Dr. David Reese and the Three Errors of Phrenology: Religion, Anatomy, and Moral Insanity
Today, phrenology is a mostly-forgotten and thoroughly medically disgraced theory of human behavior. Yet, in its mid-nineteenth century heyday, it not only claimed to explain one’s personality based on the size of the bumps on one’s head but also (scarily) attempted to push prison reform in a less p...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Seminary
2023
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| In: |
The Asbury journal
Year: 2023, Volume: 78, Issue: 1, Pages: 183-209 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Today, phrenology is a mostly-forgotten and thoroughly medically disgraced theory of human behavior. Yet, in its mid-nineteenth century heyday, it not only claimed to explain one’s personality based on the size of the bumps on one’s head but also (scarily) attempted to push prison reform in a less punitive direction. Somewhat surprisingly, as phrenology crossed the Atlantic in the 1820s, a number of doctors, professors, and ordinary citizens accepted and promoted its rather startling claims. At the same time, traditionalists response is exemplifies by Dr. David M. Reese, a highly regarded physician in Manhattan who opposed its attack on (mainly evangelical regarded physician in Manhattan who opposed its attack on (mainly evangelical and specifically Methodist) Christianity, exposed its non-medical understanding of anatomy, ridiculed its belief in "moral insanity" and disputed the idea of religiously-induced insanity which accompanied outbreaks of revivalism. |
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| ISSN: | 2375-5814 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Asbury journal
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.7252/Journal.01.2023S.10 |