Phrenology

Phrenology also was a social philosophy drawn from a scientific hypothesis asserting that the laws of nature rewarded healthy behavior and punished unhealthy behavior, and the lives of individuals and society in general could be improved by discovering and teaching the laws of nature. This facet of phrenology encouraged education. Consistent with the appetite for popular entertainment, phrenology became an industry that provided both lectures about phrenology as a science and a social philosophy and demonstrations of phrenological examinations of living subjects, featuring interpretations of their characters from the shapes of their skulls. In addition practicing phrenologists analyzed individuals and offered them advice on how best to live their lives – the same services one might seek today from a therapist or counselor.

By 1860 phrenology as a scientific theory was in disrepute. Animal experiments failed to establish its claim that specific biological functions were located in specific parts of the brain. The complexity of the mental faculties that phrenology associated with these areas was criticized by those who believed that the basic mental functions were more fundamental than the various mental faculties described by phrenology. For example, one 1860 critique observed that phrenology included memory as an attribute of all the separate mental faculties – an observation that anticipated the better-known critique of phrenology written by William James in 1900, in which he said the portion of the brain competent to support a faculty described by phrenology “would need to be an entire brain in miniature”.

Phrenology had been introduced to the United States at a time when interest in public education was rising, so its emphasis on education as a means of improving individuals and society found a receptive audience. Horace Mann – who, as the first secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education (appointed in 1837) became a noted educational reformer – believed in phrenology. The apparent potential of phrenology as a social philosophy was great. It asserted that nature rewarded certain types of behavior and punished others, and these laws of nature were discoverable and could be taught. The primary expositor of this philosophy gave as an example the notion that a moderate diet combined with moderate physical and mental exercise promoted physical and mental health. Such observations were reasonable, but they did not necessarily support the assertions of the social philosophy based upon them. Nonetheless, the assertions of using education to improve society and that educational techniques could be used to bring the various faculties of the mind into a more productive balance had obvious appeal to reformers who sought to promote public education and improve the treatment of the insane.