Scientists throughout history have always sought to define how human beings behave differently from the rest of the society. This curiosity is based on the fact that some individuals demonstrate the values and virtues that are promoted by the community while others seem to deliberately go against them. One of the measures that were developed to explain the differences in behavior is phrenology. The pseudo-medicine discipline asserted that measuring the human skull is a basic concept of identifying individuals who are naturally bad and those who are mad (Bradley, 2014). The basic premise of the technique is that the brain is the organ of the mind with significant areas localized to perform particular functions. While some of its ideas are evident in scientific research, the practice usually went beyond empirical knowledge. Phrenology was particularly popular during the 19 th century before developments were made in psychology and neuroscience.
Criminals during the 19 th century were used as test subjects to ascertain that indeed their brains were wired to be natural born killers. According to the article by Bradley (2014), Patrick O’Connor and Henry Bradley were known for spectacular bushranging outbreaks during the Gold Rush period (Bradley, 2014). They were hanged together after being caught for their violent crimes. It was after their execution that medical men declared that their cerebral physiology was in fact a major cause for their desire to commit crimes. O’Connor had a powerful intellect and not a weak one which made him violent and murderous while Bradley had the passions of an adult male but a controlling intellect of an average child (Bradley, 2014). In this regard, the medics would recognize that the bushrangers did not have the power of self-control. However, it was confirmed that they should have been received treatment in an asylum rather than punishment by the gallows.
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Phrenology usually referred to as cerebral physiology in its zenith, was recognized as the cutting edge of brain science. Two primary ideas were critical in its extraordinary explanations for behavior. The first is the mental capacity or faculty of specific brain regions and the second being the shaping of the skull during the development of the brain (Bradley, 2014). Skilled medical workers would be able to recognize underdevelopment noted by a depression in the skull while over development showed a bump. However, it is evident that some contradiction existed as many phrenologists agreed that some criminals were born naturally like that while others were forced by circumstances (Bradley, 2014). This would be used in identifying individual history of the characters so as to identify those who are redeemable to help them reform. Political leaders and legal professionals were unmoved by the inferences of the phrenologists identifying that the criminal had the capability of making a moral decision despite the disorder of the brain.
The rejection by majority of the society as seen in Australia’s colonies would prove to be beneficial as it laid a foundation for the search to discover criminality of an individual based on brain structure. Psychiatrist and anthropologist Cesare Lombroso borrowed ideas from the pseudo-science noting that the criminal was a result of an impaired nervous system. In this regard, the malefactors would demonstrate atavism where their faces and skulls had signs of degeneration (Bradley, 2014). He asserted that tattoos were a dominant symbol of pathological criminality where only a person with a degenerated brain could subject himself to such pain of the needle. Alexandre Lacassagne had an alternative take that tattoos depicted plenty about the life and culture of the individual. Therefore, the criminal was born from the social circumstances of his or her upbringing (Bradley, 2014). The skepticism attached to phrenology is depicted as a reason to exercise the same when dealing with the contemporary neuroscience as it may experience same fate in determining pathological criminality.
References
Bradley, J. (2014) Natural born killers: brain shape, behaviour and the history of phrenology . The Conversation, Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/natural-born-killers-brain-shape-behaviour-and-the-history-of-phrenology-27518
