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Phrenology and methodology, or "playing tennis with the net down"
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Abstract:
Background: In 1835, the British Association for the Advancement of Science exhumed the skull of Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, to submit it to phrenological scrutiny and ascertain the cause of his final illness. The behaviour Swift exhibited during the final 3 years of his life—including memory impairment, personality alterations, language disorder, and facial paralysis—was the cause of much speculation among his contemporaries. Aims: This paper will review the debate between Phrenologists and Alienists, which was focused on the significance of the physical evidence presented by Swift’s skull, and its implications for explaining behavioural patterns during his lifetime. His skull was the subject of research and rebuttal over a 12-year period, played out in the major medical publications of the day. Main Contribution: The focus of the arguments hinged on two issues that resonate today in research on cortical localisation of function: the correlation between anatomy and physiology, and the implications of pathology for both. Conclusion: Examination of the 19th-century debate over the evidence represented by Jonathan Swift’s skull for brain/behaviour correlations illuminates methodological and theoretical assumptions.
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Keyword:
Applied Linguistics and Communication (to 2020)
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URL: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/586/ https://doi.org/10.1080/02687030600741592
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63 |
Language and memory disorder in the case of Jonathan Swift: considerations on retrospective diagnosis
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64 |
Language and memory disorder in the case of Jonathan Swift: considerations on retrospective diagnosis
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65 |
L3 Acquisition after Right-sided Closed Head Injury with Agraphia
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69 |
Charles West: a 19th century perspective on acquired childhood aphasia
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70 |
Sir William Osler's contribution to the study of childhood aphasia
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71 |
Papers on the history of neurolinguistics: introduction to the special issue, Journal of Neurolinguistics
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The unknown source of John Hughlings Jackson's early interest in aphasia and epilepsy
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79 |
Acquired childhood aphasia: British contributions to the 19th century debate
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80 |
The history of written language disorders: reexamining Pitres’ case (1884) of pure agraphia
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