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What is phrenology, and what role did it play in the development of ideas about brain localization?

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Step-by-step explanation:

Phrenology was a science of character divination, faculty psychology, theory of brain and what the 19th-century phrenologists called "the only true science of mind."Phrenology came from the theories of the idiosyncratic Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828).

Gall believed that the bumps and uneven geography of the human skull were caused by pressure exerted from the brainunderneath. He divided the brain into sections that corresponded to certain behaviors and traits that he called fundamental faculties. This is referred to as localization of function.

Phrenology is considered pseudoscience today, but it was actually a vast improvement over that era's prevailing views of personality. ... But phrenology may be undergoing a redemption of sorts. Not the skull part—that's still considered bunk.

Phrenology was particularly popular in the U.S. because it fit so well with the idea of the American dream–the notion that we can accomplish our goals despite a humble heritage. Spurzheim believed that the brain was like a muscle that could be exercised.

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