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margin: 0 0 0.5em 0.5em; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #009955; width:175px;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center; color:White; background-color:#009955"><b>Style over substance</b><br /><a href="/wiki/Pseudoscience" title="Pseudoscience"><font size="4" color="White"><b>Pseudoscience</b></font></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#CCEADD;" align="center"><a href="/wiki/Category:Pseudoscience" title="Category:Pseudoscience"><img alt="Icon pseudoscience.svg" src="/w/images/thumb/7/7a/Icon_pseudoscience.svg/100px-Icon_pseudoscience.svg.png" decoding="async" width="100" height="100" srcset="/w/images/thumb/7/7a/Icon_pseudoscience.svg/150px-Icon_pseudoscience.svg.png 1.5x, /w/images/thumb/7/7a/Icon_pseudoscience.svg/200px-Icon_pseudoscience.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="200" data-file-height="200" /></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#009955; text-align:center;"><b>Popular <a href="/wiki/List_of_pseudosciences" title="List of pseudosciences"><font color="white">pseudosciences</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#CCEADD;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alternative_medicine" title="Alternative medicine">Alternative medicine</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Creationism" title="Creationism">Creationism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Racialism" title="Racialism">Racialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pseudopsychology" title="Pseudopsychology">Pseudopsychology</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#009955; text-align:center;"><b><a href="/wiki/Category:Pseudoscience" title="Category:Pseudoscience"><font color="white">Random examples</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#CCEADD;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Scientific_creationism" title="Scientific creationism">Scientific creationism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Christian_Science" title="Christian Science">Christian Science</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Miracle_Mineral_Supplement" title="Miracle Mineral Supplement">Miracle Mineral Supplement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sex_woo" title="Sex woo">Sex woo</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Diploma_mill" title="Diploma mill">Diploma mill</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Danie_Kr%C3%BCgel" title="Danie Krügel">Danie Krügel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lyle_Rossiter" title="Lyle Rossiter">Lyle Rossiter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nazism" title="Nazism">Nazism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Brainiac:_Science_Abuse" title="Brainiac: Science Abuse">Brainiac: Science Abuse</a></li></ul> <div class="vte plainlinks" style="font-size:smaller; text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Template:Pseudosciencenav" title="Template:Pseudosciencenav">v</a> - <a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Pseudosciencenav" title="Template talk:Pseudosciencenav">t</a> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Pseudosciencenav&action=edit">e</a></div> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Phrenology</b> is the idea that it is possible to establish facts about a person's <a href="/wiki/Psychology" title="Psychology">psychology</a> or morality, such as <a href="/wiki/Criminal" class="mw-redirect" title="Criminal">criminal</a> tendencies, by measuring the size and shape of their head and feeling for any bumps. </p><p>The concept emerged at the end of the 18<sup>th</sup> century, and became incredibly popular in <a href="/wiki/Europe" title="Europe">Europe</a> and <a href="/wiki/America" title="America">America</a> throughout the 19<sup>th</sup> century, although it was widely discredited by the early 20<sup>th</sup> century. </p><p>Among the accomplishments attributed to phrenologists is the postmortem theft of composer Joseph Haydn's head.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> </p><p>Phrenology was based on a theory that specific parts of the <a href="/wiki/Brain" title="Brain">brain</a> control certain things (which is true), but rather than mapping brain activity as things like nerve responses, muscle control or <a href="/wiki/Memory" title="Memory">memory</a>, phrenological diagrams show parts of the brain governing character traits such as "acquisitiveness", "benevolence", "passion" and "mirth". </p><p>Although now dismissed as a <a href="/wiki/Pseudoscience" title="Pseudoscience">pseudoscience</a>, phrenology was important historically in that it recognised the importance of the brain in thought and behaviour, a concept which had been proposed before but had largely been neglected. However, phrenology's findings were based on misconceptions, speculation and <a href="/wiki/Anecdote" class="mw-redirect" title="Anecdote">anecdotal evidence</a>, placing it in pseudoscience territory. It can be seen as a transitional discipline before the more empirical sciences of <a href="/wiki/Neuroscience" class="mw-redirect" title="Neuroscience">neuroscience</a> and <a href="/wiki/Psychology" title="Psychology">psychology</a> studied the brain and the mind more accurately.