "speculation" about a presidential bid, claiming that he must first sit down with his family, and his phrenologist. "I know these lumps are trying to tell me something." He said, adding, "Phrenology is the study of lumps on your head. It'd be another good campaign slogan." [2]

• Popular Indian-English writer Amitav Ghosh's first novel The Circle of Reason (1986) has one of the main characters, Balaram practice phrenology obsessively.

• The QI Book, The Book of General Ignorance, has a "phrenology bust" pictured on the dust jacket.

• On the popular television sitcom The Simpsons, the character Mr. Burns practiced phrenology in the episode "Mother Simpson," prompting his assistant Smithers to inform him that it was "dismissed as quackery 160 years ago."

• Terry Pratchett, in his Discworld series of books, describes the practice of Retro-phrenology as the practice of altering someone's character by giving them bumps on the head. You can go into a shop in Ankh-Morpork and order an artistic temperament with a tendency to introspection. What you actually get is hit on the head with a large hammer, but it keeps the money in circulation and gives people something to do. This was first described in Mr Midshipman Easy, where a vacuum pump was used to enlarge organs.

• The comedy-musical play Heid (pronounced 'Heed', a Scottish inflection of the word 'Head') by Forbes Masson alluded to the phrenology work of George Combe, citing the pseudoscience's influence on a young Charles Darwin as an inspiration for writers.

• The hip-hop group The Roots released an album in 2002 called Phrenology, using the term to discuss race.

• The film Pi depicts the main character, Max, outlining a portion of his skull according to a phrenology chart and proceeding to drill into that section to destroy a part of his brain that contained important information of a mathematical sequence that he thought nobody should know.

• The film Men at Work contains a joke about a phrenology bust.

• Several literary critics have noted the influence of phrenology (and physiognomy) in Edgar Allan Poe's fiction.

• In the episode "Duh Bomb" in the TV show Kenan & Kel, a woman practices phrenology on Kel's head.

• The Online store "Inner Coma Clothing Co.[3]." Refers to the section of the site that sells hats as its "Phrenology" section.

• The cover art of the Bob Schneider album Lonelyland depicts a phrenology chart.

• In the computer game American McGee's Alice, a phrenology chart appears on the wall of the initial room in the level Skool Daze. A portion on the back of the neck is labeled "fear."

• In the They Might Be Giants album The Else, the song "Contrecoup" mentions phrenology at numerous points throughout the song.

• Pearl Jam's 1994 album Vitalogy displays a phrenology chart in the booklet.

• Phrenology and other 19th century medicinal practices are humorously parodied in the game manual for Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist. You can read the manual here.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Debby Applegate, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. Doubleday, 2006. Picture of Fowler Phrenology Head: Fowler Phrenology Head Stephen S. Carey, "The Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method." Thomson, 2004.

External links

• Readings in Phrenology, selections from texts by Johan Gaspar Spurzheim and George Combe.
• Phrenology Heads for Illustration, Large and small head.
• History of Phrenology on the Web by John van Wyhe, PhD. The most extensive source of phrenological texts available on the web.
• The Phrenology Pages, a Belgian site advocating phrenology.
• Phrenology. The History of Cerebral Localization. Article by Renato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD in Brain & Mind online article.
• Phrenology Today! Russian portal, advocating phrenology. Articles on so-called modern phrenology.
• Examples of phrenological tools can be seen in The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
• Joseph Vimont: Traité de phrénologie humaine et comparée. (Paris, 1832-1835). Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.
• Phrenology: History of a Classic Pseudoscience - by Steven Novella MD
• Historical Deadwood Newspaper accounts of C. R. Broadbent well known speaker on Phrenology and Physiology visit Deadwood SD 1878
• The Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll
• Who Named It? Franz Joseph Gall Biography of Franz Joseph Gall and his creation: Phrenology.
• Phrenology by George Burgess (1829-1905) George Burgess, Phrenologist in Bristol, England 1861-1901.
• Corrective Phrenology
• Chart of the Phrenological Organs of the Brain

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