The Dark Story of Phrenology

[@pliktley1]

"A famous french scientist and racist" with no change in intonation, just said as one full statement, is gold

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Ohh dude, and Cuvier totally deserves it. He was involved in the mistreatment of an African woman named Sara Baartman, whose story has become quite famous.

[@pliktley1]

@@PatKellyTeaches it's just the fact that is isn't even "editing Kelly here!" Or just a caption in the video. Great

[@Hi_Im_Akward]

He regularly says this, very matter fact and I'm here for it. It's apart of the history and even if someone brought immense change and insight we still need to talk about the shitty things they did too.

[@FriedEgg101]

I love how unflattering some of the artwork is. Like the artist had no trouble portraying how grotesque they found it.

[@UberNuber]

You wanna talk about racism. The US' original plan to nuke Japan involved my grandfather done up in yellow face with his eyes taped back, smuggling the little boy nuke into Japan via his asshole. He got it ready (we have a family heirloom photo of him with the device fully ensconced), but it was found to be too racist to go forward with that plan

[@TadashiKitsune]

"...the doctrine of the skull." Metal AF.

[@PatKellyTeaches]

🤘🤘🤘

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Thanks again to the Mutter Museum for helping me out with footage from the Hyrtl Skull Collection. Go check out their KZbin Channel while you're at it.

[@phinhnanthasone1231]

Deeming someone else inferior doesn't justify harm, hurt or even death

[@NoSaysJo]

how brave of you

[@SendPeaches]

Gosh your channel is criminally underrated. Hopefully by commenting the algorithm will start putting your fantastic work out for more people! 👏

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I appreciate that. The stories are fun to tell!

[@eloylie]

Absolutely agree, his channel is a diamond in the rough who finally gives people the credibility we all screamed for, for years, just to get put down online by illiterate dude bros who think that "this is cool science, it cant be rascist!!! you are making it uuuup" and im so glad people who are doctors speak out on these things, factually, and without judgement, so no more young people get it twisted.

[@nichole9677]

I LOVE this channel. My dad sent me the rabies vaccine one the other day and I'm freakin HOOKED

[@herodontus]

imagine u got a pimple on ur scalp and suddenly you're considered wise af

[@Aquarius444K]

this had me rolling omg. Imagine these racist mf's meeting someone with cystic acne of the scalp LMAO

[@BaneofBots]

Or equal to a slave

[@mariekatherine5238]

Americans still love this kind of stuff! Who doesn’t know their astrological sign, temperament type, or Myers-Briggs initials? Aquarius, melancholic, INTJ.

Oh, not just Americans. Check out blood type 'astrology' in East Asia. And the Chinese Zodiac.

[@harriswong2137]

Really enjoyed the clear flow. You deserve way more credit for your work!

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I appreciate that!

[@sidebongy3219]

i truly could not believe that you didnt have over 1MIL subscribers !?!? Your videos are so damn well made, clear, concise, and entertaining !!! Wishing you all the success in the world!

[@TheVigilo]

The pacing of these videos is always so perfect, concise but still full of info to keep me interested. Thanks for another banger

[@PatKellyTeaches]

That means a lot, thank you! My earlier work was *too* fast paced, so I'm glad the slower, more deliberate tone is appreciated!

[@phoenixfritzinger9185]

Anyone else remember when there was that fad in the 2010’s about just having a random ceramic phrenology bust as like a “witchy” decorative doodad? That was really weird

[@hedgehog3180]

Your taste in Gundam characters is excellent btw.

[@phoenixfritzinger9185]

@@hedgehog3180 thanks

[@HandyMan657]

I remember that fad from the 80s

[@mangot589]

We had it in the 70’s, too😄

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

From the outside looking in, it seems like modern witchcraft just borrows random pickings from historical pseudoscience, I'm surprised they don't find problematic things like this more often

[@empatheticrambo4890]

This reminds me a lot of “correlation isn’t causation” problems that still pop up in bad science, statistics and propaganda about race, culture and economics.

