- Medical Anthropology Research Center
DAFITS - Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Av. Catalunya 35
43002 Tarragona
Spain
Fernando Vidal
ICREA, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Department Member
- Bodies and Culture, History Of Psychology, History of the Self and the Body, History of neurosciences, Science and Cinema, History of Religion, and 10 moreBody and Personal Identity, Body and Soul, Anthropology, Religion, Biocultural Diversity, Jean Starobinski, Jean Piaget, Medical Humanities, Subjectivities, and Biopoliticsedit
- I was born and grew up in Buenos Aires, where I graduated from the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires. I received a B.A... moreI was born and grew up in Buenos Aires, where I graduated from the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires. I received a B.A. from Harvard University, graduate degrees in psychology and the history and philosophy of science from the Universities of Geneva and Paris, and a Habilitation from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. I have worked on the history of the human sciences from the early modern period to the present, moving in recent years to present-day questions, largely related to bioethics and medical anthropology. My book "Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject" (with F. Ortega, 2017) critically explores the widespread belief that "we are our brains" in history and contemporary culture, and in some ways continues "The Sciences of the Soul: The Early Modern Origins of Psychology" (2011), which dealt with major transformations in the field between the late Renaissance and the Enlightenment. My latest book, "Performing Brains on Screen" (2022) prolongs "Being Brains" in fiction cinema, one area of particular cultural significance for the elaboration and rehearsal of the "cerebral subject."
I have been a Guggenheim Fellow, Athena Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome and Harvard University's Department of the History of Science, Fellow at the Brocher Foundation, and Visiting Professor in Buenos Aires, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico and Japan. In 2016 I was elected Associate Member of the Centre Alexandre Koyré (Paris) and member of the Academia Europaea in 2017. In 2021 I received the Carlson Award "in recognition of extraordinary scholarship in the history of the human sciences."
From 2000 to 2012, I was permanent Senior Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. I then became Research Professor of ICREA, the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies. I was first at the Center for the History of Science (Autonoma University of Barcelona), and in 2018 moved to the Medical Anthropology Research Center of the Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona.
Most of my research belongs in the history of the human sciences broadly conceived, with particular interest in the relationships between science, culture and values. I have worked on topics such as early modern and Enlightenment psychology, the early modern history of the imagination, miracles and science, sexuality in the 18th century, the longue-durée history of the body and personal identity, psychoanalysis and psychiatry in the early 20th century, the progressive education movement in the interwar years of the 20th century, the public understanding of science and science and film, and the rise of “neurocultures” since the mid-20th century. I have also written about and edited the Genevan critic and historian Jean Starobinski, and edited a number of books, including among others "The Moral Authority of Nature (with L. Daston) and "Endangerment, Biodiversity and Culture" (with N. Dias).
My main current research in the field of medical anthropology and phenomenology explores how the disorders of consciousness (the unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, formerly known as the vegetative state, and the minimally conscious state), as well as conditions that symptomatologically affect primarily the mind (the dementias) or the body (locked-in syndrome) affect personal identity, personhood, relationality and subjectivities.
For an overview of the ongoing project on the locked-in syndrome, see here:
http://www.theneuroethicsblog.com/2018/10/phenomenology-of-locked-in-syndrome.html
and here:
http://www.antropologia.urv.cat/en/research/projects/locked-in-syndrome/locked-in-syndrome/.
For a longer description of my "lines of research," see my institutional homepage: https://www.icrea.cat/Web/ScientificStaff/fernando-vidal-555.edit
"Performing Brains on Screen" deals with film enactments and representations of the belief that human beings are essentially their brains, a belief that embodies one of the most influential modern ways of understanding the human. Films... more
"Performing Brains on Screen" deals with film enactments and representations of the belief that human beings are essentially their brains, a belief that embodies one of the most influential modern ways of understanding the human. Films have performed brains in two chief ways: by turning physical brains into protagonists, as in the “brain movies” of the 1950, which show terrestrial or extra-terrestrial disembodied brains carrying out their evil intentions; or by giving brains that remain unseen inside someone’s head an explicitly major role, as in brain transplantation films or their successors since the 1980s, in which brain contents are transferred and manipulated by means of information technology. Through an analysis of filmic genres and particular movies, "Performing Brains on Screen" documents this neglected filmic universe, and demonstrates how the cinema has functioned as a cultural space where a core notion of the contemporary world has been rehearsed and problematized.
Research Interests: Media Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Memory (Cognitive Psychology), Popular Culture, and 10 moreLiterature and cinema, Film Analysis, History of Science, History of Neuroscience, Science Fiction Film, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Frankenstein, Pulp Fiction, Cinema Studies, and Cerebral Subject
PAPERBACK JULY 2019. Also available for Kindle. Being Brains offers a critical exploration of one of the most influential and pervasive contemporary beliefs: “We are our brains.” Starting in the “Decade of the Brain” of the 1990s,... more
PAPERBACK JULY 2019. Also available for Kindle.
Being Brains offers a critical exploration of one of the most influential and pervasive contemporary beliefs: “We are our brains.” Starting in the “Decade of the Brain” of the 1990s, “neurocentrism” became widespread in most Western and many non-Western societies. Formidable advances, especially in neuroimaging, have bolstered this “neurocentrism” in the eyes of the public and political authorities, helping to justify increased funding for the brain sciences.
The human sciences have also taken the “neural turn,” and subspecialties in fields such as anthropology, aesthetics, education, history, law, sociology, and theology have grown and professionalized at record speed. At the same time, the development of dubious but successful commercial enterprises such as “neuromarketing and “neurobics” have emerged to take advantage of the heightened sensitivity to all things neuro. Skeptics have reacted to the hype, warning against neuromythology, neurotrash, neuromania, and neuromadness.
While this neurocentric view of human subjectivity is neither hegemonic nor monolithic, it embodies a powerful ideology that is at the heart of some of today’s most important philosophical, ethical, scientific, and political debates. Being Brains critically explores the internal logic of such ideology, its genealogy, and its main contemporary incarnations.
Being Brains offers a critical exploration of one of the most influential and pervasive contemporary beliefs: “We are our brains.” Starting in the “Decade of the Brain” of the 1990s, “neurocentrism” became widespread in most Western and many non-Western societies. Formidable advances, especially in neuroimaging, have bolstered this “neurocentrism” in the eyes of the public and political authorities, helping to justify increased funding for the brain sciences.
The human sciences have also taken the “neural turn,” and subspecialties in fields such as anthropology, aesthetics, education, history, law, sociology, and theology have grown and professionalized at record speed. At the same time, the development of dubious but successful commercial enterprises such as “neuromarketing and “neurobics” have emerged to take advantage of the heightened sensitivity to all things neuro. Skeptics have reacted to the hype, warning against neuromythology, neurotrash, neuromania, and neuromadness.
While this neurocentric view of human subjectivity is neither hegemonic nor monolithic, it embodies a powerful ideology that is at the heart of some of today’s most important philosophical, ethical, scientific, and political debates. Being Brains critically explores the internal logic of such ideology, its genealogy, and its main contemporary incarnations.
