A Rightful Place in History

Abstract

Gall’s craniology would not withstand the test of time, and how he accepted confirmatory cases and dismissed contradictory evidence would increasingly be regarded as poor science. As a consequence, his cranium-based doctrine began to be branded as a “pseudoscience” in 1834 by physiologist Pierre Magendie, with others following suit. Nonetheless, many of Gall’s ideas have endured, even though he is rarely remembered today for many changes he elicited or helped to elicit. His concepts of numerous independent organs of mind, different kinds of memories, and cortical localization of function are now widely accepted in the neurosciences. He was also extremely influential in drawing attention to individual differences, and he played a major role in making psychiatry a brain-based science and introducing brain pathology into the courtroom. He also deserves to be remembered for purging the soul from the life sciences and positioning us with other animals. And he made significant discoveries in neuroanatomy. In retrospect, Gall was neither a charlatan nor a fraud, though he had too much faith in cranioscopy. His ideas merit a fresh look and, without question, he deserves more credit than he has been given for his insights and how they have changed many fields.