Jul 21 2009
Psychological Characteristics and Deep Phrenology
Phrenology has long been discredited. In brief, this 100+ year-old theory of personality and mental illness asserted that psychological characteristics could be read in the shape of the skull. While a large brow meant one thing, a shallow area on the top of the head meant another. Depending on its location.
But alas, psychiatrists can’t diagnose individuals today by feeling their heads, as one might test a melon for freshness.
The phrenologists may have been heading in the right direction, however (pun unintended). MRI research over the past couple decades has been examining the link between deep brain structure/form and psychological characteristics.
For example, one study revealed that -
[T]he brains of schizophrenic patients have abnormalities in the shape and asymmetry of the hippocampus.
Should we consider these types of study neo-Phrenology via MRI?
Personally, I think there may be something to “deep phrenology.” But I also recognize that while this research may help us to understand the working (and disorders) of the brain better, I am skeptical that one day they will be used as definitive diagnostic tools. There can be a tremendous gap between discovering average differences in brains and applying the knowledge to individual cases.
But who knows? Maybe in the distant future users of services such as match.com won’t need to answer a lengthy questionnaire. Instead, they’ll use their handy USB head-scanner to “tell” about themselves. And be matched to the melon of their dreams.