Research Interests: Medical Anthropology, Disability Studies, Neuroanthropology, Public Understanding Of Science, Neuroethics, and 13 moreLiterature And Science, Biopolitics, Neurodiversity, Mental Illness, Biological Psychiatry, Intelectual History, Mind and Brain, Brainhood, Neuroscientific Literary Criticism, Cultural and Social Neuroscience, Film and Science, History of the Neurosciences, and Neuroscientific turn
Neurocultures offers «glimpses» into an expanding universe of knowledge, beliefs and practices characterized by the conviction that human activity is governed by the structure and functioning of the brain. The 1990s were the Decade of the... more
Neurocultures offers «glimpses» into an expanding universe of knowledge, beliefs and practices characterized by the conviction that human activity is governed by the structure and functioning of the brain. The 1990s were the Decade of the Brain, and the first hundred years of the new millennium have been proclaimed its Century. Described as the most complex of all organs, the brain has become a major icon of contemporary culture. Brain imaging technologies are used in a large number of disciplines, and are increasingly applied in settings of potential social and legal relevance. It is often proclaimed that the neurosciences will bring about major transformations in notions and practices of the human in areas as diverse as spirituality and self-help, marketing, the law, education, or the classification and treatment of mental disease. Neurocultures explores these expectations, their history, their contexts, and the debates they raise, in a broad range of fields, including enhancement, meditation, neuroethics, the «social brain», psychedelic research, psychoanalysis, psychiatric and neurological conditions, and cinema and literature.
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PAPERBACK JULY 2020. Also available as e-book. "The Sciences of the Soul is the first attempt to explain the development of the disciplinary conception of psychology from its appearance in the late sixteenth century to its redefinition... more
PAPERBACK JULY 2020. Also available as e-book.
"The Sciences of the Soul is the first attempt to explain the development of the disciplinary conception of psychology from its appearance in the late sixteenth century to its redefinition at the end of the seventeenth and its emergence as an institutionalized field in the eighteenth. Fernando Vidal traces this development through university courses and textbooks, encyclopedias, and nonacademic books, as well as through various histories of psychology. Vidal reveals that psychology existed before the eighteenth century essentially as a “physics of the soul,” and it belonged as much to natural philosophy as to Christian anthropology. It remained so until the eighteenth century, when the “science of the soul” became the “science of the mind.” Vidal demonstrates that this Enlightenment refashioning took place within a Christian framework, and he explores how the preservation of the Christian idea of the soul was essential to the development of the science. Not only were most psychologists convinced that an empirical science of the soul was compatible with Christian faith; their perception that psychology preserved the soul also helped to elevate its rank as an empirical science. Broad-ranging and impeccably researched, this book will be of wide importance in the history and philosophy of psychology, the history of the human sciences more generally, and in the social and intellectual history of eighteenth-century Europe."
"The Sciences of the Soul is the first attempt to explain the development of the disciplinary conception of psychology from its appearance in the late sixteenth century to its redefinition at the end of the seventeenth and its emergence as an institutionalized field in the eighteenth. Fernando Vidal traces this development through university courses and textbooks, encyclopedias, and nonacademic books, as well as through various histories of psychology. Vidal reveals that psychology existed before the eighteenth century essentially as a “physics of the soul,” and it belonged as much to natural philosophy as to Christian anthropology. It remained so until the eighteenth century, when the “science of the soul” became the “science of the mind.” Vidal demonstrates that this Enlightenment refashioning took place within a Christian framework, and he explores how the preservation of the Christian idea of the soul was essential to the development of the science. Not only were most psychologists convinced that an empirical science of the soul was compatible with Christian faith; their perception that psychology preserved the soul also helped to elevate its rank as an empirical science. Broad-ranging and impeccably researched, this book will be of wide importance in the history and philosophy of psychology, the history of the human sciences more generally, and in the social and intellectual history of eighteenth-century Europe."
Présentation de l'éditeur: Qu'est-ce que la psychologie au XVIIIe siècle? Pour répondre à cette question il faut écrire une histoire sémantique du mot psychologie entre sa création au XVIe siècle et la nouvelle signification qu'il... more
Présentation de l'éditeur:
Qu'est-ce que la psychologie au XVIIIe siècle? Pour répondre à cette question il faut écrire une histoire sémantique du mot psychologie entre sa création au XVIe siècle et la nouvelle signification qu'il acquiert au début du XVIIIe. Une telle histoire n'est pas purement lexicale: elle permet de suivre la transformation d'une science de l'âme comme "forme" de tous les corps ayant la vie en puissance, à une science de l'âme-esprit (mens) opérant dans le seul être humain. En tant que "forme", l'âme rendait compte de la structure et des fonctions des êtres vivants; en tant qu'"esprit", elle devient un explanandum, une structure dont il faut décrire le fonctionnement et les contenus en l'analysant à travers son "commerce" avec le corps. L'autonomie de la psychologie nouvelle provient dans une large mesure de ce que, malgré ses emprunts à la philosophie naturelle issue de la Révolution scientifique, elle se conçoit comme fournissant des principes méthodologiques et épistémiques à toutes les autres sciences qui traitent de l'homme.
Qu'est-ce que la psychologie au XVIIIe siècle? Pour répondre à cette question il faut écrire une histoire sémantique du mot psychologie entre sa création au XVIe siècle et la nouvelle signification qu'il acquiert au début du XVIIIe. Une telle histoire n'est pas purement lexicale: elle permet de suivre la transformation d'une science de l'âme comme "forme" de tous les corps ayant la vie en puissance, à une science de l'âme-esprit (mens) opérant dans le seul être humain. En tant que "forme", l'âme rendait compte de la structure et des fonctions des êtres vivants; en tant qu'"esprit", elle devient un explanandum, une structure dont il faut décrire le fonctionnement et les contenus en l'analysant à travers son "commerce" avec le corps. L'autonomie de la psychologie nouvelle provient dans une large mesure de ce que, malgré ses emprunts à la philosophie naturelle issue de la Révolution scientifique, elle se conçoit comme fournissant des principes méthodologiques et épistémiques à toutes les autres sciences qui traitent de l'homme.
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The notion of Endangerment stands at the heart of a network of concepts, values and practices dealing with objects and beings considered threatened by extinction, and with the procedures aimed at preserving them. Usually animated by a... more
The notion of Endangerment stands at the heart of a network of concepts, values and practices dealing with objects and beings considered threatened by extinction, and with the procedures aimed at preserving them. Usually animated by a sense of urgency and citizenship, identifying endangered entities involves evaluating an impending threat and opens the way for preservation strategies.
Endangerment, Biodiversity and Culture looks at some of the fundamental ways in which this process involves science, but also more than science: not only data and knowledge and institutions, but also affects and values. Focusing on an "endangerment sensibility," it encapsulates tensions between the normative and the utilitarian, the natural and the cultural. The chapters situate that specifically modern sensibility in historical perspective, and examine central aspects of its recent and present forms.
This timely volume offers the most cutting-edge insights into the Environmental Humanities for researchers working in Environmental Studies, History, Anthropology, Sociology and Science and Technology Studies.
Endangerment, Biodiversity and Culture looks at some of the fundamental ways in which this process involves science, but also more than science: not only data and knowledge and institutions, but also affects and values. Focusing on an "endangerment sensibility," it encapsulates tensions between the normative and the utilitarian, the natural and the cultural. The chapters situate that specifically modern sensibility in historical perspective, and examine central aspects of its recent and present forms.
