Phrenology (A Victorian Science)

"What is Phrenology and when was it practiced. Phrenology, in layperson's terms, is the art of reading a person's character and personality by the size and prominence of bumps on different parts of a person's head.

Phrenology was first developed by Franz Joseph Gall, a German physician, in 1796. He believed that the brain is the organ of the mind and that it is made of multiple distinct faculties, each one representing a separate organ in the brain. A bit wordy, but so far so good; it sounds reasonable and these days we would think of these separate regions as the speech, language and vision centers etc.

However, his view was that the size of these organs, all things being equal, must be a measure of its power and that shape of the brain is determined by the development of the various organs. And from this, as the skull takes on the shape of the brain the surface of the skull could be read as an accurate index of the psychological aptitudes of the person; in the absence of the scientific knowledge we have today about the brain I guess it was good reasoning!'

If you want to read more, follow this link please:

http://hubpages.com/education/victorian_phrenology

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"...  What was phrenology?

Phrenology was a science of character divination, faculty psychology, theory of brain and what the 19th-century phrenologists called "the only true science of mind." Phrenology came from the theories of the idiosyncratic Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828). The basic tenets of Gall's system were:

1.The brain is the organ of the mind.

2. The mind is composed of multiple, distinct, innate faculties.

3. Because they are distinct, each faculty must have a separate seat or "organ" in the brain.

4. The size of an organ, other things being equal, is a measure of its power.

5. The shape of the brain is determined by the development of the various organs.

6. As the skull takes its shape from the brain, the surface of the skull can be read as an accurate index of psychological aptitudes and tendencies.

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. 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 behaviour."....

Please, see the link for more detail....

http://www.historyofphrenology.org.uk/overview.htm

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Phrenology

Phrenology (from Greek φρήν (phrēn), meaning "mind", and λόγος (logos), meaning "knowledge") is a pseudomedicine primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, 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 extrapolated beyond empirical knowledge in a way that departed from science. Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall in 1796, the discipline was very popular 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.

Although now regarded as an obsolete amalgamation of primitive neuroanatomy with moral philosophy, phrenological thinking was influential in 19th-century psychiatry. Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and emotions are located in specific parts of the brain is considered an important historical advance toward neuropsychology." .....

Please, see the link for more information.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

Phrenology was put forward in 1800 and was very popular in the 19th century. Now it is considered a pseudo-science. Nevertheless, it contributed to relate areas of the brain with some brain functions.

Dear @Hazim Hashim Tahir,

Thank you very much for your valuable comments and useful links.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @César Rodrigues,

Thank you very much for answer.

Regards, Shafagat

Phrenology one of the first pseudo-sciences in the modern sense, the main provision of which is the relationship of the human psyche and the structure of the surface of his skull. The founder of phrenology is a Austrian physician and anatomist Franz Joseph Gall. He claimed that all mental properties of supposedly localized in different parts of the brain, and believed that the differences in the cerebral convolutions can be identified by the convexity ( "bumps") in the relevant section of the skull, and when underdevelopment of the brain - by Trench.

Phrenology was popular in the first half of the XIX century. But the development of neurophysiology has shown the failure of Gall's theory, and the society gradually lost interest in phrenology. In fact, mental properties of the person is not determined by the relief surface of the brain. In addition, the shape of the skull does not repeat the form of the brain.

Dear @Barbara Sawicka ,

Thank you very much for comments.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear Shafagat,

Phrenology was a science of character divination, faculty psychology, theory of brain and what the 19th-century phrenologists called "the only true science of mind." Phrenology came from the theories of the idiosyncratic Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828). The basic tenets of Gall's system were:

1.The brain is the organ of the mind.

