A discredited theory positing a relationship between the structure of the skull and mental traits.
A pseudoscience based on the belief that the contours or bumps of the skull are indicative of a person’s personality, character, and mental facilities.
The study of the bumps on the outside of the skull in order to determine a person’s character. It is based on the mistaken theory that the skull becomes modified over the different functional areas of the cortex of the brain.
The belief that the brain is actually a composite of various “organs” that localize various social, moral, and intellectual qualities; also known as craniol- ogy, organology, and bumpology. By measuring the surface of the skull, the relative size and strength of the organs can be estimated. This information can then be used to assess an individuals personality, moral capacity, and intellectual aptitude.
As a historical phenomenon, phrenology can be related on one hand to various divination techniques that purport to read the inner character and fate of a person from various external markings on the body for example palmistry, physiognomy, and the Renaissance practice of metoposcopy (reading foreheads). On the other hand, it can be related to long-standing speculation about the precise relationship of the brain to human behavior. Often, as in the medical teachings of GALENISM, this resulted in theories of brain localization, which related particular areas of the brain to particular mental attributes like imagination and memory.
The belief that different mental abilities are located in specific regions of the brain cortex and that dominant abilities can be determined by changes in the parts of the skull above these regions. However, this theory has no foundation in verified facts.