It is a defunct field of study, once considered a science, in which a person's personality traits were determined by "reading" bumps and fissures on the skull. Developed by the German physician Franz Joseph Gall around 1800, the discipline was very popular in the 19th century. It was originally developed in 1796. In 1843, François Magendie referred to phrenology as "a modern-day pseudo-science." However, phrenological thinking influenced 19th century psychiatry and modern neuroscience.
Phrenology is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind and that certain areas of the brain have specific functions or localized modules. Phrenologists believed that the mind has a set of different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different area of the brain. These areas were said to be proportional to a person's propensities, and the importance of the given mental faculty. It was believed that the cranial bone was shaped to accommodate the different sizes of these particular areas of the brain in different individuals, so that a person's capacity for a given personality trait could be determined simply by measuring the area of the skull that exceeded the corresponding of the brain.
In the history of personality theory, phrenology is considered an advance on the old medical theory of the four humors. However, it has no predictive power and is therefore dismissed as charlatanism by modern scientific discourse. Phrenology, which focuses on personality and character, must 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).
Phonologization mainly involved head readings and character analysis, as well as speculations about the interactions between the faculties (which were spoken of as if each were a selfish homunculus, seeking their own gratification). Most phrenologists wore the tips of their bare fingers (Gall recommended using the palms of the hands) on one head to distinguish any elevation or indotations. Sometimes the calipers, the Combe phrenology calipers, the elements of phrenology. They were used measuring tapes and other instruments. An expert phrenologist not only knew the cartographic arrangement of the head according to the last phrenological chartbut also the personalities and the pros and cons of each of the 35 strange organs (the number of organs gradually increased over time). Phrenologists also diagnosed temperament or humility, a forgotten component of phrenology.
