Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) viewed himself as a cutting-edge scientist, whose broad goals were to understand the mind and brain, and to be able to account for both group and individual behavioral traits in humans and animals. Starting in Vienna during the 1790s, he argued for many independent faculties of mind (e.g., music, calculation), ultimately settling on 27, with 8 being unique to humans. At the same time, he became the first person to provide evidence for cortical localization of function, the idea that the cerebral cortex is composed of specialized functional areas or organs, as he p ... More

Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) viewed himself as a cutting-edge scientist, whose broad goals were to understand the mind and brain, and to be able to account for both group and individual behavioral traits in humans and animals. Starting in Vienna during the 1790s, he argued for many independent faculties of mind (e.g., music, calculation), ultimately settling on 27, with 8 being unique to humans. At the same time, he became the first person to provide evidence for cortical localization of function, the idea that the cerebral cortex is composed of specialized functional areas or organs, as he preferred to say. But although he utilized many acceptable methods in his multifaceted research program (e.g., dissections, studying people with brain damage, and observing behaviors over a lifetime), his doctrine was highly controversial from the start. For scientists and physicians, this was largely because he made cranioscopy his primary method, believing cranial bumps and depressions faithfully reflect the cortical organs and could be correlated with specific behaviors. In this book, Gall is shown to be a dedicated scientist with brilliant insights: a free-thinking naturalist of the mind and a visionary of the brain, yet a researcher with faults. Despite being frequently portrayed as a charlatan or comical figure, the authors also show how what others called his “phrenology” (a term he abhorred) helped shape the modern neurosciences and other disciplines. Maintaining that Gall’s impact deserves more recognition today, this book provides a fresh look at the man, his objectives, and his revolutionary doctrine.