[@dathunderman4]

They didn’t really understand that back then. Also correlation on its own doesn’t equal causation, but in science today we can only find causation through correlations. It’s that we don’t only use correlations, we also have to randomly assign the variables and sample groups, have a big enough sample size, use statistical models to analyze the relationships, etc. I mention all this because some people misunderstand and take that “correlation isn’t causation” thing too far because correlation is a part of finding causation, it just can’t be the only thing. It’s impossible to find causation without correlation, and some people seem to miss this due to the way the “correlation =/= causation” fallacy is phrased.

[@hedgehog3180]

@@dathunderman4 Well in modern science one of the important requirements is showing a theoretical link. It's not enough to simply find a statistical correlation, you must also be able to explain why there is a link with solid theory based on what's already accepted and that link needs to be falsifiable. That's one of the big ways in which we avoid these kinds of fallacy today, a correlation in modern science is on it's own just seen as cause for further investigation but doesn't say anything on its own. However if you can explain the correlation with theory and said theory makes clear quantifiable claims about what the results should look like and the results do look like that and it is possible to test the theory then we can conclude that something is going on.

[@michalsoukup1021]

Correlation is enough to get researching. It is NEVER enough, not ever, to form a conclusion!

[@Nintendotron64]

@@dathunderman4 I think a more accurate way to put it would be “correlation does not necessarily imply causation”. Correlation CAN lead to causation, but that’s only a conclusion you can come to after logically eliminating any other correlations that are either impossible or don’t make sense upon further examination.

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

We had a family saying, if someone wasn't quite all there, "They need their bumps felt!"

[@pinacolada1393]

In my family that's why we always carefully guard an infant's soft spot.

[@aste4949]

I would've loved to get to sit and draw at Mütter Museum's wall of skulls for hours. It was stunning in how much shape variety there is from person to person. It's a bit embarrassing and dumb to admit, but my friends and I realized we were so used to stock skull shapes and hadn't really imagined there was so much variety in proportions and shapes.

[@m.gaiolas457]

What a great video! You're exactly what I've been looking for in the terms of educational content in the past few years. Good job!

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Awesome, thank you! What are some of the other channels you watch?

[@m.gaiolas457]

@@PatKellyTeaches Well, pretty much everything educational. Tom Scott, Vsauce, Veritasium, 99% Invisible, J.J. McCullough, Vox Atlas, Linus Bolman, CGP Grey, 3blue1brown, LLeMiNo, among many others.

[@ToothlessCats]

Here because Spencer Henry from Obitchuary Podcast said you were the shit 🎉 you didn’t disappoint!

[@PatKellyTeaches]

That’s so nice to hear! I’d never heard of the podcast before, but it seems up my alley. Thank you!

[@filipeborela515]

I think your content is hugely underrated. When I look at it and compare it to your numbers it simply does not match up. Im a doctor and only came across your channel 1 week ago. Ever since I've seen your subscribers grow by 1 thousand per day, approximately. Now I think things are going to start improving for you. 2 years of absolutely amazing content, everytime, and less than 20 thousand subscribers? I was aghast. Wish you the best. Don't let it get the best of you. You are definitely bound to succeed. And I am here to watch and help you with it. Congratulations, professor.

[@qsmh4938]

ngl phrenology or something like it still lives on - especially on the internet. online forums where insecure people congregate, be it incels, 4chan trans people, pro anorexia ppl, are absolute cesspits of people telling each other that their bones are inadequate. the shape of someone's skull is what makes them unattractive, the bones dictate your entire fate. don't worry about changing your personality and outlook, your brow ridge sucks. bones are so unchanging, it makes them a great foundation for these insecurities to attach to.

[@philswift1]

Plenty of weirdos on tik tok do this

[@evanl6819]

Idk if I’d call any of that phrenology personally since they’re not suggesting the shape of the skull has anything to do with the person’s personality, but rather their attractiveness yk?

[@zisaletter4602]

that little end jingle is the most cheerful music ive ever heard overlay the word 'eugenics' spoken anyway good vid! this is basically the old fashioned version of buzzfeed quizzes that tell you when youre going to get married and to whom

[@chrissighful]

Its always fun to learn more about a subject that I already knew about. But was sure I didn't know enough in. Excellent video.

