NRP Spring 2023. John-Michael Hriso: Lumps, bumps, and chumps

In 1796, the Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall proposed a theory known as Organology. This theory states that the individual traits of identity that someone exhibits are innate aspects of someone’s brain. Gall believed that the various aspects of a person’s identity are predetermined by birth, a very “nature over nurture” philosophy. To justify his theory, Gall argued that the brain is composed of a subset of smaller organs, each of which is responsible for a specific aspect of an individual’s identity. He believed that there were particular areas of the brain that were devoted to things such as humor, optimism, or even a proclivity to mathematics. Gall dubbed the various traits as the “fundamental faculties” and their organization as the “localization of function.” Furthermore, he asserted that the shapes of the skull directly correlated with the underlying “organs.” Through this theory of Organology, Gall developed the practice known as phrenology, where by inspecting the various lumps and bumps of the head, he could detect the size of each of the underlying organs related to the different personality characteristics. Through this practice, Gall claimed he could determine whether an individual had a propensity for the sciences or arts or even if they were likely to be violent.

Gall received his medical education from the University of Strasbourg. Following medical school, he took a job at a psychiatric institution which was in those days referred to as the “Lunatic Asylum.” During his time in medicine, he significantly advanced the methods of brain dissection. Before Gall, the precedent had been to slice randomly; however, Gall developed a process that facilitated the exploration of the entire brain structure, even going so far as to separate individual neuronal fibers. His work in medicine and neuroanatomy garnered him quite a reputation. Soon, he was giving popular lectures and was even offered a position as the head Austrian Court physician. With Gall’s rise in popularity, so too did his theory of Organology and practice of phrenology. From around 1810-1840, phrenology became widely popular and practiced; however, its use extended beyond identifying an individual’s personality traits. Soon the practice was used to justify racist and sexist cultural norms. For example, according to phrenology, a larger-sized head correlates with increased intelligence, and on average, the head size of a male is larger than that of a female.

 Today the practice of phrenology has long been debunked as pseudoscience. However, an offshoot of the practice has seen a resurgence through something denoted as “neurophrenology.” With the rise of fMRI technology, which allows scientists and doctors to view brain activity, there are those that claim they can describe things about an individual’s personality based on various activity patterns. Similar to its predecessor, this new practice seeks to justify its predictive ability by alluding to the localized signals observable in the brain. While activity in the occipital lobe can justify the claim that an individual is looking at something, there is nothing about these signals that can be used to predict one’s affinity for math.

Gall was an expert in his field during his time. However, this didn’t preclude him from being wrong. Beyond being a scientist, Gall was a salesman, selling his narrative. His popularity directly correlated with the popularity of his theory. Today an integral part of the scientific process is peer review, and a healthy component of this review process is skepticism. A scientific mind is a skeptical one, as the end goal is always the truth, even if that truth is more convoluted than a convenient narrative.