This is a theory which is claimed to be able to tell persons personality and criminality by the shape of their head. It was developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall in the 1800’s. Phrenology was very popular in 19^th century. It is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind and that certain parts of the brain have specific functions. And these were proportional in giving a person there individual shape and personality.

Over the years phrenology as been followed and studied by many different people all over the world who have belief that it can tell many different things about a person such as criminology and was also used by some scientists promoting racist ideologies.

Phrenology was a complex procedure and involved a person having their head measured by callipers, then felt by the practitioners hands in order to feel bumps or indentations of the head. Then their character and temperament would be assessed according to the findings against each of the 27 parts of the brain.

The 27 different parts were believed to be

1. Instinct of reproduction (located in the cerebellum).

2. Love of your offspring.

3. Affection and friendship towards others.

4. The instinct of self-defence and courage, your tendency to get into fights.

5. The tendency to murder.

6. Guile, acuteness, cleverness.

7. The feeling of property, the instinct to stock food (in animals), covetousness, tendency to steal.

8. Pride, arrogance, haughtiness, authority, loftiness.

9. Vanity, ambition, love of glory

10. Circumspection, forethought.

11. The memory of facts, educability, perfectibility.

12. The sense of places, of space proportions.

13. The memory of people, the sense of people.

14. The memory of words.

15. The sense of language and speech.

16. The sense of colours.

17. The sense of sounds, musical ability

18. The sense of connectedness between numbers.

19. The sense of mechanics, construction, the talent for architecture.

20. Comparative sagacity.

21. The sense of metaphysics.

22. The sense of satire, the sense of witticism.

23. Poetic talent.

24. Kindness, benevolence, gentleness, compassion, sensitivity, moral sense.

25. The faculty to imitate and/or mimic.

26. Religion.

27. The firmness of purpose, constancy, perseverance, obstinacy.

With modern neurological advances, phrenology has long been dismissed, and many scientists believe that personality traits cannot be told just by feeling the shape of a person’s head and a more in depth analysis is needed. Yet some do believe that there is still some truth in it.