Phrenology

Ever wonder why you are such a good friend, tight with your money, or very religious? Well Franz Joseph Gall has an answer for you! It's all due to the shape of your head.

The German physician developed Phrenology in 1797 to explain people's personalities. If you had some sort of dent on your scalp, and therefore skull, this was connected to your brain which was connected to your mind, which is what determines that personality trait. Or so the theory goes.

Let's see, I have one on the back right of my skull. Let me get out my charts and diagrams...oh, here it is: compulsive shoe shopper and drug addict. Hmm, that only seems half-right.

Phrenology became popular in the mid-19th century and the United States found it especially useful. For the most part today the practice is dismissed as quackery but surprisingly enough it is still used by some some believers all around the world.