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Glad you enjoyed it! I felt the same way -- I wanted a more detailed understanding of a topic I only knew a little about

[@melinacosindas1574]

Hi there I really enjoy your videos both for entertainment and study purposes and I would love it if you could do some anatomy palpitation videos for structures like bones and muscles. You have really helped me learn everything I need to know for my anatomy exams and that is very shocking for me due to my difficulty memorizing information because of my dyslexia. So again thank you very much for your help and I hope you see this! ❤

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Thanks for the kind words. Best of luck with your anatomy study!

[@davecasler]

Please stop cutting out the pauses. So doing makes your narrative hard to follow. The right pause is as important as the right word. Great channel, I am subscribed.

[@Lee-ox2vn]

As a person with ADHD, I'm so glad he cuts pauses! But to each their own

[@naijatops6013]

All the way from Nigeria!!! A top fan!!! Your videos have been helping me through medical college. Thanks

[@PatKellyTeaches]

That's the best to hear, thank you! And best of luck in your studies

[@brianedwards7142]

In the very earliest Sherlock Holmes stories he makes mention of physiognomy denoting criminal types but nothing written after 1890.

[@taliwalt5332]

ATTN: KZbin This channel rocks.

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I appreciate that, thank you

[@Crazylittlehobbit]

Thank you, I've been researching Phrenology and I found this video very insightful.

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Crazylittlehobbit]

@@PatKellyTeaches I'm using Phernology in a Science Fiction story I'm writing, I didn't know that people believed you could correct their bumps. Thank you so much for the information.

[@collinbeal]

​@@Crazylittlehobbitjust be careful with that. It was used to justify lots of real world atrocities that effect our modern society, so must be handled with great care.

[@hyperactivehyperbole]

Been binging your playlists since I just discovered your channel, omg where have you been?! Addicted!

[@robintauber9994]

Reading “Madame Bovary” …. I recall that her shopping habits bankrupted her husband who was a doctor. When the estate was being repossessed, they let the doctor keep his phrenology diagram because he’d need it in his work. Now I wonder if the use as a medical diagnostic tool was fading in popularity by the time the novel was written…. Because of the social commentary hinted at in the story.

[@DIABETOR]

“You can alter your mind and body with what you eat” “Digestive power is controlled by the brain” So I guess Taco Bell was invented by a phrenologist who really took digestive power seriously

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I cannot confirm or deny if Lorenzo Fowler wanted his followers to think outside the bun.

[@andreasquitieri3066]

Great video :-) In Italy, Cesare Lombroso popularized these ideas being the father of criminal anthropology. He collected hundreds of skulls, too. I visited his museum in Torino.

[@7DK7DK]

Good production value and interesting content

[@DevenGarcia]

This is a great video, very informational!

[@BrenoBastos-qm9sn]

Outstanding work! I've just started my studies in Cultural Anthropology, and your content has given me immense insight. Thank you a lot!

[@ettinakitten5047]

4:22 One of my undergrad psych profs pointed out that of these principles of phrenology, literally only the very last one - that outer skull shape reflects brain shape - has actually been found to be incorrect. Each of the other principles is actually mostly accurate. But that one inaccuracy led them totally astray.

[@diogenesoliveira6473]

Loved the dig at the lobster insanity

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I'm glad someone appreciates that reference

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

As a dyspraxic, I can truthfully say that you can acquire new bumps and lumps on your cranium. I've fractured my skull in two places, what can I say, dyspraxia and motorcycles don't mix.

[@meawen7261]

looking forward to the debunking and rejection of the pseudoscience of chiropractors!!!

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Someday. Although for that one, I'd like to actually interview a bunch of chiros ahead of time

[@mjwatts1983]

“Of course you'd say that. You have the brainpan of a stagecoach tilter.” - Mr Burns

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I kick myself all the time for not including that clip in this video

[@MBurn0002]

Love this channel. Great video!

[@weshard1]

15:54 As a Welshman, it’s nice to see we’re in the top 3..

