PHRENOLOGY

Introduction

Phrenology (from Ancient Greek φρήν (phrēn) 'mind', and λόγος

(logos) 'knowledge') is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps
on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the brain is the
organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or
modules. Although both of those ideas have a basis in reality, phrenology
generalized beyond empirical knowledge in a way that departed from science. The
central phrenological notion that measuring the contour of the skull can predict
personality traits is discredited by empirical research. Developed by German
physician Franz Joseph Gall in 1796, the discipline was influential in the 19th
century, especially from about 1810 until 1840. The principal British centre for
phrenology was Edinburgh, where the Edinburgh Phrenological Society was
established in 1820.

Phrenology is today recognized as pseudoscience. The methodological rigor

of phrenology was doubtful even for the standards of its time, since many authors
already regarded phrenology as pseudoscience in the 19th century.[11][12][13][14]
Phrenological thinking was influential in the psychiatry and psychology of the 19th
century. Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and emotions are located in
specific areas of the brain is considered an important historical advance toward
neuropsychology.

While phrenology itself has long been discredited, the study of the inner
surface of the skulls of archaic human species allows modern researchers to obtain
information about the development of various areas of the brains of those species,

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and thereby infer something about their cognitive and communicative abilities, [17]
and possibly even something about their social life. Due to its limitations, this
technique is sometimes criticized as "paleo-phrenology".

DEFINITION

Phrenology is the study of personality traits, talents, and mental abilities as a

consequence of skull curvature.

PRINCIPLE OF PHRENOLOGY

The principles upon which phrenology was based were five:

(1) The brain is the organ of the mind;

(2) Human mental powers can be analyzed into a definite number of independent
faculties;

(3) These faculties are innate, and each has its seat in a definite region of the
surface of the brain;

(4) The size of each such region is the measure of the degree to which the faculty
seated in it forms a constituent element in the character of the individual; and

(5) The correspondence between the outer surface of the skull and the contour of
the brain-surface beneath is sufficiently close to enable the observer to recognize
the relative sizes of these several organs by the examination of the outer surface of
the head.

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INFLUENCE OF PHRENOLOGY

While phrenology has long been identified as a pseudoscience, it did help make
important contributions to the field of neurology. Thanks to the focus on
phrenology, researchers became more interested in the concept of cortical
localization, an idea that suggested that certain mental functions were localized in
particular areas of the brain.

While Gall and other phrenologists incorrectly believed that bumps on the head
corresponded to personality and abilities, they were correct in believing that
different mental abilities were associated with different areas of the brain. Modern
research methods allow scientists to use sophisticated tools such as MRI and PET
scans to learn more about the localization of functions within the brain.

PHRENOLOGY AS IT AFFECT INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE

“The brain, […] being the organ of the mind, the next inquiry is, [w]hether is it a
single part, manifesting the whole mind equally, or an aggregate of parts, each
subserving a particular mental power? All the phenomena are at variance with the
former, and in harmony with the latter, or phrenological, view,” he wrote.

“The brain must be a combination of parts performing distinct functions,” he

argued. He had five reasons for this:

1. All the powers of the mind are not equally developed at the same time, but
appear in succession at different periods of life.
2. A person who has musical talent may not be very skilled at painting, and
vice versa, suggesting that different talents “reside” in different parts of the
brain, which may be more or less developed.

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 3. In dreaming, one or more faculties are awake while others are asleep; and if
all acted through the instrumentality of one and the same organ, they could
not be in opposite states at the same time.”
4. Psychiatric issues affect certain behaviors and functions and not others,
suggesting that each “faculty” is linked to a different part of the brain.
5. Partial injuries of the brain do not equally affect all the mental powers.”

Reportedly, Combe was such a believer in the accuracy of phrenology

assessments that he only married his wife after they had both undergone such an
examination to determine whether or not they were well suited for each other.

THE ORIGINAL LIST OF THE INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE

The original list of 26 organs of the individual differences are as follows:

(1) Instinct to reproduce;

(2) Parental love; (3) fidelity;

(4) Self - defense;

(5) Murder;

(6) Cunningness;

(7) Sense of property;

(8) Pride;

(9) Ambition and vanity;

(10) Caution;

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(11) Educational aptness;

(12) Sense of location;

(13) Memory;

(14) Verbal memory;

(15) Language;

(16) Color perception;

(17) Musical talent;

(18) Arithmetic, counting, and time;

(19) Mechanical skill;

(20) Wisdom;

(21) Metaphysical lucidity;

(22) Wit, causality, and sense of inference;

(23) Poetic talent;

(24) Good-nature, compassion, and moral sense;

(25) Mimic;

(26) And sense of God and religion.

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REFERENCES

Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In

Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, pp. 195-203. California: Skeptics Society.

Hines, T. (2002). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. New York: Prometheus

Books. p. 200

Fodor, Jerry A. (1983). Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-56025-9 p.14, 23, 131

Bunge, M. (2018). From a Scientific Point of View: Reasoning and Evidence Beat
Improvisation across Fields. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholar Publishing. p.
74

Parker Jones, O., Alfaro-Almagro, F., & Jbabdi, S. (2018). "An empirical, 21st
century evaluation of phrenology." Cortex, Volume 106. pp. 26–35. doi:
doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2018.04.011

Graham, Patrick. (2001) Phrenology [videorecording (DVD)]: revealing the

mysteries of the mind. Richmond Hill, Ont.: American Home Treasures.
ISBN 0-7792-5135-0

Bunge, M. (1985). Treatise on Basic Philosophy. Volume 7 (Part 2). Dordrecht:

Reidel Publishing Company. p. 54

Stiles, Anne (2012). Popular Fiction and Brain Science in the Late Nineteenth
Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 11

Cooter, R. (1990). The Conservatism of "Pseudoscience". In Philosophy of Science

and the Occult. New York: State University of New York Press. p. 156