Definition of "phrenology"

phrenology

noun
countable and uncountable, plural phrenologies
1. (medicine, biology) The science or now discredited pseudo-science, which studies the relationships between a person's character and the morphology (structure) of the skull.
  Quotations
  MR. BURNS: Who could forget such a monstrous visage? She has the sloping brow and cranial bumpage of the career criminal. MR. SMITHERS: Uh, sir, phrenology was dismissed as quackery 160 years ago.
  1995 November 19, Richard Appel, “Mother Simpson”, in The Simpsons, Harry Shearer (actor)
  Phrenology was the practice of correlating bumps on a skull with mental powers and attributes of character.
  2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 86