[@ΆγιοςΧίλαριος]

The 69 (NICE) criminals commentary is super chill :)

[@PatKellyTeaches]

NICE

[@alexmullins4295]

Thats so interesting recognising the name fowler and then finding out the connection to the octagonal houses!!! We really should build more cool shaped houses

[@worminterface4019]

3:49 not the time, man

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Agreed. I wouldn't make that joke if I were writing the script today

[@Horokiwibirb]

​@@PatKellyTeaches no don't, continue We need a mix of cultured humor every now and then

[@MMOchAForPrez]

I'm very disappointed you didn't use the scene from Django where Candy was doing a phrenology master class to show how phrenology was actually used back then.

[@nickbarber2080]

"You need your bumps felt" was a saying from my childhood (UK,1960s/70s) meaning that you were insane.

[@sforza209]

From scholars to skullers.

[@TommyMaverick]

Your videos are so good. I'm surprised I've never come across it before haha and what's best is I accidentally clicked your video under someone else's

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I appreciate that dude, thank you. More coming soon!

[@mothiiee]

Unfortunately this is coming back on tiktok... ive seen it myself its so bad

[@DanuuJl]

"Oh you have a well shaped skull", was it a kind of compliment in the 19th century, I wonder?

[@aaronsaunders6974]

you just put a new word in my vocabulary

[@richardgadberry8398]

"Sir, phrenology was dismissed as quackery 160 years ago."

[@JW-vi2nh]

Another fantastic video. Educational and entertaining. Thank you!

[@Keklan572]

Literally Victorian astrology.

[@tanyadrochner2105]

This is so good! I just found your channel and I’m binging all your videos. Great work and thank you for sharing with us!

[@daemon.running]

Ah so this is like Gen Z and Astrology.

[@NickHammer99]

I bought that exact same bust for my psychology teacher in high school. Looking back, I'm not sure how appropriate is that she had it sitting on herself lol

[@nowie4007]

Wow , this was really interesting to learn about ❤❤, i hope you also do one video on the history and impact of eugenics as well❤❤, this is the most interesting medical related KZbin channel i have discovered, so i hope you get the attention you deserve ❤❤

[@wannabecriminalman]

“Uh, sir, Phrenology was dismissed as quackery 160 years ago.” “Of course you’d say that, you’ve the Brain pan of a stagecoach tilter!”

[@Ratciclefan]

Unfortunately phrenology has been functionally revived

[@Coastal_Cruzer]

Yup

[@Warriorx269]

How

[@ParadiseLordRyu]

@@Warriorx269gnats. That’s how.

[@BaneofBots]

@@Warriorx269 Zodiac, temperament type and Myers-Briggs initials, to name just a few.

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

^ Glad we're nornalizing calling out the Mega Bullshit Type Indicator

[@mangot589]

I do have to say this. When Victoria and Albert got Bertie (Edward VII), “tested”. He wasn’t wrong 😂

[@Davidbirdman101]

Those old cartoons are hilarious man! I love that wacky British humor.

[@ClassyGyal]

Oh i love your channel. New sub and im about to binge all the videos.

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Clearly you have great taste! Welcome to the channel

[@ClassyGyal]

@@PatKellyTeaches 🤣🤣🤣Clearly💅💅

[@haileyshannon7548]

I first learned about phrenology from a show about Ray Kroc.

[@fakeplaystore7991]

Yeah, imagine thinking that violent behavior could ever be race based. That would be total nonsense, specially in fiery but peaceful times like these.

[@garrysekelli6776]

That's wierd. The part about physiognomy. It is well documented in the 1600scthat physiognomy means that one can discern the name of a certain individuals based solely upon the outward appearance of said individual. For example that bloke looks like a bill, or that shiela looks like a Karen.

[@jarozita2715]

Fun fact: this subject is still covered in criminology major courses to this day. Not always as a bygone era "science."

[@Renastarsong]

If phrenology wasn’t so deeply involved in massive amounts of racism and eugenics, it could have been a fun add-on to horoscopes. ‘Oh, I’m a Scorpio and have a funny skull bump here, I’m going to marry a dashing rogue~’ or something. But nope, everything sucks and humans are gonna human so instead we went Maximum Awful and did all the racism. Mostly I’m thinking about the memes that could have been. (Aside from the obvious, like, not doing Horrors.)