2. The mind is composed of multiple, distinct, innate faculties.

3. Because they are distinct, each faculty must have a separate seat or "organ" in the brain.

4. The size of an organ, other things being equal, is a measure of its power.

5. The shape of the brain is determined by the development of the various organs.

6. As the skull takes its shape from the brain, the surface of the skull can be read as an accurate index of psychological aptitudes and tendencies. (For a description in Gall's own words see: Letter to von Retzer)

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=19&ved=0ahUKEwiN8JbllIXQAhVLpI8KHcupD4AQFghNMBI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublicdomainreview.org%2Fcollections%2Fphrenology-diagrams-from-vaughts-practical-character-reader-1902%2F&usg=AFQjCNH0vEXxRdeIq8Zl-1A1plWOy5meqg

Commentary: Law and Phrenology

By: Pierre Schlag 

"As the intellectual credentials of American law become increasingly dubious, the question arises: how has this discipline been intellectually organized to sustain belief among its academic practitioners? This Commentary explores the nineteenth-century pseudo-science of phrenology as a way of gaining insight into the intellectual organization of American law. Although there are, obviously, significant differences, the parallels are at once striking and edifying. Both phrenology and law emerged as disciplinary knowledges through attempts to cast them in the form of sciences. In both cases, the "sciences" were aesthetically organized around a fundamental ontology of reifications and animisms - "faculties" in the case of phrenology, "doctrines" and "principles" in the case of law. Both disciplines developed into extremely intricate productions of self-referential complexity. In both cases, the disciplinary edifice was maintained by disciplinary thinkers who sought confirming evidence of the truth (and value) of their enterprise and who went to great lengths to avoid disconfirming evidence. Finally, the surface plausibility of both disciplines was maintained through a tacit reliance on folk beliefs (folk- frames and folk-ontologies) that were recast in professionalized jargons. Both the similarities and the differences between phrenology and law lead to a fundamental question: does the discipline of law know anything, and if so, what? Let us dismiss prejudice, and calmly listen to evidence and reason; . . . let us inquire, examine, and decide. These, I trust, are the sentiments of the reader; and on the faith of their being so, I shall proceed . . . to state very briefly the principles . . ."

Follow this link to download full paper:

https://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/pubpdfs/schlag/SchlagHLR.pdf

Phrenology (A Victorian Science)

"What is Phrenology and when was it practiced. Phrenology, in layperson's terms, is the art of reading a person's character and personality by the size and prominence of bumps on different parts of a person's head.

Phrenology was first developed by Franz Joseph Gall, a German physician, in 1796. He believed that the brain is the organ of the mind and that it is made of multiple distinct faculties, each one representing a separate organ in the brain. A bit wordy, but so far so good; it sounds reasonable and these days we would think of these separate regions as the speech, language and vision centers etc.

However, his view was that the size of these organs, all things being equal, must be a measure of its power and that shape of the brain is determined by the development of the various organs. And from this, as the skull takes on the shape of the brain the surface of the skull could be read as an accurate index of the psychological aptitudes of the person; in the absence of the scientific knowledge we have today about the brain I guess it was good reasoning!'

If you want to read more, follow this link please:

http://hubpages.com/education/victorian_phrenology

phrenology: 'the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities'.

What Is Phrenology?

http://med.stanford.edu/medwebtraining/shc-class/student5/treatments/phrenology-lab.html

The Phrenological Chart

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n01/frenolog/frenmap.htm

Phrenology

PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC PRACTICE

https://www.britannica.com/topic/phrenology

Advanced Phrenology at Wellcome

http://www.ryanmillar.com/advanced-phrenology-at-wellcome/

Phrenology: The Secrets In Your Skull

http://www.strangerdimensions.com/2014/07/11/phrenology-secrets-skull/

Dear @Seyed Mehdi Mohammadizadeh,

Thanks a lot for your perfect answers and useful links.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear Jetty Ramadevi,

Thank you very much for comments and links.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Prem Baboo,

Thank you very much for interesting answer  and useful links.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

“See, phrenology is this old Victorian science, which claimed you could determine the dominant traits of a man's personality by studying the bumps on his head. The size and position of these bumps indicated different personality traits. See? Now, /retro-phrenology/ says, why not change a man's personality by hitting him on the head with a hammer, till you raise just the right bumps in the right places!"

"One of us needs a lot more drinks," said Alex. "That's starting to make sense.”

                        ― Simon R. Green, Something from the Nightside

Dear @Hazim Hashim Tahir,

Thank you very much for comments.

Regards, Shafagat

I think the physiognomy of Science acquired the sense that the person is not acquired by the study, but rather develop its capacity by Mahmoah of exercise-related mental serenity and mental telepathy

Dear @H. K. Hisham,

Thank you very much for answer.

