Faculty Psychology

Faculty Psychology is an outdated perspective of psychology that views the mind as an entity that is subdivided into multiple centers of functioning, rather than as a completely integrated function. First postulated and explored by medieval philosophers, it formed the basis of the nineteenth century pseudoscience of phrenology (reading the shape of the skull to understand the personality).

This view has recently been revived by American philosopher and cognitive researcher Jerry Fodor in his concept of the "modularity of the mind" that theorizes that some "modules" of the mind function autonomously to manage mental functions, including sensory input.