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Pseudoscience and Their Use of Photography
The photographic camera was useful for the development, study, and support of phrenology because of its ability to capture the measurement or shape of someone’s head and compare the measurement and/or shape to other’s heads in order to create a sense of difference and therefore argue a point. The action of comparing photographs and measurements allowed for the creation of perceived patterns to emerge amongst similar types of people. These practices gained traction at a time where there was great interest in the study of the human body and why people were the way they were. During this time was the development of the Linnaean system of naming – this system was able to define types of animals and categorize them into genus, species, family and other sub-types so that the ability was available to know information about the animal based only on the sight of the animal. With the introduction of this system of identification people began to desire to do the same with certain types of people, specifically people who worked with criminals, the insane, and other organizations who dealt with large numbers of people on a daily basis. Their hope was to be able to identify people with certain traits before these traits became known through actions; there was great power in being able to known what a criminal looked like before he committed a crime – or what someone with a mental disorder looked like before they had an episode.
The pseudoscience of eugenics and photography’s power to promote it can be perfectly illustrated in the rise of Nazi Germany in the early 1900’s. The Nazi party in Germany was a proponent of the ideals outlined in eugenic ideology; the brand of eugenics which the Nazi’s promoted was based primarily on the ideology of the inferiority of other races to the German race. The Nazi party, under Adolf Hitler, used the theories of eugenics in order to purify German blood during their time in power; they promoted the theories of eugenics and often used Darwinism to explain it (Friedlander, 10). They cited Gregory Mendell and his experiments with pea plants in the 1850’s as proof; declaring that just as genes code for hair color, eye color, and skin types they also code for traits such as criminality, intelligence, strength, and other human characteristics which today are known to be social in development rather than genetic (Friedlander, 12). The Nazi’s used the theory of eugenics in their promotion for the rounding up and extermination of Jews, blacks, the and other types of people during the time or World War II. Nazi Germany spread the theory of eugenics through their massive state-sponsored propaganda outlets during the war. Shown is the type of propaganda that they used and shows the logic that was disseminated during the time with regard to the “inferior” (Bytwerk, posters). The Nazi party called for the elimination of these types of people because they wanted to preserve German heritage; they argued their point by showing how the disabled were burdens on society and were dragging Germany down. The Nazi party used the mentally and physically disabled as a scape-goat for their suffering which came as a result of World War I.
The uses even more; it allowed the Germans to establish differences between a regular, healthy, German citizen and peoples with either a disability or that were a different race. As discussed above the ability of the camera to capture the actual image allowed for the establishment of the normal v. abnormal. This establishment was aided not only by the photographic camera but also by the invention and standardization of what today is called a ‘mug shot’ of criminals; which is a picture taken of the suspect right after they are arrested. In 1888 French police officer Alphonse Bertillon launch what today is the standard procedure of photographing criminals when they are arrested in order to use the pictures later for identification of repeat offenders, identification for victims, the public and investigators (Wang, NPR). of the mug shot and measurements of other parts of criminal’s bodies to identify them such as the ear was later developed into the process of fingerprinting that is done in today’s police precincts. This gave Germany and other proponents of eugenics a vast resource of photographs of criminals which they were able to draw upon in order to establish the ‘norm’. Then the photos of the individuals that had similarities between each other could also be used as “evidence” that certain races or types of people were more prone to have certain traits – this creating what seemed to be undeniable empirical evidence for the theory of eugenics. The Nazi’s used this exact approach to, as Alberto Spektorowski put it; define society in terms of race, religion, and intellect; and used this newly defined society to commit the atrocities of the holocaust (Spektorowski, 85).
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