On Physiognomy and Its Malleability

"The laws of physiognomy are exact, not merely as applied to character, but also in regard to the fatefulness of life. There are such things as prophetic faces." - Balzac

The science of approximating individual character from physiognomy is undoubtedly entertaining, although a case could be made for its numerous inaccuracies. To quote BAP, “Imagine a Mitt Romney, but different...a Romney who actually was capable of acting like he looks, and was worthy of his looks.“ The field itself was largely developed to classify the races and explain their behavior, but the overwhelming opposition to its use as a legitimate means of extending perception has polarized the discussion where either physiognomy explains absolutely everything, or it’s a prideful tool for pseuds. My understanding is that physiognomy is a practical means of judgment when taken in context; alongside behavior, philosophy, voice physiognomy, gait, etc.

“Gaze, voice, respiration, and walk are identical reflections of one’s thoughts. Since a man cannot control all of these different and simultaneous signs at once, seek out the one telling the truth, and it will reveal his full self.“ - Balzac

If we are to [rightfully] presuppose physiognomy as a product of energy flowing through man giving him/her shape, symmetry, robustness, etc., then the intimate interconnectedness between metabolism (hormonal and vitamin deficiencies/surplus), physical features and character/personality becomes a little easier to map. The most glaringly obvious example is that of cretinism. The lack of thyroid hormones gives rise to the stereotypical “dumb” features of the face, paired with mouth breathing, face edema, etc. Suppose cretinism is taken as the extreme end example on this spectrum, then slight deviations give rise to much subtler physiognomical traits, solidifying the idea that the face is an accurate predictor of what goes on inside. Exceptions exist, as with all things.

“The face may be seen all the signs of the power of the understanding, the indications of its moral force, together with its desires, its irritability, the sympathies and antipathies of which it is susceptible, the power it has of attracting or repelling external objects.“

Before and after thyroid supplementation

Binder’s syndrome is another facial “deformity” that’s easy to spot. It develops in children who are prenatally deficient in vitamin K (Howe et al., 1992). Since vitamin K has a broad range of protective effects (not just on the bone but on the brain and soft tissues as well), a deficiency of it can, to an observable degree, shape personality; the character of a man with a calcified frontal cortex! I knew someone with a mild case of Binder’s syndrome who failed to honor a bet.

Specific character traits and dispositions nearly always accompany the SSRI, high cortisol, etc. stares. When these physical “symptoms” of the face are addressed as a problem of energy instead of pure cosmetics, personality changes also tend to follow. This is to say that physiognomy is malleable, and despite the memes, I don’t think it should affect how we extend ourselves in helping others (although I probably wouldn’t trust them with my life). Correcting carbon dioxide metabolism and removing intestinal irritants can help to prevent mouth breathing. Improving calcium metabolism with vitamin D/K can help correct jaw posture. A general increase in spare energy will show in gaze and gait; the sharp head jerks like that of a scared animal will lessen as walking becomes swayful and comfortable. The rigidity with which the majority of the elderly and increasingly the youth walk is analogous to the toughness of dead meat becoming soft and tender as it’s injected with ATP. Balzac expanded greatly on gait physiognomy and the entire paper is worth a read (Collado-Vazquez et al., 2015). Voice physiognomy can also be altered; estrogen tends to waterlog the tissues lining the vocal cords, impairing their function. I’ve noticed anything that antagonizes estrogen noticeably lowers the pitch of my voice. Stuttering or stumbling over words typically sort themselves out with a degree rise in brain temperature. Finasteride reduces the neurosteroid DHT, causing word stumbles.

Speaking of DHT, Georgi has mentioned that “exposure of snails to the 5-AR inhibitors finasteride and dutasteride dramatically disrupted the development of the snail’s shape…exposure to either drug resulted in uncoiled (banana-shape) instead of spiral (ram horns) shell shapes.” DHT may then be closely related to posture development in man. Recently a friend mentioned to me supplementing DHT corrected his anterior pelvic tilt.

“Each man possesses a peculiar tone or timbre of voice equally as indicative of character as each feature of the face…appropriately termed the physiognomy of the voice, or, in other words, the revelation through sound of the inner man.“

Invariably, you’ll find people who won’t be able to help themselves in neurotically obsessing over these different “physiognomies” ultimately to their detriment. “Hunter eyes” initiated, tongue pressed on the upper palate, aware of sixteen different social dominance hierarchies at any given point, physiognomy absent of real metabolic energy is like a flashing neon sign that reads “LARP”.

Women, like cats, are especially good at nosing around things and eventually find themselves poking at men, a play that’s generally interpreted as her nefariously “trying to change me”; possibly why women often express how misunderstood they feel in their marriages, their political ambitions for equality as an attempt to be heard, this time around through political force. This isn’t an attempt to excuse the fact that the need for constant conflict of the high estrogen and cortisol feminine is a real problem needing attention, but the inability to see genuine play reveals a deep problem of health, which expresses itself throughout the entirety of the outer shell.

As a concluding note, I leave you with a physiognomy check on Peterson (Wells, 1878), and Dumas (Stanton, 1881).

*image on the left* “You are dull and slow in learning arithmetic; have no taste for numbers, and should not attempt to become a bookkeeper or an accountant, inasmuch as you consider arithmetic a bore.”

References

A new illustrated hand-book of phrenology, physiology and physiognomy : Wells, R. B. D : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (1878b). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/newillustratedha00well/page/242/mode/thumb

Collado-Vázquez, S., & Carrillo, J. M. (2015). Balzac and human gait analysis. Neurología (English Edition), 30(4), 240–246. doi:10.1016/j.nrleng.2015.03.004 

Howe, A. M., Webster, W. S., Lipson, A. H., Halliday, J. L., & Sheffield, L. J. (1992). Binder’s syndrome due to prenatal vitamin K deficiency: A theory of pathogenesis. Australian Dental Journal, 37(6), 453–460. doi:10.1111/j.1834-7819.1992.tb05901.x 

Physiognomy. A practical and scientific treatise : Stanton, Mary Olmstead : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (1881). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/physiognomyprac00stan/page/66/mode/1up