Regards, Shafagat

Phrenology, despite its common perception as a pseudoscience, began as a legitimate biological and physiological science; it was transformed into a pseudopsychology based on weaknesses in the original theory, and eventually into a profit-oriented practice that was anything but scientific.

http://knight.as.cornell.edu/publicationsprizes/discoveries/discoveriesfall1995/01brentgibson.pdf

Dear @Krishnan Umachandran,

Thank you very much for answer and link.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear Shafagat,

Phrenology (from Greek φρήν (phrēn), meaning "mind", and λόγος (logos), meaning "knowledge") is a pseudomedicine primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, 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 extrapolated beyond empirical knowledge in a way that departed from science.

Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall in 1796, the discipline was very popular 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.

Although now regarded as an obsolete amalgamation of primitive neuroanatomy with moral philosophy, phrenological thinking was influential in 19th-century psychiatry. Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and emotions are located in specific parts of the brain is considered an important historical advance toward neuropsychology.

For detailed information, you may go through the following link: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Dear @Dilip Kumar Kundu ,

Thank you very much for answer and link.

Regards, Shafagat

Phrenology: This term came into general use around 1819/1820 in Britain where it was coined by the physician T.I.M. Forster in 1815. It is derived from the Greek roots: phren: 'mind' and logos: 'study/discourse'. Gall himself never approved of the term phrenology. He called his system simply organology and Schädellehre and later simply 'the physiology of the brain'. The name phrenology really shows the far-reaching pretensions of the phrenologists to extend their authority over a greater area than just cerebral anatomy.

Phrenology, as it became known, is the study of brain function. Specifically, phrenologists believed that different parts of the brain were responsible for different emotional and intellectual functions. Furthermore, they felt that these functions could be ascertained by measuring the bumps and indentations in your skull. That is, the shape of your skull revealed your character and talents.

Phrenology was a science of character divination, faculty psychology, theory of brain and what the 19th-century phrenologists called "the only true science of mind."

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

The basic tenets of Gall's system were:

1.The brain is the organ of the mind.

2. The mind is composed of multiple, distinct, innate faculties.

3. Because they are distinct, each faculty must have a separate seat or "organ" in the brain.

4. The size of an organ, other things being equal, is a measure of its power.

5. The shape of the brain is determined by the development of the various organs.

6. As the skull takes its shape from the brain, the surface of the skull can be read as an accurate index of psychological aptitudes and tendencies.

http://www.historyofphrenology.org.uk/overview.htm

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/01/27/phrenology-examining-the-bumps-of-your-brain/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQWn-QnEmEk

Dear @Subhash C. Kundu,

Thanks a lot for your perfect answers and useful links.

Regards, Shafagat

@shafagat this really bad idea. I do not believe this type theories..

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Please, see.....

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Please, see.....

Dear Dr. Shafagat,

Thanks for your warm invitation.

Phrenology came into general use around 1819/1820 in Britain where it was coined by the physician T.I.M. Forster in 1815. It is derived from the Greek roots: phren: 'mind' and logos: 'study/discourse'. Gall himself never approved of the term phrenology. He called his system simply organology and Schädellehre and later simply 'the physiology of the brain'. The name phrenology really shows the far-reaching pretensions of the phrenologists to extend their authority over a greater area than just cerebral anatomy.

For more information please see site as follows:

http://www.historyofphrenology.org.uk/overview.htm

Kindly regards

Dear @Jalil Zorriehzahra,

Thank you very much for opinion and useful link.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Pierlorenzo Brignoli,

Thank you very much for answer.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Abhishek Raj,

Thank you very much for comments.

Regards, Shafagat

Hello,

literature presents it as a theory that claims to be able to determine the character and personality characteristics, such as the degree of crime.

Although somewhat discredited, it is sometimes classified as a pseudoscience and to receive credit as a proto contributing to medical science, in which the brain is the organ of the mind and some specific areas would be related to certain functions of the human brain.

