determine the personality and development of mental and moral faculties on the basis of the external shape of the skull. During his lifetime, Gall collected and observed over 120 skulls in order to test his hypotheses.
Gall believed that the bumps and uneven geography of the human skull were caused by pressure exerted from the brain underneath. He divided the brain into sections that corresponded to certain behaviours and traits that he called fundamental faculties. This is referred to as localization of function. Gall believed there were 27 fundamental faculties, among them were: recollection of people, mechanical ability, talent for poetry, love of property, and even a murder instinct. Based on the surface of a person's skull, Gall could make assumptions about that person's fundamental faculties and therefore their character.s theories.
Reception and controversy
Gall's concepts on brain localization were revolutionary, and caused religious leaders and some scientists to take exception. The Roman Catholic Church considered his theory as contrary to religion. Established science also condemned these ideas for lack of scientific proof of his theory. Still others attempted to discredit Gall because they believed he had not given rightful credit to the theories and scientists who influenced him. Étienne-Jean Georget accused Gall of stealing Charles Bonnet's basic idea of brain localization that he had written about over 60 years earlier.
One interesting influence was on psychiatry, where the South Italian psychiatrist Biagio Gioacchino Miraglia proposed a new classification of mental illness based on brain functions as they were conceived in Gall's phrenology. In spite of many problems associated with his work, Gall made significant contributions to neurological science.
Today, phrenology is thought of as a huge mis-step by the scientific community. The idea that a person's personality could be determined by the shape of their skull has been repeatedly disproven. But at the time, Gall's arguments were persuasive and intriguing. Even though phrenology is now known to be incorrect, Gall did set the groundwork for modern neuroscience by spreading the idea of functional localization within the brain. He also influenced the French anatomist, Paul Broca.
The origins of Smith’s 5-point ear acupuncture
Notice the link the video he made above. If you CLICKED it, saw the video, you’ll know where I’m going. Know that this will be a short book with 4-page chapters. It’s loaded with links to other sites. It shouldn’t be printed, but read online. Follow the links that interest you. It won’t be a long read, it will largely link you to pictures, articles, and especially videos. Why would you want these? Well, know this is a MANUAL for receiving or providing either 5-point ear acupuncture or The Citadel. So you will be particularly able to enjoy The Citadel - maybe even offer it to others.
3
I had learned to conduct psychotherapy groups because it allowed me to see 12 people at a time, not just one. Group skills differ from individual skills. Little did I know at the time that in 2013, when Norman Doidge wrote The Brain’s Way of Healing, he’d say that neuroplasticity had to be raised to an emotional level in 28 days for it to get off the ground. Like most if not all others, I knew nothing of neuroplasticity’s magic at the time.
But I was uncomfortably clear that if I was going to follow Dr. Michael O. Smith’s protocol, I had only 21-28 days, and I could not use “talk therapy” alongside it. It made for head-scratching times as I had, of course, been looking for a psychotherapy answer. I used the the word fundamental. By this I meant something that got down to the very basics of peoples need, not just something to make them feel better. And the word change meant to me that, by it’s completion, they would be able to carry on themselves.
As someone who’d done everything to learn to become a good therapist, I’d accumulated more time studying than it would have taken me to study psychiatry, but if I’d chosen psychiatry in 1968, every school that taught psychiatry taught psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud. It wasn’t my cup of tea. What had been my cup of tea was Fritz Perls’ Gestalt Therapy, clinical hypnosis and a modest interest in Alexander Loewen’s Bioenergetics. I’d only met Smith briefly, and so I didn’t know that “no talk therapy” didn’t mean no talk. It really meant no persuasion. He was dealing with hard core addicts - and he wanted their treatment experience to draw them aboard, not words they’d soon forget, and fail to respond to.
So, after 5 years of getting comfortable with his dictum I started off, and unbeknownst to me, my first patient had Borderline Personality Disorder. I’d missed the diagnosis but I’d finally gotten off my duff because I had this patient whom I disliked. Disliked! This was unprecedented for me. I later learned it’s a diagnostic clue for Borderline that they stimulate dislike. She’d come in to every session with a list of complaints about everyone in her life - her husband, her son, her boss, the people who worked under her.
My experience had been and still is that I love every patient. But she frustrated me at every juncture and had done so for 18 long months of 90 minute sessions. I’d stuck with her because she said she’d made a lot of progress with my first therapy teacher. But my “talk therapy” had failed so I sent her to my colleague, acupuncturist, Dorothy Taylor. She lay on Dorothy’s acupuncture silently for an hour. That’s all there was to it. I didn’t say anything to Dorothy about the patient I sent her. I didn’t want to poison her in advance. After four weeks, Dorothy announced that she was finished her treatments. As an offhand comment Dorothy said “ I didn’t like her at first, but you should see her now.” She was complaint-free. And it held.
4
If you would like to download this Chapter
Do you want to go on to go on to the
Back to INDEX