This timely volume offers the most cutting-edge insights into the Environmental Humanities for researchers working in Environmental Studies, History, Anthropology, Sociology and Science and Technology Studies.
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For thousands of years, people have used nature to justify their political, moral, and social judgments. Such appeals to the moral authority of nature are still very much with us today, as heated debates over genetically modified... more
For thousands of years, people have used nature to justify their political, moral, and social judgments. Such appeals to the moral authority of nature are still very much with us today, as heated debates over genetically modified organisms and human cloning testify.
The Moral Authority of Nature offers a wide-ranging account of how people have used nature to think about what counts as good, beautiful, just, or valuable. The eighteen essays cover a diverse array of topics, including the connection of cosmic and human orders in ancient Greece, medieval notions of sexual disorder, early modern contexts for categorizing individuals and judging acts as "against nature," race and the origin of humans, ecological economics, and radical feminism. The essays also range widely in time and place, from archaic Greece to early twentieth-century China, medieval Europe to contemporary America.
The Moral Authority of Nature offers a wide-ranging account of how people have used nature to think about what counts as good, beautiful, just, or valuable. The eighteen essays cover a diverse array of topics, including the connection of cosmic and human orders in ancient Greece, medieval notions of sexual disorder, early modern contexts for categorizing individuals and judging acts as "against nature," race and the origin of humans, ecological economics, and radical feminism. The essays also range widely in time and place, from archaic Greece to early twentieth-century China, medieval Europe to contemporary America.
"En esta recopilación inédita de ensayos Jean Starobinski gira en torno a la ‘conciencia del propio cuerpo’, desde «El filósofo acostado» hasta «Incierta presencia», que cierra el libro. El libro incluye, además de las aproximaciones... more
"En esta recopilación inédita de ensayos Jean Starobinski gira en torno a la ‘conciencia del propio cuerpo’, desde «El filósofo acostado» hasta «Incierta presencia», que cierra el libro.
El libro incluye, además de las aproximaciones históricas a esa conciencia tan especial, dos extraordinarios ensayos sobre Flaubert y Valéry, un amplio diálogo donde expresa sus inquietudes intelectuales —entre los mundos poético y científico— y dos reflexiones sobre medicina, antimedicina y racionalidad. Esta original mirada sobre las razones del cuerpo, pues, está ofrecida en una literatura, entendida en la perspectiva más amplia, en donde concluyen todo tipo de lenguajes, como es propio de quien mejor ha descifrado a Montaigne, Rousseau y Diderot.
«El hombre acostado ha interrumpido los movimientos de los que se componen los gestos útiles. Se encuentra en los confines de la ausencia, se halla sumido en el sueño, o por el contrario se despierta, siente el cansancio o el bienestar del cuerpo, su pesadez o su ligereza. Las relaciones del interior y del exterior se simplifican, se hacen más misteriosas, más problemáticas. En la postura del abandono se puede acoger una revelación. Los filósofos no son los únicos en dar testimonio: los poetas, los novelistas saben a vaces, sobre estos estados, más que los metafísicos». Estas palabras anuncian los motivos de Razones del cuerpo."
El libro incluye, además de las aproximaciones históricas a esa conciencia tan especial, dos extraordinarios ensayos sobre Flaubert y Valéry, un amplio diálogo donde expresa sus inquietudes intelectuales —entre los mundos poético y científico— y dos reflexiones sobre medicina, antimedicina y racionalidad. Esta original mirada sobre las razones del cuerpo, pues, está ofrecida en una literatura, entendida en la perspectiva más amplia, en donde concluyen todo tipo de lenguajes, como es propio de quien mejor ha descifrado a Montaigne, Rousseau y Diderot.
«El hombre acostado ha interrumpido los movimientos de los que se componen los gestos útiles. Se encuentra en los confines de la ausencia, se halla sumido en el sueño, o por el contrario se despierta, siente el cansancio o el bienestar del cuerpo, su pesadez o su ligereza. Las relaciones del interior y del exterior se simplifican, se hacen más misteriosas, más problemáticas. En la postura del abandono se puede acoger una revelación. Los filósofos no son los únicos en dar testimonio: los poetas, los novelistas saben a vaces, sobre estos estados, más que los metafísicos». Estas palabras anuncian los motivos de Razones del cuerpo."
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"The great Swiss psychologist and theorist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) had much to say about the developing mind. He also had plenty to say about his own development, much of it, as Fernando Vidal shows, plainly inaccurate. In this historical... more
"The great Swiss psychologist and theorist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) had much to say about the developing mind. He also had plenty to say about his own development, much of it, as Fernando Vidal shows, plainly inaccurate. In this historical biography of Piaget, Vidal tells the story of the psychologist's intellectual and personal development up to 1918. By exploring the philosophical, religious, political and social influences on the psychologist's early life, Vidal alters basic assumptions about the origins of Piaget's thinking and his later psychology. The resulting profile is strikingly dissimilar to Piaget's own retrospective version. In Piaget's own account, as an adolescent he was a precocious scientist dedicated to questions of epistemology. This text also shows him as being concerned with the foundations of religious faith and knowledge, immersed in social and political matters, and actively involved in Christian and socialist groups. Far from being devoted solely to the classification of molluscs, the young Piaget was a vocal champion of Henri Bergson's philosophy of creative evolution, an interest that figures much more prominently in his later thinking than did his early work in natural history. During World War I he chastised conservatism and nationalism, espoused equality and women's rights, and advocated the role of youth in the birth of a new Christianity. In his detailed account of Jean Piaget's childhood and adolescence - enriched by the intellectual and cultural landscape of turn-of-the-century Neuchatel - Vidal reveals a little-known Piaget, a youth whose struggle to reconcile science and faith adds a new dimension to the understanding of the great psychologist's life, thought and work."
"El gran psicólogo y teórico suizo Jean PIAGET (1896-1980) realizó grandes aportaciones sobre el desarrollo de la mente. Pero para valorar realmente sus logros es imprescindible conocer cuáles fueron las raíces y motores de su obra,... more
"El gran psicólogo y teórico suizo Jean PIAGET (1896-1980) realizó grandes aportaciones sobre el desarrollo de la mente. Pero para valorar realmente sus logros es imprescindible conocer cuáles fueron las raíces y motores de su obra, conocer el contexto de la ciencia y de la cultura en aquel momento. Este libro es la primera biografía auténticamente histórica que narra la evolución intelectual y personal de PIAGET hasta 1918. Al explorar las influencias filosóficas, religiosas, políticas y sociales en la primera etapa de su vida, Fernando VIDAL modifica nuestros supuestos básicos sobre los orígenes del pensamiento piagetiano y de toda su obra. Según el relato del propio PIAGET, en su adolescencia fue un científico precoz, dedicado a cuestiones epistemólogicas. En esta obra lo encontramos también muy -y cada vez más- preocupado por los fundamentos de la fe religiosa y el conocimiento, inmerso en cuestiones sociales y políticas y participando activamente en grupos cristianos y socialistas. Lejos de dedicarse en exclusiva a la clasificación de los moluscos, el joven PIAGET fue un propagandista entusiasta de la filosofía de la evolución de Henri BERGSON, influencia que sería mucho más destacada en su pensamiento posterior que en sus primeros trabajos de historia natural. Durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, lo vemos atacando el conservadurismo y el nacionalismo, abrazando la causa de la igualdad y de los derechos de las mujeres y defendiendo el papel de la juventud en el nacimiento de un nuevo cristianismo. Estamos ante una brillante aportación a la historia de la ciencia y a la historia de la psicología."
