The following is a guest post from Stanley Finger, professor emeritus in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University. Finger earned his doctorate from Indiana University and has been on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis since that time. He is also currently affiliated with the school&#;s History of Medicine Program. His focus has been on the history of the neurosciences, notably brain and behavior, electric fishes in the history of neurophysiology, Benjamin Franklin&#;s medicine, and how the neurosciences have long been reflected in the arts (e.g., painting, literature, and music). He has served as the editor of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences for 20 years; was the first president of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences; and has received many honors, including the latter society&#;s lifetime achievement award in
His new book with coauthor Paul Eling, “Franz Joseph Gall: Naturalist of the Mind, Visionary of the Brain” (Oxford University Press, ), is the first in-depth scientific biography of Franz Joseph Gall, the founder of phrenology.
Franz Joseph Gall (), who was born in
Franz Josef Gall was born in at Tiefenbronn (Baden), the son of an Italian merchant. In he began medical studies with Jean Hermann in Strasbourg, and there developed an affinity for research, particularly in comparative anatomy. He also acquired a wife, Miss Leisler (whose first name apparently was not recorded for posterity) as well as a variety of mistresses, one of whom bore him a son, Hamann. As a result, Gall's marriage was not pleasant; however, he did not let this dissuade him from his exploits, and was quoted as saying cheerfully, "Neither sin nor friends will ever leave me" (Ackerknecht & Vallois, , p. 7).
Gall received his medical degree in Vienna in and established a general practice. His collaboration with his pupil Johann Christoph Spurzheim, which began in , led to the development of his theories concerning brain localization and phrenology (initially referred to by Gall as cranioscopy). He characterized his primary goal -- to develop a functional anatomy and physiology of the brain as well as a revised psychology of personality -- as "organology." (As explained in more detail below, Gall ultimately identified 27 discrete brain "centers" of behavior, 25 o
Franz Joseph Gall (March 9, – August 22, ) was a German neuroanatomist and physiologist, the father of phrenology. He was also one of the early pioneers in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain. While his belief that certain areas of the brain are responsible for psychological activity proved correct in general terms, his assumption that the shape of the skull reflected personality traits and mental abilities was not, the shape of the skull not corresponding to the topography of the brain. However, Gall's ideas were taken and misused to justify discrimination against various ethnic groups, based on physical features.
Gall's work pioneered our understanding of the function of the brain and correspondences between areas of the brain and particular mental activities. This relationship is extremely complex, since the human brain and human mind function in sophisticated, multi-dimensional ways of the highest order. Gall's work constituted only the early beginnings to this important area of study, one which allows us to comprehend ourselves and our abilities as the highest order form of physical life.
Life
Gall was born on March 9, , in t
Franz Joseph Gall () the originator of what later became phrenology.
Gall in | Gall in + | The young Gall | |
Gall in Paris | Gall in his later years++ | ||
Franz Joseph Gall was born in the Swabian village of Tiefenbronn near Pforzheim, which was later in the German Grand-Dutchy of Baden, the sixth of ten children of Roman Catholic merchant parents. Although originally intended for the priesthood, and first educated by his priest uncle, Gall studied medicine in the French city of Strasbourg in There Gall was introduced to the comparative anatomy of Johann Hermann () who taught that there was a close relationship between Man and apes. In Gall continued his medical studies in Vienna where he was most impressed by his teacher, the well-known physician Maximilian Stoll (). Stoll emphasized the collection of many empirical facts from clinical observation before drawing general conclusions, a theme which would permanently become part of Gall's practice and rhetoric. Gall received the doctor of medicine in and became a successful, well-connected, private physician in Vienna. He married for the first time in Gall was very proud and independent
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