Skull theory

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The phrenology is an anatomically-physiological system of craniometry of the 19th century and was designed by Franz Joseph Gall founded and of Johann Spurzheim developed. She postulates that a prejudicial perception of a certain external skull formation suggests certain mental attitudes. Under the term skull theory, phrenology was controversially discussed in the German-speaking area of ​​the late 18th and then in the 19th century under its humanities dimension in Kant and in German idealism . The determinism of skull theory would make moral action impossible and the appeal of ethics fruitless. Today cranial science is viewed as a pseudoscience , whereby the humanities discourse of human freedom about nature has not become superfluous.

history

Since the 17th century the soul has been increasingly associated with fixed structures of the brain. From this thought René Descartes developed his dualism of soul and body. The body, the res extensa, was subject to the laws of nature. The soul, the res cogitans, was free and endowed with will. The soul was able to control the body via the pineal gland in the brain. Descartes himself carried out detailed anatomical studies for this.

Skull theory

Out of this dualism, skull theory transferred the conviction that a certain attitude not only guides the body, but also develops it. Gall assumed that he could establish a relationship between talent and external characteristics. The different (27) brain regions should therefore be responsible for the different functions: Localization and derived from there the cranial theory. Particularly pronounced or underdeveloped brain regions can be seen as humps or as depressions on the skull. To support his theory, Gall made live and death masks of celebrities, criminals, thieves, murderers, suicides, prostitutes, the insane, etc. His teaching was, however, controversial during his lifetime. On July 3, 1802, his teaching license at the University of Vienna was revoked.

"Doctor Medicinä Gall gives, as I understand, private lectures in his house on the theory of the human cranium which he invented and is said to receive frequent visits not only from men, but also from women and young girls." Since some people might lose their heads about this head theory, which is talked about with enthusiasm, and it seems to lead this doctrine to materialism and thus argue against the first principles of religion and morality, these private lectures will immediately become these private lectures through the Lower Austrian Let the government hire and ban. "

- Emperor Franz II.

Gall then moved with Spurzheim to Berlin, where he was more successful: Gall examined prisoners and said that every crime can be traced back to a change in the brain. Therefore one has to heal instead of punishing. After Gall attracted the attention of the regent Napoleon Bonaparte in France in 1807 , he retired to his country estate in Montrouge near Paris around 1820, where he ordained as a practitioner until the end of his life .

Effects of skull theory

As can be seen in the emperor's decree, not only the participation of women and skull hunting was the determining element for the ban, but the presumed reference to materialism. Despite all denials on the part of Gall, the theory tends towards materialism , determinism and fatalism : The assumption that the psychological properties of the human being are to be sought in the different regions of the brain and that these can be omitted in the event of wounds, laid the idea of ​​an indivisible and immortal soul. The resulting hypothesis that there is an innate and thus hereditary sense of murder or space not only questioned the moral freedom of humans and the legal responsibility of the criminal, but also the educability of young people. At the same time, a certain genius cult was established by the new teaching, which should be derived from nature and from which Gall promised an improvement of mankind. The opponents of this new theory were mainly to be found in the fields of theology and natural philosophy. Ludwig Börne put it most aptly when he described Gall's skull theory as "a chemical reagent that taught the nature of the scientific age and its components". The new theory leads to a great desire for skulls of important personalities. Several graves were looted - so the skulls of z. B. Joseph Haydn , Betty Roose and René Descartes , or individual parts such as the skull plate by the composer Gaetano Donizetti . Kant's skull was examined several times after his death in 1804 and after his exhumation in 1880. Wilhelm Gottlieb Kelch wrote a book that was not ignored.

Supporters and opponents of skull theory

Goethe as a follower of skull theory

Christoph Martin Wieland

The first treatise on Gall's skull theory was provided by Christoph Martin Wieland in Der Teutsche Merkur of December 1789, before the emperor's ban. It cannot be proven whether Goethe took note of it, but it could be assumed from the spatial proximity. In 1799, the surgeon Ludwig Friedrich von Froriep attended Gall's private lectures in Vienna and published them in the text: Presentation of the new theory of physionomics of the Hn based on investigations into the functioning of the brain. Dr. Gall in Vienna . This writing was published by Friedrich Justin Bertuch in Waimar and can be found in Goethe's library. Bertuch reports in a letter to Froriep dated November 18, 1800 about the sensation that Froriep's "Gallism" made on Goethe. Gall comes to Weimar in September 1805 and another visit follows in September 1807. He succeeded in getting Goethe to have a live mask removed from the court sculptor Carl Gottlieb Weisser , since Gall wrote in a letter to Bertuch on September 23, 1807: "If Goethe is there, swear to him that he will have his splendid, splendid head printed for me. Everyone laughs at me that I don't have him. "Goethe comments on Gall's second visit in his diary of October 16, 1807:" Dr. Gall came back after dinner until we talked about his new teaching until evening; because I let myself be cast for him. ”This is all the more remarkable when on September 22nd, 1802 Johann Gottfried Schadow asked the poet prince in vain to be able to measure his head for a bust. Thus, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe particularly fond of the theory of Gall and shared his view is that genius and madness from the vaults of the skull can be read. When Friedrich Schiller died on May 8, 1805 , two days after his death he was lowered into the crypt of the so-called Weimarer Kassengewölbes without any ceremony . In 1826 Schiller's coffin was supposed to be moved from the vault to its own grave, but the stacked coffins in the damp underground tomb had burst. 23 skulls were found in the jumble of the decayed bodies, from which Schiller was identified by comparison with a monument. On September 24, 1826, Schiller's skull was carried from the Grand Ducal Library to his house on Frauenplan, where it was professionally prepared. In addition to studies about the skull, Goethe also wrote a poem: see: When looking at Schiller's skull . After a DNA analysis of the skull with the genetic make-up of a closest relative of the poet, it is now clearly proven that the skull is not Schiller's skull. It is also speculated whether Gall or Ludwig Friedrich von Froriep removed the Schiller skull from the crypt.

