Brain Created Skull Explain Phrenology System Derive Personality

• A system to derive personality created by Franz Joseph Gall in Vienna, by inferring qualities from the shape of a person’s skill.  Personality & intelligence had 27 functions, each localized to one area of the brain – development created protrusions on the skull.  Under Spurzheim, it became less scientific and more cult-like.  Was well respected in academic communities.

• Failed due to circular logic (not testable), inability to explain human behavior, exploited people, could not explain contradictions, physiology showed that contours of brain do not match skull.

• Positive aspects: emphasized the brain as the organ of the mind & localization of fx in the brain, support idea of measurable individual differences.