Phrenology

By Deane Barker • • tags: biology, pseudo-science •
Updates
This content has been updated 1 time since it was first published. The last update happened .

This is a discredited “science” that studied the shape of a human’s skull, believing it could reveal aspects of their personality or mental makeup. There was a slight racial component, in that the skulls of different races have subtle, yet consistent, shape differences, leading some to believe these controlled personality traits.

Why I Looked It Up

I don’t have the reason in my notes, but I do remember my son mentioning it in passing once.

I had confused it with the study of the kidneys in the past, but that’s “nephrology.”

Update

Added on

From The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office, which I am re-reading:

At age eleven, he was taken to see a doctor of phrenology (a pseudoscience already on the wane by 1920), who assessed Coase’s intellectual prospects based on the shape of his skull.

Links from this – The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office February 16, 2025
This is a re-read for me. I first read this back in 2013 when it came out. I was on vacation in Turks and Caicos. I remember reading this in a hammock at one point. This is not a focused book. I’m not going to call it a “meditation,” because it has good information, it’s just not self-help or...