Photo © Simona De Pascalis, for Nautilus
Diagnoscopy, developed by the Ukrainian-born physician Zachar Bissky in 1925, was presented as a sort of advanced “electric phrenology” that could estimate a person’s intellectual and moral faculties by electrically stimulating around 50 areas of their brain. Despite the scepticism of the scientific community, the new analysis method was enthusiastically welcomed in some environments: introduced by Swiss Post and many German companies as a system for staff recruitment, it was even recommended as a prenuptial compatibility test.