[@TroyBrownTV]

Great vid

[@JNorth87]

Man, science sure made some missteps in the past.

[@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts]

I wonder what equivalents of phrenology we accept unquestioningly today.

[@LeonardCummler]

What does phrenology say about naturally occurring human horns? My second cousin grew cutaneous horns from where he rubbed his warty fingers across his forehead. I think the horns grew from him thinking evil thoughts with dirty hands! Now he’s living on the edge of town and is into cave spelunking. I fear one day he will crawl all the way down into hell and fit right in with the devils and demons down there. Wash your hands and say your prayers or else this could happen to you too! He refuses to let me try to angle grind his deformity off of his head even though his health insurance doesn’t cover de-horning! My priest is too freaked out to help and now the zoo won’t return my phone calls. -Lenny

[@PulsatingShadow]

I think faculty psychology is very likely to make a comeback.

[@dathunderman4]

It kind of is. You see this with the advent of MRIs. Psychologists are basically using similar logic from phrenology to say “more blood flow in this region, which is the region we see most activity in when people are thinking creatively, therefore this person is likely to be more creative.” I studied psychology in undergrad and I was consistently let down by the explanations my professors would give to very far reaching conclusions. Had to study something else for grad school because I was a bit turned off by the the way psychology is currently being studied, especially since the average person reads these far-reaching conclusions found in a study without any ability to read/evaluate the methodology used.

[@Nohname]

​@@dathunderman4you know what youre talking about

[@okcomics1635]

The governor of Oregon seems to agree with Morton and the like.

[@XOPOIIIO]

Scientific racism gone not because it was dismissed scientifically, but because it is impossible to make any studies in highly politically censored field. It doesn't mean scientific racism is a viable discipline, but it means we can't prove is it viable or not, because only one side of the question can be vocal.

[@danktankdragkings7117]

I have a 1845 published book on Phrenology. Thank you for helping me understand the premise better before I open the delicate text.

[@wonder7798]

Curious if the Typhoid was inflicted upon him and the very people, the ones who took over

[@scooby7877]

5:06 should have been I hear that skullers have baptized the child before it has come into the world

[@PatKellyTeaches]

Lol, touché

[@eloylie]

I'm looking forward to the essay on Eugenics. Sadly, I have to say, as a German, this is something thats important to me: Here in Germany, those bogus oldtimey "science" books are under special publication protection, so no one republishes them, resells them or prints them. We can't even read them. I know a bit about them because I studied Science of Education, and as we all know, Hitler, sadly, is a big part of European (If not the worlds) recent history and therefore, any field of science is impacted by the climate he produced at the time. (For people reading, Hitler loved conspiracy and eugenics and those go hand in hand, sorry not sorry.) I'm glad there is censorship on those books because if they weren't under wraps here, then people would publish them freely and widely and make them out to be something they are not, like its happening in the USA. Just because some countries are free, doesnt mean that the people who live there aren't...sneaky with Hitler stuff. Nazi ideology gets repackaged and repurpused (See, the tiktok trrends on conspiracy or "blackpill" or the "face reading" trends, all based on these outdated, rascist beliefs, but under the guise of science) and its horrifying to see. My country does everything so this shit doesnt get to the people who want to weaponize it and still, people would rather cry about censorship than about what actually happens in reality when you allow a large portion of the population to publish bogus science. Many videos on your channel show the exact trickle down effect that happens when this "knowledge" gets passed off as cool, trendy or "scientific". I just wanna shed light on the issue that back then people thought phrenology was good and cool and trendy and quirky and nowadays, there are people who pick up Nazi books, dont look at the FUCKING PUBLISHING DATE and then RUN WILD with it. And thats just me thinking in good faith, because bad faith would be saying they know its written by nazis, during the nazi era.

