It's All in Your Head - Sepia Saturday 654

 

19th century phrenology map

Among old letters written by my paternal grandparents, I also found this note by my grandfather Gustaf, dated 10 January 1925. (A couple of months before he went off to do his mandatory military service; and about six months before he turned 21.)

Sten Frödin's statement about my predisposition

You have a sanguine temper. You sometimes feel discouraged, but then think: "It will probably be all right."  --- You have a talent to become a writer, with good imagination, and faculty of combination. You also have an aptitude for journalism, and should choose this as livelihood, and do other writing on the side. You have an artistic talent, but also a predisposition towards any intellectual profession. You should not choose a business career, as you don't have a sufficiently marked sense of economy. You should study languages and aesthetics. 

When I first read this note, I had no idea who Sten Frödin was. I assumed he must have been a local friend and mentor of Gustaf's, perhaps a newspaper journalist or editor (as I knew Gustaf was already writing short notices and articles for a local paper at the time). However, I googled the name, and something rather more interesting turned up: Sten Frödin was a famous Swedish phrenologist - i.e. "someone who claims to be able to read your character from the shape of your skull" [vocabulary.com]

There is a Swedish Wikipedia article about Sten Frödin. He was born 1881 and died in 1938. He lost his parents at an early age, and after (six or so years) of elementary school, worked for a while on a farm. Later he worked as a tailor in Stockholm, while at the same time attending various classes and lectures - also including phrenology. He was always interested in people, and developed a remarkable talent for character analysis. From 1907 onwards, he made a living out of this, and went on tours giving lectures etc; not only in Sweden but also in Denmark and Norway. He claimed to be applying phrenology, and published two pamphlets entitled Phrenology (1912) and Physionomy (1916). He also undertook to analyse people by photos they sent to him. On the whole, though, his individual advice was probably based on intuition, insights in human nature, and being a good judge of character in general. In later years, he particulary gave career advice to students. 

As the notes made by my grandfather are his own rather than a letter written by Frödin, I suppose he must have found an opportunity to meet with Frödin in person on one of his lecture tours. And I suspect that if they talked for a while, it would not have been too difficult for Frödin to get an idea of Gustaf's talents, dreams and ambitions, as well as his fears and doubts... Nevertheless, I imagine that Frödin's assessment probably did influence his decision to pursue a career in journalism (in which he turned out successful). 

Gustaf at his writing desk at Storegården, 
from around the time when these notes were made.

 

A definition of phrenology with chart from
 Webster's Academic Dictionary, circa 1895

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

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Linking to Sepia Saturday 654

(One of the fields in which phrenology was applied was criminology.)

 

SVENSKA

Bland gamla brev skrivna av mina farföräldrar hittade jag också denna anteckning gjord av min farfar, daterad 10 januari 1925. (Ett par månader innan han påbörjade sin militärtjänstgöring på Kviberg i Göteborg; och ca ett halvår innan han fyllde 21.) 

Sten Frödins uttalande om mina anlag

Ni har sangvinistiskt temperament, blir ibland modlös, men tänker som så: "Det går nog bra."  [---] Ni har författaranlag, god fantasi och kombinationsförmåga. Även anlag för journalistyrket, bör välja det som levebröd och driva författeriet därjämte. Är konstnärligt anlagd, men anlag för alla finare yrken. Bör ej slå in på affärsbanan, emedan Ni ej äger ett tillfyllest utpräglat ekonomi-sinne. Bör studera språk och estetik. 

Lörd. d. 10 januari 1925

När jag först läste detta hade jag ingen aning om vem Sten Frödin var. Jag antog först att han var en lokal mentor eller rådgivare som Gustaf vänt sig till för hjälp sitt yrkesval. Kanske en journalist? Men när jag googlade på namnet hittade jag en svensk Wikipedia-artikel som upplyste mig om att Frödin var en svensk frenolog, som givit ut ett par skrifter i det ämnet, och på sin tid även var en välkänd kringresande föreläsare. Frödin "hänvisade huvusakligen till frenologins lära om huvudets proportioner för sina analyser" men "i själva verket torde det ha varit hans intuition och människokännedom som låg bakom framgången". (Sv. Wikipedia, Sten Frödin)

Eftersom anteckningarna är nedskrivna av min farfar (och inte är ett brev från Frödin själv), får jag intrycket att han måste ha fått ett tillfälle att träffa Frödin personligen. Kanske i samband med en föreläsning någonstans i västsverige? Och jag antar att om de samtalade en stund, så torde det inte ha varit alltför svårt för Frödin att bilda sig en uppfattning om Gustafs anlag, drömmar och ambitioner, och även vissa tveksamheter och tvivlel. Hur det än må vara med den saken, så kan Frödins utlåtande ändå ha stärkt honom i hans eget beslut att gå vidare mot sitt mål att bli journalist (ett yrkesval som visade sig framgångsrikt för honom).

Projekt Runeberg:
 Svenska Män och Kvinnor - biografisk uppslagsbok:

http://runeberg.org/smok/2/0696.html