Article ID: CBB509621042

Gall’s German Enemies (2020)

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Franz Joseph Gall’s (1758–1828) proposal for a new theory about how to represent the mental faculties is well known. He replaced the traditional perception-judgement-memory triad of abstract faculties with a set of 27 highly specific faculties, many of which humans share with animals. In addition, he argued that these faculties are dependent on specific cortical areas, these being his organs of mind. After several years of presenting his new views in Vienna, he was banned from lecturing for what he considered absurd reasons. The edict enticed him to make a scientific journey through the German states, both to present his ideas to targeted audiences and to collect more cases. This trip, started in 1805, was extended to include stops in Denmark, Holland, and Switzerland before finally ending in Paris in 1807. For the most part, Gall was received with great enthusiasm in what is now Germany, but there were some individuals who strongly opposed his anatomical discoveries and skull-based doctrine. In this article, we examine the concerns and arguments raised by Johann Gotlieb Walter in Berlin, Henrik Steffens in Halle, Jakob Fidelis Ackermann in Heidelberg, and Samuel Thomas Soemmerring in Munich, as well as how Gall responded to them.

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Article Paul Eling; Stanley Finger (2020) Gall and Phrenology: New perspectives. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences (pp. 1-4). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Eling, Paul
Finger, Stanley
Beierholm, Simon
Gonia Jarema
Thomassen, Jacob Lauge
Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė, Eglė
Journals
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Physis: Rivista Internazionale di Storia della Scienza
Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science
Medical History
Journal of Evolutionary Economics
Publishers
Oxford University Press
Liverpool University Press
Fischer
Concepts
Phrenology
Brain localization
Neurosciences
Science and culture
Biographies
Psychology
People
Gall, Franz Joseph
Spurzheim, Johann Kaspar
Soemmerring, Samuel Thomas von
Otto, Carl
Cruikshank, George
Wenzel, Karl
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, early
20th century
Places
Germany
France
Great Britain
Switzerland
United States
Vilnius (Lithuania or Poland)
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