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The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience
Basic Books
June 2013
On Sale: June 4, 2013
256 pages
ISBN: 0465018777
EAN: 9780465018772
Kindle: B00B3M3WVS
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
What can’t neuroscience tell us about ourselves?
Since fMRI—functional magnetic resonance imaging—was
introduced in the early 1990s, brain scans have been used to
help politicians understand and manipulate voters, determine
guilt in court cases, and make sense of everything from
musical aptitude to romantic love. But although brain scans
and other neurotechnologies have provided groundbreaking
insights into the workings of the human brain, the
increasingly fashionable idea that they are the most
important means of answering the enduring mysteries of
psychology is misguided—and potentially dangerous.
In
Brainwashed, psychiatrist and AEI scholar Sally Satel
and psychologist Scott O. Lilienfeld reveal how many of the
real-world applications of human neuroscience gloss over its
limitations and intricacies, at times obscuring—rather than
clarifying—the myriad factors that shape our behavior and
identities. Brain scans, Satel and Lilienfeld show, are
useful but often ambiguous representations of a highly
complex system. Each region of the brain participates in a
host of experiences and interacts with other regions, so
seeing one area light up on an fMRI in response to a
stimulus doesn’t automatically indicate a particular
sensation or capture the higher cognitive functions that
come from those interactions. The narrow focus on the
brain’s physical processes also assumes that our subjective
experiences can be explained away by biology alone. As
Satel and Lilienfeld explain, this “neurocentric” view of
the mind risks undermining our most deeply held ideas about
selfhood, free will, and personal responsibility, putting us
at risk of making harmful mistakes, whether in the
courtroom, interrogation room, or addiction treatment
clinic.
A provocative account of our obsession with
neuroscience, Brainwashed brilliantly illuminates
what contemporary neuroscience and brain imaging can and
cannot tell us about ourselves, providing a much-needed
reminder about the many factors that make us who we are.
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