Research Interests: Bioethics, Embodied Cognition, Brain-computer interfaces, Personhood as Relational, Neuroethics, and 12 moreAugmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Living will, Neuroethics, Bioethics, Brain Computer Interfacing, Selfhood, Patient Care, Disorders of Consciousness, Locked In Syndrome, Locked In Patients, Philosphy of Embodiment, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
Research Interests: Science Communication, Film Studies, Documentary (Film Studies), History of Science, Public Understanding Of Science, and 6 moreSocial Studies Of Science, Documentary Film, Film and Media Studies, Realism, History of the ancient world of science and technology, and History of Film Theory and Criticism
Research Interests:
Effects of COVID-19 lockdown for people with disabilities have been examined in the social and health sciences regarding both access to health and caregiving services, and their personal experiences. This article adds to such scholarship... more
Effects of COVID-19 lockdown for people with disabilities have been examined in the social and health sciences regarding both access to health and caregiving services, and their personal experiences. This article adds to such scholarship by investigating the lived experience of the lockdown in persons diagnosed with Locked-in Syndrome (LIS) by drawing on testimonies of confinement provided between March and June 2020 by members of the French Locked-in Syndrome Association (ALIS), and responses to a qualitative questionnaire during the same period by Spanish participants of our research project. Thematic analysis was performed; through inductive coding, five major themes were identified. By the time the pandemic broke out, some persons with LIS had long led a largely locked-in life. Studying their experience will allow us promote awareness of the resources needed to ensure the rights of people with disabilities and improve their quality of life and wellbeing.
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Tracheostomy with invasive ventilation (TIV) may be required for the survival of patients at advanced stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In Japan it has been shown that a proactive approach toward TIV may prolong the survival... more
Tracheostomy with invasive ventilation (TIV) may be required for the survival of patients at advanced stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In Japan it has been shown that a proactive approach toward TIV may prolong the survival of ALS patients by over 10 years by preventing the lethal respiratory failure that generally occurs within 3-5 years of the onset of the disease. Measures to prolong life expectancy without foregoing quality of life have produced better results in Japan than in other developed countries. This 'Japanese bias' has been attributed to socio-cultural and religious factors as well as to the availability of material resources in Japan. In this article, we use the concepts of 'onozukara' in kadō (Japanese traditional flower art, also called ikebana) and 'amae' (passive love) to illuminate features of patient care that may contribute to this 'Japanese bias'.
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The existential situation of persons who suffer from the locked-in syndrome (LIS) raises manifold issues significant to medical anthropology, phenomenology, biomedical ethics, and neuroethics that have not yet been systematically... more
The existential situation of persons who suffer
from the locked-in syndrome (LIS) raises manifold
issues significant to medical anthropology, phenomenology,
biomedical ethics, and neuroethics that have
not yet been systematically explored. The present special
issue of Neuroethics illustrates the joint effort of a
consolidating network of scholars from various disciplines
in Europe, North America and Japan to go in that
direction, and to explore LIS beyond clinical studies and
quality of life assessments.
from the locked-in syndrome (LIS) raises manifold
issues significant to medical anthropology, phenomenology,
biomedical ethics, and neuroethics that have
not yet been systematically explored. The present special
issue of Neuroethics illustrates the joint effort of a
consolidating network of scholars from various disciplines
in Europe, North America and Japan to go in that
direction, and to explore LIS beyond clinical studies and
quality of life assessments.
Research Interests: Self and Identity, Disability Studies, Brain-computer interfaces, Phenomenology, Quality of life, and 10 morePersonhood, Neuroethics, Chronic illness, Illness Narrative, Biomedical Ethics, Tetraplegia, Disorders of Consciousness, Locked In Syndrome, Medical Anthroplogy, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
There is no systematic knowledge about how individuals with Locked-in Syndrome (LIS) experience their situation. A phenomenology of LIS, in the sense of a description of subjective experience as lived by the ill persons themselves, does... more
There is no systematic knowledge about how individuals with Locked-in Syndrome (LIS) experience their situation. A phenomenology of LIS, in the sense of a description of subjective experience as lived by the ill persons themselves, does not yet exist as an organized endeavor. The present article takes a step in that direction by reviewing various materials and making some suggestions. First-person narratives provide the most important sources, but very few have been discussed. LIS barely appears in bioethics and neuroethics. Research on Quality of Life (QOL) provides relevant information, one questionnaire study explores the sense of personal continuity in LIS patients, and LIS has been used as a test case of theories in "embodied cognition" and to explore issues in the phenomenology of illness and communication. A systematic phenomenology of LIS would draw on these different areas: while some deal directly with subjective experience, others throw light on its psychological, sociocultural and material conditions. Such an undertaking can contribute to the improvement of care and QOL, and help inform philosophical questions, such as those concerning the properties that define persons, the conditions of their identity and continuity, or the dynamics of embodiment and intersubjectivity.
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Short essay on the existential and phenomenological significance of the locked-in syndrome.
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Poco se sabe sobre cómo las personas que sufren de síndrome de cautiverio o de enclaustramiento (Locked-in Syndrome, LIS) experimentan la situación en la que se encuentran. Todavía no existe una fenomenología del LIS, en el sentido de una... more
Poco se sabe sobre cómo las personas que sufren de síndrome de cautiverio o de enclaustramiento (Locked-in Syndrome, LIS) experimentan la situación en la que se encuentran. Todavía no existe una fenomenología del LIS, en el sentido de una descripción de la vivencia de la enfermedad y de la experiencia subjetiva del paciente. Las encuestas sobre calidad de vida y otras investigaciones basadas en cuestionarios suministran datos valiosos. Las mejores fuentes serían los relatos autobiográficos de las personas “enclaustradas”, pero no se han estudiado sistemáticamente. Este artículo presenta materiales pertinentes para una fenomenología del LIS y sugiere algunas direcciones para emprenderla como proyecto metódico.
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Profile published in "The Brainstorm" (March 2018) a newsletter about ethics, neuroscience and society, produced by the Neuroethics Research Unit of the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal.
Research Interests:
Desde la Década del Cerebro de los años 1990, un «giro neurocientífico» afecta al mundo contemporáneo a escala global. La neurociencia parece imponerse como la mejor manera de entender al ser humano y promete proporcionar la clave de los... more
Desde la Década del Cerebro de los años 1990, un «giro neurocientífico» afecta al mundo contemporáneo a escala global. La neurociencia parece imponerse como la mejor manera de entender al ser humano y promete proporcionar la clave de los fenómenos más diversos. Desde sus experiencias sensoriales más básicas hasta sus creaciones culturales más complejas, el ser humano se ha transformado en un «sujeto cerebral». ¿Cuál es el alcance de esta supuesta revolución que anuncia un «nuevo humanismo» y transformaciones radicales en nuestras maneras de abordar la moral, la educación o la justicia? El presente artículo explora esta pregunta centrándose en el giro neurocientífico dentro de las ciencias sociales y las humanidades.
