Interesting that physiognomy is so compelling,
still, even among professional psyc teachers!
Arguably, putting your face on your website
helps "humanize" the material for your readers
(that is, it's not mere vanity). My on-line students
seem to like it that I sometimes put a part-face,
very like my own, peeking around the edges of
a "web lecture" in the manner of the next door
neighbour in that Home Improvement TV thing.
For history buffs: Johann Kaspar Lavater's
_Essays on physiognomy_ were best sellers
from their original publication (1775-78) until
about 1850 (when books on phrenology began
to do better in the pop psychology market).
No less an illustrator than William Blake worked
on some of the editions, using his own profile to
depict "the forehead of a thinker who embraces
a vast field."
My grandmother, by the way, was perfectly
convinced she could identify entire families
as villians and criminals (a la Cesare Lombroso,
1876). Don't know if there's a particular face
for psychologists.
-David
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David G. Likely, Department of Psychology,
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, N. B., E3B 5A3 Canada
History of Psychology:
http://www.unb.ca/web/psychology/likely/psyc4053.htm
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