In the last decade of the 18th century, Franz Joseph Gall of Vienna invented a combination of physiognomy and brain localization that he originally called "craniology" (the science of the head) and later called "organology" (the science of the organs of the brain). Between 1800 and 1812, he worked with Johann Christoph Spurzheim on a variety of important neuroanatomic studies to support this new science. By 1812, when they parted company in Paris, Spurzheim had become intrigued with the psychosocial potential of the undertaking, which he renamed "phrenology" (the science of the mind). Because a phrenological examination (palpation of skull prominences) could provide an analysis of a person's strengths and weaknesses, Spurzheim thought that his system could lead to personal improvement for everyone, including the laboring classes. He was thus a 19th-century reformer, generally on the liberal side of the political and social spectrum. Spurzheim spread his gospel to Britain through several long lecture tours, and phrenology became briefly popular through the efforts of other British reformers, especially George Combe. In 1832, Spurzheim came to the United States. Three months later, he died in Boston, a martyr to his cause. Phrenology then spread widely into American popular culture, encouraged by the entrepreneurial efforts of "the phrenological Fowlers" and others like them. By 1843, the entire Western scientific community rejected organology and phrenology. All forms of cerebral localization were lumped with phrenology and similarly repudiated. Nonetheless, Gall's organology was the first comprehensive, premodern statement of a theory of cerebral localization. The early pioneers of modern localization, especially Paul Broca and David Ferrier, were careful to define how their theories differed from phrenology, even as they provided the clinical and scientific data that confirmed some of its basic tenets.

THANKS for the invitation,

Unfortunately, the science of Phrenology is out of my catching ability.  !

Good luck for all RG colleagues !

Dear Shafagat Mahmudova

Thank you for inviting me to participate in this network of discussion regarding Phrenology

Without further about the background and its inventor, only she mentions that Phrenology is a pseudoscience that bloomed in the late eighteenth century.

They were discarded theories and assumptions related to the external features of the skull and face of the subject (headlands, subsidence, dimensions, volume and surface) on the personality and psychological and intellectual qualities or defects.

At present it seems that the place may have Phrenology, it is to preserve the detail and meticulous description of the face and skull, for purposes of recognition still not well identified criminals, and legal cases of forensics to determine the identity corpses still not recognized by relatives.

In legal cases offenders can be spoken from portraits, or old photos. In fresh corpses, or cadaveric remains, photos or portraits also spoken to collect data are compared, which along with other forensic evidence, they manage to give enough information for the identity of the bodies.

In all computer technology it is used, because this information can be "digitized" and compared with databases (analog or digital) existing people who committed illegal acts, or databases of people of a certain population city or nationality.

For example: certain features of the eyes, slanted eyes or round, eye color, hair color, skin color, wide or thin lips and nose, as well as the breadth of the forehead, type of eyebrows or set ears and hairline, they give an idea of racial or ethnic group of study subjects.

There is even software available information that may from bones, rebuild fairly soft approach to the reality of the subject in life and thus support the identification of missing persons or parties Ignotos.

regards

Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Vigil

Estimada Shafagat Mahmudova

Gracias por invitarme a participar en esta red de discusión respecto de la Frenología

Sin abundar más al respecto de los antecedentes y de su inventor, sólo menciona que la Frenología es una pseudociencia que tuvo auge a fines del siglo XVIII.

Se han descartado las teorías y supuestos relacionados con las características externas del cráneo y cara del sujeto (promontorios, hundimientos, dimensiones, volumen y superficie) respecto de la personalidad y cualidades o taras psicológicas e intelectuales.

En la actualidad me parece que el lugar que puede tener la Frenología, es conservar el detalle y descripción meticulosa de la cara y el cráneo, con fines de reconocimiento de delincuentes aún no bien identificados, y en casos legales de medicina forense para conocer la identidad de cadáveres aún no reconocidos por los familiares.

En casos legales de delincuentes se puede partir de retratos hablados, o fotos antiguas. En cadáveres frescos, o restos cadavéricos, se comparan también fotos o retratos hablados para recabar datos, lo que junto con otras pruebas forenses, logran dar la información suficiente para la identidad de los cadáveres.

En todo ello se utiliza la tecnología informática, pues toda esta información puede ser "digitalizada" y comparada con bases de datos (en formato analógico o digital) ya existentes de personas que incurrieron en actos ilegales, o bases de datos de personas de cierta población, ciudad o nacionalidad.

Por ejemplo: ciertas características de los ojos, rasgados o redondos, color de ojos, color de pelo, color de piel, ancho o delgado de labios y nariz, así como la amplitud de la frente, tipo de cejas o la implantación de las orejas y el nacimiento del pelo, dan una idea del grupo racial o étnico de los sujetos en estudio.

