Boom. Scientific R*cism.

[michaelelmore]

Mark Twain went in Disguise to get his skull measured this way. Doc said he was uncreative and neigh an idiot. He came back the next day as himself and it was said to be the most creative man alive at the time.

[E.T.]

In Europe, it was also heavily used to justify classism, trying to predict who would become a criminal and the like. I once read a short French article from the time (there are longer sources, but I couldn't stomach them) and it is sometimes just wild what passed for "science" in some times and places...

[Qualicabyss]

Fun fact: the shape of your skull is important to the type of personality you have. If your skull is skull shaped you probably have a personality, if it is pancake shaped you are dead

[yorgunsamuray]

Those “men’s/women’s brain” drawings with “make-up, shopping, clothes” sections for women and “sports, cars, sex” sections for men are probably remnants of this era.

[BATCHARRO]

"I did some uh science and turns out people exactly like me are just inherently superior. It's peer reviewed, all my peers are like me and they agree!"

[jmequeenbee]

The things about phrenology is that it's history's best example of beginning from the conclusion and working backwards to a "proof".

[SnakeMan]

It's the equivalent of "I depicted you as the soyjack and myself as the chad".

[lausenteternidad]

The shape of your skull is important for your personality. For example, if a huge iron bar pierces your cranium, destroys your left eye and frontal lobe, your personality will change. Like Phineas Gage. So try to keep your skull in the shape it already has.

[tildal.]

My grandmother gifted me a phrenology bust when I graduated. I don't really know what she expected me to do with it but now I use it as my headphone stand. lmao

[zacharydechant]

I love the Gravity Falls depiction of it where an entire section of the guy’s head is dedicated to “The Ladies”

[gemcorker]

Omg this reminds me of the "reverse phrenologists" in the Discworld books, who'd hit you hard in the head with appropriately sized mallets to give you the personality you want. You'd order an artistic temperament with a side of neurotic tendancies, but what you'd get is a severe concussion.

[rachelmcdonough]

I tried phrenology on myself and it said I was combative and had low self esteem. It made me feel so awful about myself that I just wanted to fight someone!

[sugarpe]

What I love about Django Unchained is, if I recall correctly, phrenology was already discredited by the time the movie took place. The only people who still believed it were racists like Candie who didn’t care what the then-modern scientists said.

[emmadroste]

I have one of those skulls as a geneticist to remind myself that science is beholden to the culture its in and to remind myself the harm my field has done historically.

[foul_ball]

There are people (my father included) who still believe in phreniology. Thank you so much Milo for properly explaining why it's misinformation

[Backinblackbunny]

Billionaires: Hey, its actually wokeism to say i didn't work hard and earn all my vast wealth that i inherited from my daddy! And its woke to point out my family got it's wealth from owning slaves! Slaves were actually really expensive! They had to be fed everyday, you know!

[Jonnyg]

And then there is Discworld's retro-phrenology, if the shape of your head controls who you are, then reshaping that head should change you. Which mostly involves guys bashing you over the head with a hammer, results are inconclusive, but people are still trying

[lazaron]

One of the fathers of phrenology is Cesare Lombroso an italian/jewish professor. The irony is that some of his grandkids were killed in concentrationcamps because of the "science" he helped start.

(edit)
NB. Someone asked what the source is. In all honesty I don't remember where it was I saw this in writing. You might be able to find some cross references through the "Holocaust survivors and victims database"
So take the murder of grandkids with a grain of salt. As I can not prove atm. and don't have the time to do the research.
...I don't want to spread misinformation, should I delete the comment?

[LeviThePizzaLover]

"People have gotten too comfortable with disrespecting people, and not getting punched in the face for it" - Mike Tyson

[lindseystein]

Wow, racists really went to great lengths to intellectualize and justify their racism. I’ve seen phrenology kind of coming back a bit in some TikTok’s & shorts talking about proportions of a person’s face & how they claim that correlates to “attractiveness”. The face diagrams they make really reminded me of phrenology diagrams