Hegel's criticism of skull theory

Shortly before the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel completed the phenomenology of the mind . Hegel was not only physically close to Goethe, but as Minister of Culture, Goethe was also Hegel's superior at his professorship in Jena. Hegel was therefore forced to refer to the PdG in Chapter V: Certainty and Truth of Reason under Section A. Observational Reason and C Observations of the Relationship of Self-Consciousness to Its Immediate Reality; Physiognomics and skull theory to go into it. Hegel was not a dualist but had a peculiar general theory about the nature of mind. He advocated the thesis that the mind and its states consist of physical behavior, a kind of behaviorism . Hegel therefore rejected the connection between the external and the internal:

“Such an arbitrary association of those who are external to one another gives no law. Physiognomics, however, is supposed to differ from other bad arts and hopeless studies in that it regards the definite individuality in the necessary opposition of an inner and outer, of character as a conscious being and the same as being, and relates these moments to one another as it is through their concepts are related to each other and must therefore constitute the content of a law. In astrology, chiromancy and similar sciences, on the other hand, only the external seems to be related to the external, something to something alien to it. "

- Hegel

Therefore, he rejected not only dualism, but also the materialistic view of Gall, which wanted to ascribe the mind and its states to the expression of a certain part of the body. Rather, the true man is his deed:

“This being reflected is first of all different from the act itself and can therefore be something else and be taken for something other than what it is; you can tell from your face whether you are serious about what you say or do. - Conversely, however, what is supposed to be the expression of the inside is at the same time an expression of being and hereby falls itself down into the determination of being, which is absolutely accidental for the self-conscious being. "

- Hegel

August von Kotzebue

The poet August von Kotzebue also takes a critical and ironic look at skull theory. Gall was also present at his comedy "Die Organe des Brains", which was performed in Weimar on March 23, 1807 and laughed heartily.

content

Old Mr. Rückmark is an avid fan of Gall. He put all his fortune into the collection of bizarre skulls. He does not judge people by their actions and words, but by the shape of their head. In doing so, he suffers constant damage, e.g. B. when recruiting service personnel. When his daughter and son want to get married, he has strong doubts about the head shape of the candidates. However, they find a fulfilling marriage even against his will.

More people

photos

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Austrian State Archives, Hof- u. State Archives, Cabinet Archives. Protocols Volume 153a, No. 743, quoted in: Brigitte and Helmut Heintel: Franz Joseph Gall Biographie. Stuttgart 1985, p. 12.
  2. ^ Ludwig Börne: All writings. Revised and edited by Inge and Peter Rippmann. Volume 1, Düsseldorf 1964, p. 147. Quoted by Siegrid Oehler-Klein: Franz Joseph Gall's skull theory in literature and criticism of the 19th century. Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz / Stuttgart / New York 1990, p. 63.
  3. ^ Herbert Ullrich: Skull fates of historical personalities . Munich 2004, ISBN 3-89937-055-4 , p. 13 f.
  4. ↑ On Kant's Skull, A Contribution to Gall's Brain and Skull Theory by Dr. Wilhelm Gottlieb Kelch.
  5. ↑ Deutsches Ärzteblatt. 95, issue 34-35, August 24, 1998 (51) A-2039.
  6. ↑ gerichtsmedizin.at ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ spiegel.de
  8. ↑ Phenomenology of Mind, c. Observation of the relation of self-consciousness to its immediate reality; Physiognomics and skull theory
  9. ↑ Phenomenology of Mind, c. Observation of the relation of self-consciousness to its immediate reality; Physiognomics and skull theory
  10. ↑ August von Kotzebue: The organs of the brain. Comedy in three acts. Leipzig 1806.

literature

  • Sigrid Oehler-Klein: Franz Joseph Gall's skull theory in literature and criticism of the 19th century. Urban & Fischer, 1998, ISBN 3-437-11334-8 .
  • Lambros Kordelas: Hegel's critical analysis of Gall's skull theory in the "Phenomenology of Spirit". Königshausen & Neumann, 1998, ISBN 3-8260-1508-8 .
  • Certainty and truth of reason. In: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Phenomenology of the Spirit. Meiner Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-7873-2464-4 , p. 215 ff.
  • Albrecht Schöne: Schiller's skull. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48689-4 .