HISTORY 265 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Johann Spurzheim, Insanity Defense, George Combe
Document Summary
Phrenology offered something to everyone: it was a flexible toolkit that could give all sorts of theories, projects and politics the veneer of scientific exactness and objectivity. (cid:1000). Phrenology is the impulse and the set of institutions around mapping regions of the mind. Brain is divided into regions and can be measured. Objective way to make ideas of hidden processes of the mind. Kicked out of france because it went against religion. Measurement of head/bumps to develop a system to control the population. Connect shape of bumps on head and size to make inferences about person. Not a doctor or scientist, he"s a lawyer. What are humans made of, where do they come from. How are they governed, how do they interact in the world. See fundamental differences in people and they can find in head. Could explain everything you see by explaining everything you couldn"t see. Behaviors caused by what you couldn"t see.
