Phrenology

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Phrenology

Phrenology is basically the study of personality through the study of the shape
of the skull. The basis of this theory is that the brain conforms to the shape
of the head and its contours. This pseudoscience says that because we have
isolated where different parts of personality come from we can tell how dominant
this trait would be in a person`s life by the size of the piece of the brain. We
have since proven that this theory is not true. Franz Joseph Gall is considered
to be the founder of the direct scientific link between the morphology of the
skull and personality traits. Gall was one of the first scientists to consider
the brain the home of all mental activities. His main work was called The
Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in
Particular. In this article he put forth five points that phrenology was based
on in general. 1. That moral and intellectual faculties and innate. 2. That
their exercise or manifestation depends on organization. 3. That the brain is an
organ of all the propensities, sentiments, and faculties. 4. The brain is
composed of many particular organs as there are different propensities,
sentiments, and faculties which differ from one another. 5. That the form of the
head or cranium represents the form of the brain, and thus represents the
relative development of the brain organs. Gall linked the faculties with precise
brain localizations through careful observation and expensive experimental
measures. Johann Spurzheim`s contribution to phrenology was also great. He
helped Gall in a study of brain injuries with the phrenology concept Gall had
created. He also studied many cases of aphasia following victim`s cranial
injuries in battle. In 1832, he arrived in America, which was at that time
desperate for insight into human personality, and started on a lecture circuit
that eventually killed him only six months into it. While Spurzheim was in
America he managed to inspire two young, frustrated evangelists whose names were
Lorenzo Niles Fowler and Orson S. Fowler. These two are largely responsible for
spreading phrenology throughout the country. They traveled from town to town
carrying the truth of phrenology. They offered lectures, readings, and to
evaluate the charteristics of total strangers through the bumps and valleys on
their heads. Soon everyone from small-town folk to the rich and famous were
getting readings. It became a fad throughout America. Hairstyles were changed to
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The complete article is about 804 words and 3.22 pages long.

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