Phrenology

Abstract

Phrenology has its origins in the research on the anatomy and physiology of the brain conducted by Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall in the late 18th century. This doctrine maintains that the different functions of the brain are located in specific areas of the cerebral cortex—one should say “the brain” as the cortex was not differentiated by Gall or the phrenologists. Indeed, the cerebellum was included in their system, with a parallel between its size and the intensity of aptitude, tendency, or expression in the behavior of the functions represented. Gall’s new “science,” although erroneous in its assessments and methods, forced a rethinking of the physiology of the brain.

Gall believed that this doctrine allows one to understand the functional anatomy of the brain. His disciple and collaborator, Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, considered it as a revolutionary new philosophy of human nature and a formidable tool for implementing individual and social change. Edinburgh lawyer George Combe was one of the leading representatives of this new vision of phrenology.

Although winning many supporters, it always remained marginal and contested in the scientific community of the time. Gradually, phrenology lost its scientific prestige and ceased to be considered an adequate method for understanding brain physiology, becoming instead a popular pseudoscience, whose leading representatives are the so-called bump readers.