[@nicoledoubleyou]

Censoring it doesn't keep the ideas from spreading, I've never understood why people think this. All you do is make it seem like there's something worth knowing, making it seem cooler, more interesting, giving people reason to think there must be something to it, if they're hiding it so hard. And then fringe groups get obsessed, and none else knows enough about it to know what's true and what isn't, no one debunks it properly, so it spreads. If there weren't so much censorship about this stuff, more people would be educated on it and able to understand that it's not science and would know how to debunk it. You literally express the problem if censorship in your comment but it doesn't dawn on you that censorship didn't fix the problem it just made people get sneaky about it which is literally human nature. You tell someone they can't do or learn about something they are gonna want to know why and be intrigued and think about it more than if you taught them about it, explained why it was bad, provided proof, and then let them decide if they still want to dedicate their energy to it.

[@eloylie]

@nicoledoubleyou also my bad that i didnt talk about the common knowledge that i assume everyone knows how germany, compared to the US doesnt undermine and hide their history but has thorough education and prevention on how false eugenics and nazi ideology is ingrained into our school system from ages as young as 12.

[@EarlGreyLattex]

​@@nicoledoubleyoulook up the paradox of tolerance. Your point missed this bit

[@EarlGreyLattex]

I agree with you

[@LassetUnsSpielen]

Phrenology could be used in modern age again to create video game characters

[@allyabernathy4098]

5:00 the absolute pleasure in your voice as you read that 😂😂😂 great band name honestly 😂🤘💀

[@iLOVEpicklesBRO28]

My mom developed broca's aphasia from brain cancer before she died. Its INSANE

[@Hi_Im_Akward]

I didn't know these weird phrenology images were from this sudo scientific, but I've always hated them, even if they are meant to be funny.

[@buddleiabee]

Is this recorded on 1.25 speed? My settings are on normal. It sounds too fast. Cant follow.

[@PatKellyTeaches]

My bad. My editing is much slower and deliberate these days

[@taylortimbrook2030]

You must be having daily panic attacks rn because of the state of the states..

[@BaneofBots]

Hands up who first heard about phrenology from Django: Unchained? 🖐🏻

[@Anon26535]

Hot take: phrenology isn't *wrong* exactly, people just used it as an excuse for a lot of made up shit to justify their bigotry. The truth is that a lot of hormones and other things that can affect bone structure do have demonstrable effects on the development of the brain which can affect personality.

[@bellytripper-nh8ox]

THERE IS **NO** SUCH TERM AS **PHRENOLOGY!!**

[@JimsMaher]

99% Invisible, episode 498, The Octagon House (07/05/22)

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I'm familiar with 99PI! In that episode, they mention that one of the Octagon houses is here in San Francisco, and it is indeed, unsettling

[@maxheadrom3088]

Did "intelligent design" existed at that time?

[@whytebearconcepts]

Sounds like Iridology in a way. There's actually a Doctorate available for that.

[@dannykeeler4018]

Did people try changing the shape of their head because of this

[@itswagon]

It is no less of a useless study than behaviorism.

[@arzentvm]

wheres the eugenics vid i cant find it ?

[@PatKellyTeaches]

I haven't made it yet, but hopefully will this year

[@shunkela]

Anyone else find it ironic/ funny how Charles Darwin visually had a really distinguished brow ridge? ...I know it's bad form to poke fun at someone's head shape in order to criticize the racist science of head shapes... But hear me out! The guy who made the theory phrenologists were using to justify their racist beliefs (like the belief non-white people had skull shapes closer to apes than white people and were therefore cool to be treated as subhuman) -the guy whose work could supposedly substatiate that view- was a white guy with a really prominent brow bone. The kind of skeletal feature definitely used in modern imagination when thinking of 'cavemen', neanderthals, even apes! This is a tongue-in-cheek, *not politically-correct opinion*, but just looking at Darwin after saying that white people are "more evolved, seen by our less monkey-like heads" is so insane to me haha. (Amongst it all being insanity). I know I'm an asshole for thinking this, but anytime I see photos of Charles Darwin, one of my first thoughts is always "man, that guy looks so much like an ape/ monkey" x _ x

[@wonder7798]

Wonder is the bulging eyes were because of thyroid

[@michalsoukup1021]

I do not think that it is unfortunate when phrenologists gets typhus and dies, not at all.

[@jessiedevore3523]

😁 for the algorithm.

[@trevise684]

u sure those lines are dotted?

[@HandyMan657]

Intelligent design. HA! The things people make up.