Phrenology Examined

Chapter 3: AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

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About This Book

The author examines phrenology by scrutinizing its central claims that mental activity resides exclusively in the brain and that each faculty corresponds to a discrete cerebral organ. The critique evaluates Gall’s evidence and methods, questions proposed anatomical correlations, and discusses distinctions between instinct and understanding as well as the role attributed to animal spirits. It surveys the positions of Spurzheim and Broussais, assessing their psychological and physiological extensions and pointing out methodological exaggerations and errors. While noting some empirical observations of value, the analysis concludes that the strict localizationist system advanced by phrenologists is unsupported by the evidence presented.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

Having been a witness to the progress of phrenology, I was led to the composition of the following treatise.

Each succeeding age has a philosophy of its own.

The seventeenth century recovered from the philosophy of Descartes; the eighteenth recovered from that of Locke and Condillac: is the nineteenth to recover from that of Gall?

This is a really important question.

I propose, in this work, to examine phrenology as it appears in the writings of Gall, of Spurzheim, and of Broussais.

My wish is to be brief. There is, however, one great secret in the art of being brief: it is to be clear.

I frequently quote Descartes: I even go further; for I dedicate my work to his memory. I am writing in opposition to a bad philosophy, while I am endeavouring to recall a sound one.