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Depuis la Décennie du cerveau des années 1990, un "tournant neuroscientifique" affecte le monde contemporain à l'échelle mondiale. Les neurosciences semblent s'imposer comme le meilleur moyen de comprendre l'être humain et promettent de... more
Depuis la Décennie du cerveau des années 1990, un "tournant neuroscientifique" affecte le monde contemporain à l'échelle mondiale. Les neurosciences semblent s'imposer comme le meilleur moyen de comprendre l'être humain et promettent de fournir la clé des phénomènes les plus divers. Des expériences sensorielles les plus élémentaires aux créations culturelles les plus complexes, l'être humain est devenu un "sujet cérébral." Quelle est la portée de cette prétendue révolution qui annonce un "nouvel humanisme" et des transformations radicales dans nos façons d'aborder la morale, l'éducation ou la justice Le présent article explore cette questionà partir du tournant neuroscientifique au sein des sciences humaines et sociales.
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With contributions by Elizabeth Lunbeck, Chloe Silverman, Martyn Pickersgill, and Frank Stahnisch, and a reply by the authors.
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If personhood is the quality or condition of being an individual person, brainhood could name the quality or condition of being a brain. This ontological quality would define the `cerebral subject' that has, at least in industrialized and... more
If personhood is the quality or condition of being an individual person, brainhood could name the quality or condition of being a brain. This ontological quality would define the `cerebral subject' that has, at least in industrialized and highly medicalized societies, gained numerous social inscriptions since the mid-20th century. This article explores the historical development of brainhood. It suggests that the brain is necessarily the location of the `modern self', and that, consequently, the cerebral subject is the anthropological figure inherent to modernity (at least insofar as modernity gives supreme value to the individual as autonomous agent of choice and initiative). It further argues that the ideology of brainhood impelled neuroscientific investigation much more than it resulted from it, and sketches how an expanding constellation of neurocultural discourses and practices embodies and sustains that ideology.
Since the 1990s, several disciplines have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences. For the most part, they aim at capturing the commonalities that underlay the heterogeneity of human behaviors and... more
Since the 1990s, several disciplines have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences. For the most part, they aim at capturing the commonalities that underlay the heterogeneity of human behaviors and experiences. Neuroanthropology and cultural neuroscience, or the “neurodisciplines of culture,” appear different, since their goal is to understand specificity rather than commonality and to address how cultural differences are inscribed in the
brain. After offering an overview of these disciplines, and of their relation to endeavors such as cultural psychology and social neuroscience, this article discusses some of the most representative studies in the area in order to explore in which ways they are relevant for an understanding of culture.
brain. After offering an overview of these disciplines, and of their relation to endeavors such as cultural psychology and social neuroscience, this article discusses some of the most representative studies in the area in order to explore in which ways they are relevant for an understanding of culture.
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Even before the brain’s deterioration became a health problem of pandemic proportions, literature and film rehearsed the fiction of brain transplantations that would allow an aging person to inhabit a younger body, so that successive... more
Even before the brain’s deterioration became a health problem of pandemic proportions, literature and film rehearsed the fiction of brain transplantations that would allow an aging person to inhabit a younger body, so that successive surgeries may result in that person’s immortality. Such fiction makes the brain operate like an immaterial soul that does not undergo physical decline. This article examines that fiction as elaborated in Hanif Kureishi’s The Body and several films in connection with older fantasies that articulate desire, eternal youth, and personal immortality, with philosophical discussions about brain and personhood, and with people’s assimilation of neuroscientific idioms into their views and practices of personal identity. In conclusion it discusses how, in contrast to philosophical approaches that tend to focus on self-consciousness, first-person perspectives, and individual autonomy, fiction may contribute to direct attention to relationality as constitutive of personhood.
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Since the 1990s, several disciplines, from neuroanthropology to neurotheology, have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences. These “neurodisciplines” share basic assumptions about the brain/mind... more
Since the 1990s, several disciplines, from neuroanthropology to neurotheology, have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences. These “neurodisciplines” share basic assumptions about the brain/mind relationship, a preference for neuroimaging methodology, and the goal of establishing the neurobiological foundations of mind and behavior. A neural turn has also been taken in some quarters within the literary field. The neurosciences have provided writers of literature with resources for depicting characters and psychological processes and states; at the same time, they have inspired new interpretive approaches within literary studies. A twofold motif structures what might be called the neuroliterary field: brains in literature/literature in the brain. There has been a certain convergence between the rise of “neuronovels,” on the one hand, and the neurologization of literary analysis, on the other. This article studies that twofold motif. It first sketches how neuronovels fit into the history of neurological fiction and fictional elaborations of brain-related issues. It then examines three aspects of several major neuronovels: narrativity, solipsism and sociality, and memory. The article concludes by underlining the difference between incorporating “brains in literature” and placing “literature in the brain.”
La neuroesthétique a été définie comme la science qui étudie les fondements neurobiologiques de l’appréciation esthétique et de la perception de la beauté, particulièrement dans l’art. Elle aspire ainsi à donner une assise scientifique à... more
La neuroesthétique a été définie comme la science qui étudie les fondements neurobiologiques de l’appréciation esthétique et de la perception de la beauté, particulièrement dans l’art. Elle aspire ainsi à donner une assise scientifique à des questions "traditionnellement philosophiques." Cet article étudie la logique interne du projet neuroesthétique, tentant d’expliciter sa structure et ses valeurs, et d’interroger les évidences qui l’animent. Il apporte des éléments historiques, et met la neuroesthétique en rapport
avec l’esthétique empirique, les recherches sur la vision et l’ensemble des nouvelles "neuro" disciplines nées depuis la Décennie du cerveau. Il examine enfin comment la
neuroesthétique se rattache au domaine des études sur l’art.
Neuroaesthetics has been defined as the science that studies the neurobiological bases of aesthetic appreciation and of the perception of beauty, particularly in the arts. It thereby aims at giving a scientific foundation to “traditionally philosophical” questions. This article examines the internal logic of neuroaesthetics, with the goal of uncovering its structure and values, and to interrogate truths it offers as self-evident. It outlines
some historical elements, establishes links between neuroaesthetics and empirical aesthetics, vision research, and the “neuro” disciplines that emerged since the Decade of the Brain, and finally looks at how the field fits in the broad area of studies about the arts.
avec l’esthétique empirique, les recherches sur la vision et l’ensemble des nouvelles "neuro" disciplines nées depuis la Décennie du cerveau. Il examine enfin comment la
neuroesthétique se rattache au domaine des études sur l’art.
Neuroaesthetics has been defined as the science that studies the neurobiological bases of aesthetic appreciation and of the perception of beauty, particularly in the arts. It thereby aims at giving a scientific foundation to “traditionally philosophical” questions. This article examines the internal logic of neuroaesthetics, with the goal of uncovering its structure and values, and to interrogate truths it offers as self-evident. It outlines
some historical elements, establishes links between neuroaesthetics and empirical aesthetics, vision research, and the “neuro” disciplines that emerged since the Decade of the Brain, and finally looks at how the field fits in the broad area of studies about the arts.
Fernando Vidal interviewed in Buenos Aires by Piroska Csúri and Jimena Mantilla. In English. Interview title given by the interviewers.