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> </p><p>Despite being denounced by the mainstream scientific community, phrenological ideas have been used sometimes during the 20<sup>th</sup> century, particularly by some <a href="/wiki/Racialism" title="Racialism">racial theories</a>, which (wrongly) argue that differences in some races' skull sizes and shapes indicate low <a href="/wiki/Morality" title="Morality">morality</a> and <a href="/wiki/Intelligence" title="Intelligence">intelligence</a>. </p><p>Despite its scientific pretenses, the idea of phrenology is remarkably similar to <a href="/wiki/Palmistry" class="mw-redirect" title="Palmistry">palmistry</a>, a concept more associated with <a href="/wiki/Mysticism" title="Mysticism">mysticism</a>. </p><p>The 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon <i>Bowery Bugs</i> poked fun at this practice when Bugs (disguised as a mystic) talks about reading the bumps on his client's head. When his client replies he doesn't have any bumps on his head Bugs hits him there with a hammer.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup> </p><p>This practice was also demonized in the 2012 movie <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Unchained" class="extiw" title="wp:Django Unchained" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Django Unchained"><i>Django Unchained</i></span></a>,<sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> where Calvin Candi (a slave owner regarded as a cruel bigot even for the standards of pre-Civil War America) uses it as an excuse for his racist views. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Phrenology&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Non-materialist_neuroscience" title="Non-materialist neuroscience">Non-materialist neuroscience</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lipsology" title="Lipsology">Lipsology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Iridology" title="Iridology">Iridology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copromancy" title="Copromancy">Copromancy</a></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="External_links">External links</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Phrenology&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://skepdic.com/phren.html">Entry in The Skeptic's Dictionary</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.historyofphrenology.org.uk/">History of Phrenology page</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.theness.com/index.php/phrenology-history-of-a-pseudoscience/">Phrenology: History of a Pseudoscience</a> by <a href="/wiki/Steven_Novella" title="Steven Novella">Steven Novella</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://knightlab.berkeley.edu/statics/publications/2011/04/29/Knight-Science.pdf">Neural Networks Debunk Phrenology</a> by Robert T. Knight</li> <li><i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IV8LAAAAYAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR4&dq=phrenology&ots=sPMhkhNX9q&sig=Ye1hlnrUYVLvw3y6zq1f01ltLNM#v=onepage&q&f=false">Phrenology: Or the Doctrine of the Mental Phenomena</a></i> by J.G. Spurzheim (a phrenology tract from 1846)</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://mashable.com/2016/11/05/vaughts-practical-character-reader/">Excerpts from and commentary on <i>Vaught's Practical Character Reader</i>, a 1902 "beginner's guide to phrenological madness"</a> - Retronaut.com <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/vaughtspractical00vaug">The complete book, digitized by the Library of Congress</a> - <a href="/wiki/Internet_Archive" title="Internet Archive">Archive.com</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/vaughtspractica00vauggoog">Backup copy, digitized by Google</a> - Archive.com</li></ul></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Phrenology&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/919530">The Skull of Joseph Haydn</a> by "R." (anonymous author) (1932) The <i>Musical Times</i> Vol. 73, No. 1076. (Oct. 1), pp. 942–943.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-2">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_mind" class="mw-redirect" title="Philosophy of mind">Philosopher of mind</a> and <a href="/wiki/Cognitive_science" title="Cognitive science">cognitive scientist</a> Jerry Fodor drew some inspiration for his modularity thesis from Franz Joseph Gall, the first phrenologist. See Fodor (1983). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=e7nrSeibJZYC&q=gall#v=snippet&q=gall&f=false"><i>The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology</i>.</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-3">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/Bowery">Bugs Bowery Bugs</a> (1949) Merrie Melodies (Warner Brothers) (archive.org copy)</span> </li> </ol></div></div>    </div></div><div class="printfooter">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Phrenology&oldid=2668546">https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Phrenology&oldid=2668546</a>"</div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Pseudoscience" 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