phrenology

The study of the shape and protuberances of the skull, based on the now discredited belief that they reveal character and mental capacity.

The theory that the mental powers of the individual consist of independent faculties, each of which has its seat in a definite brain-region, whose size is commensurate with the power of manifesting this particular faculty.

Comparative psychology; the study of the mind, intellect, or intelligence of man and the lower animals.

The science of the special functions of the several parts of the brain, or of the supposed connection between the various faculties of the mind and particular organs in the brain.

In popular usage, the physiological hypothesis of Gall, that the mental faculties, and traits of character, are shown on the surface of the head or skull; craniology.

The science, now generally discredited, which studies the relationships between a person’s character and the morphology (structure) of the skull.

a now abandoned study of the shape of skull as indicative of the strengths of different faculties