phrenology
Debunked head science
Phrenology is a discredited pseudoscience from the 19th century that claimed personality traits and mental abilities could be determined by examining the shape and bumps of the skull.
Practitioners believed different brain regions controlled specific faculties, and that these areas grew or shrank based on use, affecting skull contours.
Though thoroughly debunked, phrenology influenced early neuroscience and is now invoked as a byword for scientific racism and junk science: That's just phrenology with extra steps.
Head's bone casing
- craniumSkull bone structure
- foreheadFace above eyebrows
- lobesRounded projecting parts
- bumpsSmall raised areas
occipital · parietal · temporal · frontal · brainpan · craniometry · calvaria · sutures
Innate powers of mind
- traitsDistinguishing personal features
- propensitiesNatural tendencies toward something
- sentimentsEmotional views or attitudes
- intellectMental reasoning capacity
aptitude · disposition · temperament · veneration · benevolence · combativeness · acquisitiveness · secretiveness
Fraudulent medical practice
- debunkedExposed as fraudulent
- charlatanFaker claiming false expertise
- fallacyError in reasoning
- discreditedProven unworthy of trust
unscientific · disproven · junk science · bogus · misconception · unfounded · specious · fraud
Interpreting written text
- palmistryReading hands for fortunes
- fortune-tellingClaiming to predict futures
- physiognomyCharacter from appearance
- graphologyStudy of penmanship patterns
character analysis · personality assessment · prediction · consultation · practitioner · sitting · chart · delineation
skull
Head's bone casing
bumps · occipital · parietal · temporal · frontal · brainpan · craniometry · calvaria · sutures · contour
faculties
Innate powers of mind
- traitsDistinguishing personal features
- propensitiesNatural tendencies toward something
- sentimentsEmotional views or attitudes
intellect · aptitude · disposition · temperament · veneration · benevolence · combativeness · acquisitiveness · secretiveness · cautiousness
quackery
Fraudulent medical practice
discredited · unscientific · disproven · junk science · bogus · misconception · unfounded · specious · fraud · hoax
reading
Interpreting written text
- palmistryReading hands for fortunes
- fortune-tellingClaiming to predict futures
- physiognomyCharacter from appearance
graphology · character analysis · personality assessment · prediction · consultation · practitioner · sitting · chart · delineation · profile
- Victorianaseances, Dickens, spiritualism, Sherlock Holmes, workhouse
- nonsciencespseudoscience, astrology, numerology, graphology, palmistry
- divinationdivination, fortune telling, fortune-telling, fortune teller, tarot
- 1840s-1850sOregon Trail, California Gold Rush, Mexican-American War, Manifest Destiny, Underground Railroad
- debunked beliefsflat earth, phlogiston, spontaneous generation, geocentrism, caloric theory
- medical historyHippocrates, germ theory, bloodletting, Galen, four humors
phrenologyneuroscience
Study of nervous systems
neuropsychology · brain science · cognitive science · neuroimaging · psychometrics