Phrenology

Development

The study of phrenology was the result of two major contributions of 18th-century psychology. Physiognomy, founded by Johan Kaspar Lavater, was the assessment of an individual's character through the individual's outer appearance, specifically through the face. Another major contributor was the concept of moral insanity, which was used to explain uncontrollable criminality. This concept was discussed by American psychiatrist Benjamin Rush who proposed that the mind is composed of independent facilities, and that crime is the result of partial insanity in which one facility of the brain stops working. These concepts, along with physiological research, led Gall, a Viennese physician, to develop the early concepts of phrenology.

Gall's interest stemmed from his childhood observations of differences in verbal memory relating to prominent features. He received his medical doctorate from Vienna in 1785. In the 1790s, he began developing a system of organology and brain anatomy. Along with his assistant and later collaborator, the physician Johann Gaspar [Page 710]Spurzheim, Gall palpated the heads of psychiatric patients, artists, and criminals whenever he could obtain their skulls. Many of Gall and Spurzheim's subjects were suspected of being obtained through an association with local deputy of police, Graf Saurau. They performed hundreds of dissections on the brains of various animals and human cadavers to link the internal anatomy of the brain to the external features of the skull (Gall, 1835).

In Gall's original work, The Functions of the Brain and of Each of Its Parts, he proposes that the brain is an organ of the mind that is composed of 27 distinct organs that function independently. He believed that the brain and shape of the skull were formed by the size of these organs, so by analyzing the contours of the skull one could make predictable assumptions of physiological traits and attitudes of the individual. With 27 organs stipulated in the beginning, 19 of which were shared with animals, additional researchers elaborated by adding others. In 1815 Spurzheim added 5 to reach 32; in 1834, George Combe added 3 more totaling 35; and in 1844, H. Lundie added 4 more for a total of 39 organs. The size, or power, of these organs were believed to define abilities in a variety of behavioral characteristics—parental love, benevolence, and self-esteem. Although originally conceived as a deterministic approach, most phrenologists argued that the brain is malleable and plastic; therefore conditions could be managed or resolved with the help of outside influence, specifically psychological or environmental interventions.

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