U n i v e r s i d a d d e B a r c e l o n a |
Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluación y Tratamientos Psicológicos |
Cursos asistidos por ordenador a través de i n t e r n
e t |
Franz Joseph Gall
Gall studied medicine in Vienna, Austria, and became a renowned neuroanatomist and physiologist. He was a pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain. Around 1800, he developed "cranioscopy", a method to divine the personality and development of mental and moral faculties on the basis of the external shape of the skull. Cranioscopy (cranium=skull, scopos=vision) was later renamed to phrenology (phrenos=mind, logos=study) by his followers.
Gall's phrenological theories and practices were best accepted in England, where the ruling class used it to justify the "inferiority" of his colonial subjects, including the Irish,; and then in the USA, where it became very popular from 1820 to 1850. However, Gall made many contributions to "real science", such as his discovery that the gray matter of the brain contained cell bodies (neurons) and the white matter contained fibers (axons). His concept that brain function was localized was later proved to be correct, but not as phrenology implied. Gall died in Paris, in August 22, 1828. |