Phrenology
From RationalWiki
This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
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Phrenology is the idea that it is possible to establish facts about a person's psychology or morality, such as criminal tendencies, by measuring the size and shape of their head and feeling for any bumps.
The concept emerged at the end of the eighteenth century, and became incredibly popular in Europe and America throughout the nineteenth century, although it was widely discredited by the early twentieth century.
Phrenology was based on a theory that specific parts of the brain control certain things (which is true), but rather than mapping brain activity as things like nerve responses, muscle control or memory, phrenological diagrams show parts of the brain governing character traits such as "acquisitiveness", "benevolence", "passion" and "mirth".
Although now dismissed as a pseudoscience, phrenology was important historically in that it recognised the importance of the brain in thought and behaviour, a concept which had been proposed before had largely been neglected. However, phrenology's findings were based on misconceptions, speculation and anecdotal evidence, placing it in pseudoscience territory. It can be seen a transitional discipline before the more empirical science of neuroscience and psychology studied the brain and the mind more accurately.
Despite being denounced by the mainstream scientific community, phrenological ideas have been used sometimes during the twentieth century, particularly by some racial theories, who argue that differences in some races' skull sizes and shapes indicate low morality and intelligence.
Despite its scientific pretenses, the idea of phrenology is remarkable similar to palmistry, a concept more associated with mysticism.
