The brain, the glorious epicenter of our body and mind.
Each section of this remarkable brain controls a specific function. Together, these functions define us as individuals.
You with me so far? Ok. Good.
Now, what if I were to tell you that your personality, beliefs, emotions, and character traits weren’t determined by your brain, but by the shape of your cranium and facial features?
Whoa whoa whoa. HOLD UP.
Sounds ridiculous right? Let me tell you about phrenology.
Phrenology was made popular in the 19th century by the Viennese physician, Franz Joseph Gall. Gall’s belief in the relation of head shape to traits and personality stemmed from an observation he’d had as a child. Gall saw that some of his classmates with bulging eyes happened to also have a good memory. As a result of this, he (incorrectly correlated) that the two traits were related. This line of thinking paved the way for the tenents of phrenology.
The tenents of phrenology were as follows:
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.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
Additionally, Gall believed that there were 27 organs in the brain, 19 of which were found in other animals. Phrenologists would measure and feel the head, looking for enlargements and indentations. From this, they determined how often the associated organ was used. Each organ was responsible for determining everything from your religious beliefs to whether you would be a suitable spouse.
Phrenology owed its popularity to a few factors. During the Victorian era, people had limited working knowledge of how the brain worked. It was one thing to see how it looked but to understand how all this squishy grey matter worked to make us us was another. Phrenology provided an easy way to understand how the human mind operated. Additionally, it was easily accessible to all social classes and didn’t require a medical background to understand.
Famed author, Edgar Allen Poe often used phrenology to describe characters in his works. 
Queen Victoria was a fan of phrenology. She had a phrenologist read her family’s heads. 
The Brontë sisters used physiognomy in many of their novels.
People also liked the hopeful nature of phrenology. You could change negative traits and build on positive ones by exercising and strengthening the organs responsible for them. Phrenology was particularly promising in the fact that it made ideas like education and prison reform seem possible. Phrenology was empowering and full of promise; it enabled one to have complete control over their life and future.
While phrenology may have initially come from a place of genuine curiosity and desire to learn, it came to be used in a more negative way. All the scientific elements of phrenology became buried by guesswork and bias. Many phrenologists began to use phrenology further their own agendas, often fudging results when they weren’t to their liking. By the end of phrenology’s popularity, it had become a more political and for-profit operation.
Phrenologists’ eagerness to classify lead to them moving from classifying traits in a person to classifying gender traits, ethnicities, and races. As a result, phrenology was often used to justify bigoted and prejudiced ideologies. These ideologies were used to defend slavery in the 19th century. Despite the fact that phrenology had fallen out of favor by the 1830s, it was later used by the Nazis to support their antisemitic agenda.
Though the quack science behind phrenology has long been disproven, Gall’s discovery that each section of the brain has a localized function remains in use today. Phrenology had made for further scientific advances in psychology, anthropology, and neurology. Additionally, some of the terminology from phrenology is still used in the modern era (“highbrow”, “lowbrow”, and “get your head examined” are examples of a few).
That said, now I really want to pick up one of those phrenology models. Maybe dress it up and put some glasses on it.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’ll show myself out.
Further reading:
https://culturacolectiva.com/history/phrenology-was-used-to-justify-racism-and-sexism
https://mashable.com/2016/11/05/vaughts-practical-character-reader/