The Game of Inches

BEHAVIOUR 3: The never-ending doctorate

‘The truth is we don't know everything and we never will'

Nigel Collin

Back in the late 1700s a revolution happened in the science of the mind. It was known as phrenology and was concerned with determining a person's psychological attributes or personality merely by taking head measurements and feeling their skull for the position and size of bumps and indentations. The principle behind it was that the brain was divided into different segments, each of which related to a different psychological attribute, and that the size of that segment determined how strong that characteristic or attribute was. It followed that a large bump pointed to a stronger trait. In other words, you could tell a lot about someone, including what they were good at, simply by feeling the bumps on their head. Sounds reasonable. Although phrenology was first introduced by Franz Joseph Gall in 1769, it wasn't until the early 1800s that the science gained momentum and became fashionable among those wanting to be seen as advocates of the scientific method.

Even today L. N. Fowler's classic phrenology busts are commonly displayed in public spaces and offices. I have one in my own studio, the bald ceramic skull segmented by lines and descriptions defining and delineating different ‘organs' of the brain relating to particular personality attributes: a dominant bump on the top right of your forehead indicates great foresight; a large bump immediately above your left ear ...