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Reflections on interdisciplinarity in the "neuro," to accompany "Neurociencia: Una ciencia controvertida," by Steve Ayan, and "Nueve ideas para mejorar la neurociencia," by Isabelle Bareither, Felix Hasler and Anna Strasser. Links:... more
Reflections on interdisciplinarity in the "neuro," to accompany "Neurociencia: Una ciencia controvertida," by Steve Ayan, and "Nueve ideas para mejorar la neurociencia," by Isabelle Bareither, Felix Hasler and Anna Strasser. Links: http://www.investigacionyciencia.es/revistas/mente-y-cerebro/numero/73/una-ciencia-controvertida-13336 and http://www.investigacionyciencia.es/revistas/mente-y-cerebro/numero/73/nueve-ideas-para-mejorar-la-neurociencia-13338.
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Depuis le milieu du XXe siècle, des nombreux discours et des nombreuses pratiques, tant à l'intérieur qu'à l'extérieur des champs scientifique et philosophique, manifestent le développement d'une notion de l'être humain comme “sujet... more
Depuis le milieu du XXe siècle, des nombreux discours et des nombreuses pratiques, tant à l'intérieur qu'à l'extérieur des champs scientifique et philosophique, manifestent le développement d'une notion de l'être humain comme “sujet cérébral”. Le cerveau s'impose comme le seul organe du corps dont nous avons besoin pour être nous-mêmes ; il doit en plus être exclusivement le nôtre. On n'est soi-même que si l'on a son propre cerveau. Une telle anthropologie de la “cérébralité” peut paraître une conséquence naturelle des progrès des neurosciences. En fait, elle plonge
ses racines dans des contextes qui précèdent de beaucoup ces progrès, dans des philosophies de la matière et de l'identité personnelle de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. Les neurosciences confirment et renforcent cette perspective, contribuant en même temps à façonner des nouvelles déclinaisons de la “cérébralité”. L'auteur ébauche cette problématique en connexion avec son esquisse historique du développement du sujet cérébral.
ses racines dans des contextes qui précèdent de beaucoup ces progrès, dans des philosophies de la matière et de l'identité personnelle de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. Les neurosciences confirment et renforcent cette perspective, contribuant en même temps à façonner des nouvelles déclinaisons de la “cérébralité”. L'auteur ébauche cette problématique en connexion avec son esquisse historique du développement du sujet cérébral.
Desde meados do século XX, numerosos discursos e práticas, dentro e fora das disciplinas científicas e filosóficas, têm apresentado o desenvolvimento da noção de ser humano como um ‘sujeito cerebral’. O cérebro é concebido como a única... more
Desde meados do século XX, numerosos discursos e práticas, dentro e fora das disciplinas científicas e filosóficas, têm apresentado o desenvolvimento da noção de ser humano como um ‘sujeito cerebral’. O cérebro é concebido como a única parte do corpo que devemos possuir, e que deve ser nossa, para que sejamos nós mesmos. Já que a personalidade é a qualidade ou condição para ser considerado um indivíduo, a ‘cerebralidade’ é, dessa forma, a qualidade ou condição de ser um cérebro. Esta propriedade define o sujeito cerebral. A antropologia da ‘cerebralidade’ pode parecer uma conseqüência natural do progresso das neurociências – mas procede de desenvolvimentos das filosofias da matéria e da identidade pessoal do século XVII. As neurociências confirmam e reforçam esta perspectiva. O autor delineia a narrativa histórica relacionada ao desenvolvimento do sujeito cerebral assim como alguns temas contemporâneos que surgem a partir das neurociências.
The research reported here aims at mapping the “cerebral subject” in contemporary society. The term “cerebral subject” refers to an anthropological figure that embodies the belief that human beings are essentially reducible to their... more
The research reported here aims at mapping the “cerebral subject” in contemporary society. The term “cerebral
subject” refers to an anthropological figure that embodies the belief that human beings are essentially reducible to
their brains. Our focus is on the discourses, images and practices that might globally be designated as “neuroculture.”
From public policy to the arts, from the neurosciences to theology, humans are often treated as reducible to
their brains. The new discipline of neuroethics is eminently symptomatic of such a situation; other examples can be
drawn from science fiction in writing and film; from practices such as “neurobics” or cerebral cryopreservation; from
neurophilosophy and the neurosciences; from debates about brain life and brain death; from practices of intensive
care, organ transplantation, and neurological enhancement and prosthetics; from the emerging fields of neuroesthetics,
neurotheology, neuroeconomics, neuroeducation, neuropsychoanalysis and others. This research in progress
traces the diversity of neurocultures, and places them in a larger context characterized by the emergence of somatic
“bioidentities” that replace psychological and internalistic notions of personhood. It does so by examining not only
discourses and representations, but also concrete social practices, such as those that take shape in the politically
powerful “neurodiversity” movement, or in vigorously commercialized “neuroascetic” disciplines of the self.
subject” refers to an anthropological figure that embodies the belief that human beings are essentially reducible to
their brains. Our focus is on the discourses, images and practices that might globally be designated as “neuroculture.”
From public policy to the arts, from the neurosciences to theology, humans are often treated as reducible to
their brains. The new discipline of neuroethics is eminently symptomatic of such a situation; other examples can be
drawn from science fiction in writing and film; from practices such as “neurobics” or cerebral cryopreservation; from
neurophilosophy and the neurosciences; from debates about brain life and brain death; from practices of intensive
care, organ transplantation, and neurological enhancement and prosthetics; from the emerging fields of neuroesthetics,
neurotheology, neuroeconomics, neuroeducation, neuropsychoanalysis and others. This research in progress
traces the diversity of neurocultures, and places them in a larger context characterized by the emergence of somatic
“bioidentities” that replace psychological and internalistic notions of personhood. It does so by examining not only
discourses and representations, but also concrete social practices, such as those that take shape in the politically
powerful “neurodiversity” movement, or in vigorously commercialized “neuroascetic” disciplines of the self.
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Both in its development and in the definition of its tasks, neuroethics has been intimately connected to neuroimaging, especially to the widespread application of functional brain imaging technologies such as positron emission tomography... more
Both in its development and in the definition of its tasks, neuroethics has been intimately connected to neuroimaging, especially to the widespread application of functional brain imaging technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Neuroimaging itself, in particular its uses, interpretation, communication, media presence, and public understanding, has been one of neuroethics’ primordial subjects. Moreover, key neuroethical issues, such as brain privacy or the conceptualization of blame, responsibility, and in general human personhood, have largely gained from neuroimaging the form under which neuroethics deals with them. The use of neuroimaging techniques to investigate phenomena usually associated with research in the humanities and human sciences brought those phenomena into the orbit of neurobiological explanation. Neuroethics emerged in the context of such technology-driven intellectual and professional developments. Thus, more than an important stimulus for the development of neuroethics or a particular source of neuroethical challenges, the spread of functional neuroimaging can be considered as a condition of possibility of the field. In return, neuroethics supports the claim that the neurosciences, in particular by way of functional neuroimaging, will revolutionize “traditional” ways of understanding the human. To the extent that such a claim is debatable, neuroethics might benefit from examining its special relationship to neuroimaging.
