Explore the history of phrenology, the 19th-century "science" of reading skulls to determine personality and potential. Discover its rise, fall, and surprising uses.
Phrenology is the practice of interpreting mental qualities and potential on the basis of the external appearance or bumps in the skull. It was originally called “Schädellehre” or “doctrine of the skull” by its inventor Franz Joseph Gall. It was later called craniology, and cranioscopy, but eventually the term phrenology came into general usage. (From the Greek word phren- meaning mind.) Gall, a German physician and anatomist developed his theories around 1790. After starting to publish and lecture on this new science, the Holy Roman Emperor Franz II banned Gall’s lectures in 1801. After that Gall and his assistant Johann Gaspar Spurzheim started lecturing throughout the rest of Europe. Gall believed that elites could use phrenology to govern the masses, whereas Spurzheim and George Combe, a London lawyer who helped popularize it, conceived of phrenology as a less coercive means to perfect or reform humanity.
One of the strongholds of phrenology was in the United States, where newspapers first reported on it in 1805. However, it really did not take hold in the U.S. until the 1820s. after Spurzheim traveled to the U.S. and lectured at Yale, and at various venues in New York City and Boston.
Phrenology in the 1820s and 1830s was primarily a subject for elites with physicians, college professors and political figures founding phrenological societies, and participating in the popularization of phrenology in the United States and in Europe. Phrenology was considered cutting-edge science and medical students were taught phrenology in conjunction with anatomy. However, the elite did not think that phrenology should be a subject for the masses and were against “popular” phrenology.
What is Phrenology
The “science” of phrenology was based on these tenets:
The brain is the organ of the mind.
The mind is composed of multiple distinct, innate faculties.
Because they are distinct, each faculty must have a separate seat or “organ” in the brain.
The size of an organ, other things being equal, is a measure of its power.
The shape of the brain is determined by the development of the various organs.
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.
The various “organs” of the brain were each given a name and location on the skull, frequently depicted either through an image or by a phrenological bust.
The relative size of the brain’s organs, as determined from the skull’s surface, reputedly allowed a phrenologist to detect an individual’s character, as well as explanations for past behavior and predictions of future behavior. How the skull itself was “read” varied. Some phrenologists used manual examination, with hands applied to the head of a client. Other phrenologists advocated for the use of tools using calipers or a tool known as a craniometer to make measurements.
Phrenologists believed that they could differentiate great men from criminals and those with intellectual disabilities or mental illness, on the basis of a phrenological examination.
Some Suggested and Actual Uses of Phrenology
During phrenology's era of popularization in the 1820s-1840s, some employers demanded a character reference from a local phrenologist to ensure that a prospective employee was honest and hard-working.
Examining children to see if an overabundance of one brain organ could be nurtured as a talent to prevent the child from growing up to be a dissolute or criminal adult.
A prison warden might use phrenology to determine which prisoners were the most dangerous and needed more supervision.
It was thought that phrenology, by identifying prominent brain organs, could be used by education, disciplinary and governmental organizations to guide people to appropriately express those organs rather than fall into anti-social behavior.
The “science” of phrenology was also used by some as reinforcement for racial and social hierarchies with respect to gender, class, and race.
The End of Phrenology’s Acceptance by the Medical Establishment
By the 1840s, most academics had turned against phrenology. A group of French anatomists and physiologists started a movement against phrenology that became increasingly popular. Also, as time went on, there was less belief that phrenology could actually be used to solve social ills. Finally, as phrenology became more popular and used by the general public, intellectuals and professionals became less interested in it.
References
Thompson CE. Phrenology. Encyclopedia of the History of Science - Carnegie Mellon University. November 2021. Retrieved from: https://ethos.lps.library.cmu.edu/article/id/482/
van Wyhe J. The History of Phrenology. The Victorian Web. Last modified 2000. Retrieved from: https://victorianweb.org/science/phrenology/intro.html
Photograph, forty years in phrenology : embracing recollections of history, anecdote, and experience / [Nelson Sizer]. New York : Fowler & Wells, [1882]. Wellcome Collection. Retrieved from: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/etdksptf/images?id=yk35tr9s
Chart from 'The Phrenological Journal' ("Know Thyself"), print from Dr. E. Clark. Wellcome Collection. Retrieved from: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/b6skynug/images?id=nmsxdkgm
Photograph: phrenological head by L. N. Fowler. Wellcome Collection. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/vv27ymqn/images?id=ns6hvph9