Phrenology-Past to Present

PHRENOLOGY : PAST TO PRESENT

2009

From the historical perspective , phrenology can be regarded as the early nineteenth-century expression of a longstanding medical interest in the precise relationship of the brain to human behavior . As early as the writings of Galen (2nd century C . E , medical speculation about the brain included the localization of mental attributes like common sense imagination , and memory . Later medieval European medicine , which largely followed Galenic models , sustained notions of localization and often synthesized them with Christian beliefs (Clarke Dewhurst , 1972 . In early American history , figures like

the Revolutionary-era doctor Benjamin Rush continued this tradition in a modified form and explicitly linked the study of the brain to moral reform , preparing the way for phrenology (Clarke Dewhurst , 1972 . For the first four decades of the nineteenth century phrenology influenced much of the scientific discussion about brain localization because of its prominence in medical circles and in popular culture . For some scientists and doctors phrenology was a serious science of mental function however , for others it was useful only as a set of theories to refute . In the wake of the phrenological movement , the disciplines of neuroanatomy and psychology continued to study and debate localization (Young , 1970 . Philosophical debate related to the mind /body problem often attended medical interest in brain localization . Likewise , theological concern about issues like the nature of the soul , free will , determinism , and possibility of regeneration often gave a decidedly religious flavor to discussions of the structure and function of the brain

Phrenology got...