Phrenology - or What Does Your Skull Tell About You?

My interest in this science or pseudoscience (whichever you prefer) was sparked by a programme on the television channel "24ТЕХНО", where an English phrenologist talked about the history of the theory and briefly introduced its essence. In any case, it is one of the ways for a person to get to know themselves and others, and to understand their predisposition towards one thing or another.

Phrenology (from Greek φρην - spirit, soul, nature + λογος - science) is a theory based on the premise that a person's character and personality traits can be determined from their skull. This science was created at the beginning of the 19th century by Austrian physician and anatomist Franz Joseph Gall and his follower J. C. Spurzheim. They proposed the theory that the folds of a person's brain contain several dozen "faculties" that cannot be acquired during life - they are innate.

The theory never gained particular recognition, but in practice it was used both in medical practices and in the salons of European aristocrats. Everyone wanted to learn their strengths and weaknesses, and phrenology's basic method - palpating and measuring the skull - satisfied this desire well.

Phrenology did not search for geniuses, let alone prodigies, but it sowed suspicions about the inevitable heritability of genius. In the course of history, these theories were discredited when racists and Nazis used them to justify their ideas.

Phrenology is to a certain extent linked to physiognomy - the study of a person's facial features, the proportions of the nose, mouth, chin, and other features. According to phrenological principles, as different parts of the brain develop, protrusions or depressions form in the human skull, from which the character, inclinations, tendencies, and predispositions of the given subject can be read. The more pronounced a given skull region, the greater the degree to which that trait or tendency dominates in the person. Today, the teachings of phrenology are no longer taken as strictly as the conclusions of a serious science.

Nevertheless, let us examine these skull diagrams, which are divided into sectors, each of which corresponds to one of the person's character traits. Gall and Spurzheim formulated 33 sectors (see diagram):

1. Reproductive instinct, eroticism.
2. Care for offspring, parental love.
3. Self-restraint.
4. Friendship and loyalty.
5. Masculinity, ability to defend oneself.
6. Predatory instincts, destructiveness, ability to kill.
7. Abilities in mechanics, construction, architecture.
8. Envy.
9. Cunning, reticence, secretiveness.
10. Self-pride, arrogance.
11. Ambition, craving for praise.
12. Caution, deliberateness, meekness.
13. Kindness, goodwill.
14. Religiosity, faith in a higher power.
15. Hope.
16. Creative talent, tendency to create ideals.
17. Conscience, orderliness, honesty.
18. Firmness, decisiveness.
19. Good educability, individualism, thirst for knowledge.
20. Visual memory, remembering people's forms and faces.
21. Sense of size.
22. Sense of weight, maintaining balance.
23. Perception of colour and its nuances.
24. Sense of space.
25. Sense of order.
26. Sense of time.
27. Mathematical talent, numerical ability.
28. Musical gifts, hearing.
29. Verbal memory, gift of speech.
30. Ability to make comparisons.
31. Determination of reasons and causes, ability to perceive connections.
32. Sharpness of mind, quick-wittedness.
33. Ability to imitate.

A more visual explanation of the skull sectors in video - http://www.metacafe.com/watch/877589/phrenology_studying_the_shape_of_the_head/

Sources used:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology
http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Meeting/2216/freno.htm
http://www.phrenology.by.ru/index.htm