Phrenology is a science that was developed around 1800 by a man named Franz Joseph Gall.
Phrenology claims the personality of a human being is related to the size and shape of their skull, including the location, size, and shape of any bumps or depressions in the skull.
The established medical community of the time dismissed Phrenology as “quackery”, which is defined as “unproven or fraudulent medical practices”. That dismissal of Phrenology as a valid science has continued into the present day.
While the exact details and claims of Phrenology may not be true, the basic concept of Phrenology is true. The size and shape of the skull, including the location, size, and shape of any bumps or depressions in the skull, are an indicator of the character, personality, and mentality of a human being.
So why was Phrenology discredited as a valid science, and why has the science of Phrenology remained discredited to his day?
(1) – Phrenology was purposefully attacked and discredited as a valid science for commercial reasons.
Phrenology presented financial competition to the established medical community. A patient paying a Phrenologist was not paying the established medical community. The claims of Phrenology in some cases contradicted the claims of the established medical community, which would also cause loss of income from anyone who believed Phrenologists instead of the established medical community.
(2) – Phrenology was purposefully discredited by “evil forces” to prevent discovery.
Because Phrenology was about the determination of personality characteristics from simple visual observation of the head, Phrenology would of course be able to determine whether or not a person had criminal, antisocial, or “evil” tendencies just by looking at them. Criminals, the antisocial, and evil are usually able only to perform their evil acts by convincing the victim that they are trustworthy people.
If Phrenological knowledge, specifically the ability to determine if a person had criminal or evil tendencies just by visual inspection of their head, became common knowledge among the general populace, who would evil people victimize? Everyone would know who the criminals were just by looking at their heads, and then avoiding them.
So criminals, the antisocial, and evil would all benefit from the discrediting of Phrenology.
Why does Phrenology continue to be discredited in modern times?
Mostly through inertia and trust. New generations of human beings are raised to believe Phrenology is not a valid science. In addition to not believing in Phrenology, they will attack anyone who does claim that Phrenology is accurate but because of their ignorance. Medical personally will be especially obstinate because the people they trust the most, the people who taught them to be professional medical practitioners, told them Phrenology is not a valid science. So in order to believe Phrenology is accurate, they would not only have to believe Phrenology was under purposeful attack, they would have to believe the people they respected and trusted most in their lives were lying to them.
Most people cannot and will not do that.
With the advent of high quality cameras available to anyone though, the reality and truthfulness of Phrenology is now trivial to prove. Anyone can use their cellphone or tablet to take pictures of people’s heads anywhere they see them at any time, and write down some notes on the personality of the individual. After two or three years of this activity, collation of the resulting material, if it was voluminous enough, will prove that Phrenology, examining the shape and size of the head as well as any bumps or depressions on it, can be used to diagnose the likely personality traits of any human being.