Memento mori - Memento vivere. La frenologia e l’affaire du crane de Descartes tra ideologia del sapere e ideologia del potere

The adventurous vicissitudes of Descartes mortal remains and, in particular, of his skull, intersect with the first developments and difficult attempts to affirm, in Fran- ce, the phrenological doctrine of Franz Joseph Gall and Johan Gaspar Spurzheim. The organological theories (which later proved to be expressions of a pseudo-science), over- coming the traditional conception of the functional homogeneity of the brain, proposed the identification of specific cortical areas (affecting the cranial conformation) correlated to as many distinct faculties: from this arose the need to attribute the study of the mind to the investigative skills of the physiologist and no more than the philosopher or theo- logian. Obviously, such an intellectual presumption constituted the premise for placing the custodian of medical science at the top of knowledge hierarchies, attributing to him the possibility of dividing individuals into distinct categories, to be subjected to different tasks and diversified functions. It then appears evident that phrenology, byinsinuating the doubt as to which science (and the related institution) was capable of consciously taking charge of the future of society, matured the intention not so much and not only of laying the grounds for a revolutionary knowledge, but rather to place itself as the foundation of a new power