"Phrenology Brings Sound Judgment to Our Selection of Rulers". The failure fo phrenology in social reform efforts in Catalonia in the Nineteenth Century

While this paper begins with a definition of phrenology and its theoretical foundations,
the primary focus is on the efforts to spread phrenology in Catalonia undertaken
by Marià Cubí and other mid-nineteenth century followers of the tenets of
Gall and Spurzheim. Cubí saw the money-making potential of applying these ideas
in diverse areas of society. In Catalonia, he and his followers took the view that it
would be highly opportune to use phrenology to achieve reformist goals not only
in education and business but also in the selection of the best political candidates.
The ideological ambiguity of their approach, however, undermined the credibility
of the supposedly scientific parameters of applied phrenology because they sold
it as a tool to any and all parties. The elite that took an interest in the supposedly
reform-minded aspects of Catalan society put forward by phrenology proved to be
the same bourgeoisie that wanted to oust the aristocratic, conservative and Spanish
nationalist sectors that still clung to their monopoly over the institutions of greatest
authority and social influence. Phrenology used reform as a pretext, while what it
actually guaranteed was merely an easy-to-use pseudoscience that called for nothing
more than a prominent skull, enormous powers of suggestion and a steady stream
of imaginative, seductive verbiage.