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Objective. Scientists, engineers, and healthcare professionals are currently developing a variety of new devices under the category of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). Current and future applications are both medical/assistive (e.g. for... more
Objective. Scientists, engineers, and healthcare professionals are currently developing a variety of new devices under the category of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). Current and future applications are both medical/assistive (e.g. for communication) and non-medical (e.g. for gaming). This array of possibilities has been met with both enthusiasm and ethical concern in various media, with no clear resolution of these conflicting sentiments. Approach. To better understand how BCIs may either harm or help the user, and to investigate whether ethical guidance is required, a meeting entitled ‘BCIs and Personhood: A Deliberative Workshop’ was held in May 2018. Main results. We argue that the hopes and fears associated with BCIs can be productively understood in terms of
personhood, specifically the impact of BCIs on what it means to be a person and to be recognized as such by others. Significance. Our findings suggest that the development of neural technologies raises important questions about the concept of personhood and its role in society. Accordingly, we propose recommendations for BCI development and governance.
personhood, specifically the impact of BCIs on what it means to be a person and to be recognized as such by others. Significance. Our findings suggest that the development of neural technologies raises important questions about the concept of personhood and its role in society. Accordingly, we propose recommendations for BCI development and governance.
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Since its emergence in the early 2000s, neuroethics has become a recognized, institutionalized and professionalized field. A central strategy for its successful development has been the claim that it must be an autonomous discipline,... more
Since its emergence in the early 2000s, neuroethics has become a recognized, institutionalized and professionalized field. A central strategy for its successful development has been the claim that it must be an autonomous discipline, distinct in particular from bioethics. Such claim has been justified by the conviction, sustained since the 1990s by the capabilities attributed to neuroimaging technologies, that somehow ‘the mind is the brain’, that the brain sciences can illuminate the full range of human experience and behavior, and that neuroscientific knowledge will have dramatic implications for views of the human, and challenge supposedly established beliefs and practices in domains ranging from self and personhood to the political organization of society. This article examines how that conviction functions as neuroethics’ ideological condition of possibility.
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Biographical article on Sabina Spielrein
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Biographical articles on Édouard Claparède, Pierre Janet, and Jean Piaget
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[An overview of the place of psychology in classifications of the sciences from the Renaissance to the 20th century. First paragraph: "For psychology, classifications of the sciences have had a twofold significance. On the one hand, from... more
[An overview of the place of psychology in classifications of the sciences from the Renaissance to the 20th century. First paragraph: "For psychology, classifications of the sciences have had a twofold significance. On the one hand, from the moment psychology sought to institute itself as an autonomous science, it began to conceptualize its inclusion within the general order of the sciences, and this process turned out to be one of its best modes of self-legitimation. This prolonged late Renaissance discussions about the status of the 'science of the soul.' Later, however, the same process also gave rise to debates about the definition of psychology itself, and these debates contributed to shape views about the discipline’s contents, methods, structure, and significance. It is for this reason that, on the other hand, classifications of the sciences provide a privileged perspective on the entire history of psychology. They bring to light the conceptual roots of the field and reflect both its initial elevation to the rank of 'science of the sciences' and its later integration into the general system of knowledge."]
Although it is no longer as current as in the past to identify the “birth” of “scientific psychology” with the establishment of Wilhelm Wundt’s laboratory in 1879, Hermann Ebbinghaus’s dictum, “Psychology has a long past, but a short... more
Although it is no longer as current as in the past to identify the “birth” of “scientific psychology” with the establishment of Wilhelm Wundt’s laboratory in 1879, Hermann Ebbinghaus’s dictum, “Psychology has a long past, but a short history,” continues to inspire many authors, and to sustain the belief that there is a “prehistory” of psychology prior to the discipline’s institutionalization and professionalization since the last third of the 19th century. Such “prehistory” is generally reconstructed by selecting the “psychological ideas” of past thinkers and looking for psychological themes in a variety of intellectual contexts, from medicine to theology. When one, however, considers the origins and uses of the word “psychology” in the 16th and 17th century, the structure and contents of the "scientia de anima" in Aristotelian contexts, and how such science was remade in the 18th century, it becomes possible to write the early history of psychology as a discipline while avoiding the anachronisms and idiosyncrasis that afflict most reconstructions of its “long” prehistorical past.
Au XVIIIe siècle, avant même que l’on mette systématiquement en œuvre le genre de pratiques d’observation et d’expérimentation supposées propres à la « psychologie scientifique », il existe un discours méthodologique et des débats sur la... more
Au XVIIIe siècle, avant même que l’on mette systématiquement en œuvre le genre de pratiques d’observation et d’expérimentation supposées propres à la « psychologie scientifique », il existe un discours méthodologique et des débats sur la méthode qui fonctionnent comme mécanismes constitutifs de la discipline, façonnent une image de ce qu’elle doit être, définissent des idéaux épistémiques et suggèrent des démarches et des voies à suivre. Ces discours, qui se font jour spécialement en Allemagne à partir des années 1750, portent sur différentes questions, notamment sur la possibilité de créer une psychométrie, sur l’opportunité de réaliser des expérimentations psychologiques et, principalement, sur les méthodes elles-mêmes, leur utilité relative, leurs limites et leur apport au progrès de la psychologie empirique.
During the 18th century, before the emergence of the observational and experimental practices that allegedly define « scientific psychology », lively methodological discussions functioned as constitutive mechanisms of the discipline, and contributed to define its nature, its epistemic ideals, and its future forms and contents. These discussions began particularly in Germany in the 1750s, and concerned such questions as the possibility of creating a psychometry, the acceptability of psychological experiments and, especially, the methods themselves, their relative utility, their limits, and their contributions to the progress of empirical psychology.
During the 18th century, before the emergence of the observational and experimental practices that allegedly define « scientific psychology », lively methodological discussions functioned as constitutive mechanisms of the discipline, and contributed to define its nature, its epistemic ideals, and its future forms and contents. These discussions began particularly in Germany in the 1750s, and concerned such questions as the possibility of creating a psychometry, the acceptability of psychological experiments and, especially, the methods themselves, their relative utility, their limits, and their contributions to the progress of empirical psychology.
A study of the volumes on Logic, Metaphysics, Morals, and Education of the "Encyclopédie Méthodique" (1782-1832)
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"Empirical psychology attained a considerable degree of autonomy during the XVIIIth century in Germany. Within the system of knowledge, psychology, as natural science of the soul joined with the body, detached itself from pneumatology,... more
"Empirical psychology attained a considerable degree of autonomy during the XVIIIth century in Germany. Within the system of knowledge, psychology, as natural science of the soul joined with the body, detached itself from pneumatology, and became a basic
discipline of anthropology, or general « science of man ». It also entered bourgeois culture and learned institutions. On the one hand, it adopted « popular » forms (essays, novels, magazines). On the other hand, it became the subject of academic teaching, textbooks, and treatises. The development of the history of psychology as a historiographical genre helped define the new discipline, and reinforced its nascent autonomy. This article will study such development as it took place between the scattered fragments of a history of psychology included in Johann Jacob Brucker's Critical history of philosophy (1742-1747) and the
posthumous publication in 1808 of Friedrich August Carus's History of psychology, the first of its kind."
discipline of anthropology, or general « science of man ». It also entered bourgeois culture and learned institutions. On the one hand, it adopted « popular » forms (essays, novels, magazines). On the other hand, it became the subject of academic teaching, textbooks, and treatises. The development of the history of psychology as a historiographical genre helped define the new discipline, and reinforced its nascent autonomy. This article will study such development as it took place between the scattered fragments of a history of psychology included in Johann Jacob Brucker's Critical history of philosophy (1742-1747) and the
posthumous publication in 1808 of Friedrich August Carus's History of psychology, the first of its kind."
