Phrenology was a method of assessing aspects of a person’s character based on the contours of the skull, and is now generally considered a pseudoscience. The approach was based upon research carried out by the Austrian physician Franz Joseph Gall in the 1700s, and gained great popularity in the 1900s. According to Gall, bumps and indentations on the skull reflect specific areas or ‘organs’ of the brain which that are responsible for aspects of a person’s character.