Origins of the Word "Phrenology"
PATRICIA S. NOEL 1, and
ERIC T. CARLSON M.D.2
1 Member of the section on the history of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences, department of psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College, 525 E. 68th St., New York, N. Y. 10021, graduate student in history at New York University
2 Clinical associate professor of psychiatry, member of the section on the history of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences, department of psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College, 525 E. 68th St., New York, N. Y. 10021
Phrenology is defined as the study of the conformation of the skull as indicative of mental faculties and character. The authors trace the development of this definition from Benjamin Rush, who meant phrenology to describe faculty psychology, through Franz Joseph Gall, who linked faculty psychology and craniology, to Thomas Forster and Johann Spurzheim, who gave the word its present meaning.
