How a Phrenology Head Was Traditionally Used

How a Phrenology Head Was Traditionally Used History and Biographies Print How a Phrenology Head Was Traditionally Used By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Updated on April 22, 2019 Myron / Getty Images More in Psychology History and Biographies Psychotherapy Basics Student Resources Theories Phobias Emotions Sleep and Dreaming Phrenology heads or busts  were used by phrenologists to perform skull readings that supposedly revealed information about a persons character and tendencies. A Brief History of Phrenology During the late 1700s, a physician names Frances Gall proposed that the bumps on a persons head could be linked to their intellectual faculties and personality. While this is now viewed entirely as pseudoscience,  phrenology  actually became quite popular for a time. In an edition of Websters Dictionary dated circa 1900, phrenology was defined as: Science of the special functions of the several parts of the brain, or of the supposed connection between the faculties of the mind and the organs in the brainPhysiological hypothesis that mental faculties and traits of character are shown on the surface of the head or skull; craniology Regions of the Phrenology Head The phrenology head seen above shows a number of different regions of the brain linked to different personality characteristics. In most classic examples of phrenology busts, there were  35 different regions of the head, which were linked to the faculties listed below: AmativenessPhiloprogenitivenessConcentrativeness; structivenessAdhesivenessCombativenessDestructivenessSecretivenessAcquisitivenessConstructivenessSelf-esteemLove of ApprobationCautiousnessBenevolenceVenerationFirmnessConscientiousnessHopeWonderIdealityWitImitationIndividualityFormSizeWeightColoringLocalityNumberOrderEventualityTimeTuneLanguageComparisonCausality How a Phrenology Reading Traditionally Worked During a skull reading, a phrenologist would carefully feel the individuals head and make note of bumps and indentations. The phrenologist would compare these findings to that of a phrenology bust in order to determine what the surface of the skull had to say about the individuals natural aptitudes, character, and tendencies. Obviously, while phrenology heads and charts can be a fun and interesting way to look at a curious chapter in  psychologys history, they are not something to be taken seriously. Scientists discredited phrenology by the mid-1800s, although phrenology readings continued to have moments of popularity during the late 1800s and early 1900s. While phrenology was eventually shown to be pseudoscience, the idea that certain abilities might be linked to specific areas of the brain did have an influence on the field of  neurology  and the study of the localization of brain functions.   Today, phrenology is regarded as a pseudoscience along the same lines as palm reading and astrology.