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Phrenology is the art of reading bumps on a persons head.
It is believed that confirmations of the skull correspond with characteristics of the mind and body.
Phrenologists believe that external areas above the skull grow above specific regions of the brain in that a person chooses
to develop.
Phrenologists believe that balanced development of the mind is essential.
Phrenology was a science of character divination, faculty psychology, theory of brain and what the 19th-century phrenologists
called "the only true science of mind." Phrenology came from the theories of the idiosyncratic Viennese physician
Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828). The basic tenets of Gall's system were:
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. (For a description in Gall's own words see: Letter to von Retzer)
So it was believed that by examining the shape and unevenness of a head or skull, one could discover the development of
the particular cerebral "organs" responsible for different intellectual aptitudes and character traits. For example,
a prominent protuberance in the forehead at the position attributed to the organ of Benevolence was meant to indicate that
the individual had a "well developed" organ of Benevolence and would therefore be expected to exhibit benevolent
behaviour.
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