Incluso hay software que con la información disponible, pueden a partir de restos óseos, reconstruir partes blandas con bastante aproximación a la realidad del sujeto en vida y así apoyar a la identificación de personas desaparecidas o de Ignotos. 

Saludos

Dr. José Luis García Vigil

Dear @Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Vigil,

Thanks a lot for your useful answer. Gracias.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Faramarz E. Seraji,

Thank you for comments.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Mohammad Firoz Khan,

Thank you very much for answer.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear @Osmar Antonio Bonzanini,

Thank you very much for comments.

Regards, Shafagat

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Please, watch the attached youtube that is related to "Phrenology - studying the shape of the head."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQWn-QnEmEk

Phrenology: a psychological theory or analytical method based on the belief that certain mental faculties and character traits are indicated by the configurations of the skull.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/phrenology

Phrenology a psychological theory or analytical method based on the belief that certain mental faculties and character traits are indicated by the configurations of the skull.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/the-shape-of-your-head-and-the-shape-of-your-mind/282578/

Phrenology

In the early 1800s, there was no distinct science of psychology. The word psychology was used to label a branch of philosophy concerned with human consciousness. The term scientist itself did not come into general until the 1840s. Yet from that era emerged two influential ancestors of scientific psychology: phrenology and psychophysics .

Phrenology is a now-discredited theory based on the assumption that bumps on the skull reflect a person's character or personality traits. The original idea for phrenology came from Francis Gall, who made a reasonable-sounding assumption: brain areas should grow when exercised, like muscles. Therefore (he reasoned) the shape of the skull should reflect the size or development of the underlying brain tissue, and a bump on the skull might indicate well-developed brain tissue below. The phrase, "You ought to have your head examined" goes back to phrenologists, who literally examined people's heads in order to analyze their personalities.

The following illustration shows a phrenology chart. Areas on the skull are mapped and numbered. For example, if you had a bump in area 6, right above the ear, a phrenologist might say you were prone to destructiveness.

http://www.intropsych.com/ch01_psychology_and_science/phrenology.html

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

“The idea that the bumps or depressions on a man's head indicate the presence or absence of certain moral characteristics in his mental equipment is one of the absurdities developed from studies in this field that has long since been discarded by science. The ideas of the phrenologist Gall, however ridiculous they may now seem in the light of a century's progress, were nevertheless destined to become metamorphosed into the modern principles of cerebral localization.”

                                                                          ― Edward Anthony Spitzka

phrenology (cranioscopy)

Phrenology is the study of the structure of the skull to determine a person's character and mental capacity.

This pseudoscience is based on the false assumption that mental faculties are located in brain "organs" on the surface of the brain and can be detected by visible inspection of the skull. The Viennese physician Franz-Joseph Gall (1758-1828) claimed there are some 26 "organs" on the surface of the brain which affect the contour of the skull, including a "murder organ" present in murderers. Gall was an advocate of the "use it or lose it" school of thought. Brain organs which were used got bigger and those which were not used shrunk, causing the skull to rise and fall with organ development. These bumps and indentations on the skull, according to Gall, reflect specific areas of the brain that determine a person's emotional and intellectual functions. Gall called the study of these cranial hills and valleys "cranioscopy." Others, such as Johann Kaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832) who spread the word in America andGeorge Combe (1788-1858) who founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society, followed with even zanier and more specious divisions and designations of the brain and skull, such as "metaphysical spirit" and "wit." In 1815, Thomas Foster called the work of Gall and Spurzheim "phrenology" (phrenos is Greek for mind) and the name stuck.

Phrenology advanced the correct notions that the human brain is the seat of character, emotions, perception, intellect, etc., and that different parts of the brain are responsible for different mental functions. However, in Gall's time it was only possible to study the brains of the dead; thus, phrenologists could only associate the different structures in the brain with supposed mental functions that were in turn associated with the contour of the skull. Little was done to study the brains or the behavior of persons known to have had neurological problems, which might have helped in the process of locating parts of the brain responsible for specific neurological functioning. Instead, mental faculty localization was arbitrarily selected. Gall's early work was with criminals and the insane and his brain "organs" reflected this interest. Spurzheim got rid of "theft organs" and "murder organs," but he mapped out areas for "benevolence," "self-esteem," and "conjugal love." (Clickhere to see a map from the American Phrenological Journal, 1845.)

http://skepdic.com/phren.html