Phrenology

Phrenology is introduced on page 67. This is an area which calls for a careful approach. Prophetess of Health says little about the phrenological concepts which pervaded nineteenth century America generally, or of some of its positive contributions.CBPH 46.8

“Phrenology today,” says John D. Davies in his standard work on the subject, Phrenology: Fad and Science (Archon Books, 1971, © 1955), “is considered a harmless quackery.” And indeed, anyone reading the treatment of the subject in Prophetess of Health would not find that assumption disturbed. But Davies goes on to say:CBPH 46.9

In its own time phrenology, like Freudianism, was a serious, inductive discipline, accepted as such by many eminent scientists, doctors, and educators; its aberrations were the results not so much of charlatanism or credulity as of the limitations of early nineteenth century scientific method and medical techniques. However mistaken some of its anatomical deductions may have been, scientific it was in its determination to study the mind objectively, without metaphysical preconceptions. Its priority in this field is recognized in the histories of medicine and psychology, and many of its fundamentals are as commonplace today as they were radical a century ago.—pp. x, xi (Emphasis supplied).CBPH 46.10

Granted, the purpose here is to show the relationship of phrenology to the health reform movement and not to give a general treatment of phrenology as such, yet if the reader is left with no clue as to phrenology’s contributions to education, the treatment of mental illness, or penology; if the reader is given no clue as to the positive contributions of phrenology, then his understanding of its significance in connection with the health reform movement is seriously distorted. If he views phrenology merely as “quackery,” then he will probably tend to view those health reformers who accepted it in the same light.CBPH 46.11

Another important general point which should be made in connection with phrenology is the widespread infiltration of its terminology. Davies says: “Through lectures, societies, magazines, book and periodical articles, phrenological tenets were dinned into American ears until the appropriation of their peculiar vocabulary by fiction and popular speech made them familiar to everyone.”—Davies, p. ix.CBPH 47.1