Presentation at the "Soutenance d'habilitation," December 2001, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Published in Pour l’Histoire des Sciences de l’Homme [Bulletin de la Société française pour l’histoire des sciences de l’homme],... more
Presentation at the "Soutenance d'habilitation," December 2001, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Published in Pour l’Histoire des Sciences de l’Homme [Bulletin de la Société française pour l’histoire des sciences de l’homme], n° 23, 2002, 40-50.
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Panorama do lugar da psicologia na ordem das ciências, desde as enciclopédias do Renascimento até a obra de Jean Piaget.
Overview of the concept of soul in the Enlightenment
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“Deficit model” designates an outlook on the public understanding and communication of science that emphasizes scientific illiteracy and the need to educate the public.Though criticized, it is still widespread, especially among... more
“Deficit model” designates an outlook on the public understanding and communication of science that emphasizes scientific illiteracy and the need to educate the public.Though criticized, it is still widespread, especially among scientists. Its persistence is due not only to factors ranging from scientists’ training to policy design, but also to the continuance of realism as an aesthetic criterion. This article examines the link between realism and the deficit model through discussions of neurology and psychiatry in fiction film,as well as through debates about historical movies and the cinematic adaptation of literature. It shows that different values and criteria tend to dominate the realist stance in different domains: accuracy for movies concerning neurology and psychiatry, authenticity for the historical film, and fidelity for adaptations of literature. Finally, contrary to the deficit model, it argues that the cinema is better characterized by a surplus of meaning than by informational shortcomings.
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This Introduction to the special issue of Science in Context devoted to "Science in Film and the Deficit Model" provides a historical overview of the "deficit model" in the fields of science popularization and the public understanding of... more
This Introduction to the special issue of Science in Context devoted to "Science in Film and the Deficit Model" provides a historical overview of the "deficit model" in the fields of science popularization and the public understanding of science, and examines its resilience in spite of abundant criticism.
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[Starting with James Whale's classic film "Frankenstein" of 1931, this article documents (through the Universal and Hammer productions, as well as later Frankenstein movies) the replacement of the theme of the creation of life by that of... more
[Starting with James Whale's classic film "Frankenstein" of 1931, this article documents (through the Universal and Hammer productions, as well as later Frankenstein movies) the replacement of the theme of the creation of life by that of brain transplantation. It also situates this hardly-noticed yet fundamental transformation of the Frankenstein leitmotif in the context of the "cerebralization" of personhood and contemporary "neurocultures."]
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In Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998), people live in a city that is constantly in the dark. The city is in fact a laboratory constructed by a race of Strangers who live below the urban surface to do experiments aimed at discovering what... more
In Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998), people live in a city that is
constantly in the dark. The city is in fact a laboratory constructed by a race of Strangers who live below the urban
surface to do experiments aimed at discovering what makes human beings human. The Strangers will survive only by
becoming like them. To find out what humanity is, but assuming it is essentially related to memory, every day they paralyze all human activity, extract memories from individuals, mix them, and inject them back. When people wake up, they are totally different persons – but do not know it. This article examines how, starting with such a situation, Dark City explores the role of memory in personhood, the problem of authenticity, and the status of “false” memories in making the self, and how they connect to the experimental psychology and the neuroscience of memory.
constantly in the dark. The city is in fact a laboratory constructed by a race of Strangers who live below the urban
surface to do experiments aimed at discovering what makes human beings human. The Strangers will survive only by
becoming like them. To find out what humanity is, but assuming it is essentially related to memory, every day they paralyze all human activity, extract memories from individuals, mix them, and inject them back. When people wake up, they are totally different persons – but do not know it. This article examines how, starting with such a situation, Dark City explores the role of memory in personhood, the problem of authenticity, and the status of “false” memories in making the self, and how they connect to the experimental psychology and the neuroscience of memory.
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Seeing a prodigious cure happen and then testifying about it certainly differs from attending an air pump experiment in order to bear witness to it. Yet early-modern saint-making and the “new” or “experimental philosophy” shared juridical... more
Seeing a prodigious cure happen and then testifying about it certainly differs from attending an air pump experiment in order to bear witness to it. Yet early-modern saint-making and the “new” or “experimental philosophy” shared juridical roots, and thereby an understanding of the role of testimony for the establishment of “matters of fact” and for the production of legitimate knowledge. The reforms carried out after the Council of Trent, especially during Urban VIII’s pontificate (1623–1644), of the juridical procedures for saint-making in the Catholic Church implied a new attitude towards the examination of proposed miracles. Most of these miracles were healings. While the appeal to medical expertise had long been common, and skepticism had often manifested itself regarding cures or extraordinary bodily phenomena, both were now given formal status. Miracle inquests henceforth leaned towards refuting miraculousness by means of natural explanations. The procedure was systematized in a treatise published in the 1730s by Prospero Lambertini (later pope Benedict XIV). The combination of Lambertini’s work with the canonization causes in which he acted as the “devil’s advocate” in charge of disputing arguments favorable to a sainthood candidate allows for a reconstruction of the interplay between the juridical and scientific economies of saint-making, and of the role of testimony in the production of trust and evidence.
Critical discussion of the editorial work done for Jean Starobinski's collection of essays "Le corps et ses raisons" (2020).
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A partir de una lectura de los trabajos del crítico ginebrino Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) sobre la historia de la medicina y de la experiencia del cuerpo, este artículo se propone dos objetivos. En primer lugar, se trata de esbozar cómo... more
A partir de una lectura de los trabajos del crítico ginebrino Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) sobre la historia de la medicina y de la experiencia del cuerpo, este artículo se propone dos objetivos. En primer lugar, se trata de esbozar cómo su distintiva manera de articular las perspectivas histórica y fenomenológica implica una comprensión esencialmente ética de la medicina y de la práctica médica. En segundo lugar, se trata de relacionar esos trabajos con investigaciones de las últimas décadas sobre la historia y antropología de las emociones y de la interocepción para reflexionar sobre el alcance y los límites de esos campos de investigación.
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Given its abundance, dispersion, and revision and publication history, the work of the Genevan critic and historian of medicine Jean Starobinski (1920-1999) presents very considerable technical and ethical challenges for its would-be... more
Given its abundance, dispersion, and revision and publication history, the work of the Genevan critic and historian of medicine Jean Starobinski (1920-1999) presents very considerable technical and ethical challenges for its would-be editors. The first part of the present article discusses these challenges. The second part focuses on the editorial dimension of two books published for the centennial of the author’s birth: a reprint of his “Histoire de la médicine” (1963), and the collection “Le Corps et ses raisons.”
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This article sketches Jean Starobinski's thought on the "reasons of the body" and asks what it may say concerning certain contemporary fields of research and the history of medicine. Current "turns" – the "interoceptive", and the... more
This article sketches Jean Starobinski's thought on the "reasons of the body" and asks what it may say concerning certain contemporary fields of research and the history of medicine. Current "turns" – the "interoceptive", and the "affective" or "emotional" – claim to reintegrate the body into history, the humanities, and the neurocognitive sciences. Sta robinski's perspective helps understand their limits. Conversely, approaching his oeuvre from the vantage point of those "turns" highlights the link his critical enterprise operates between history and phenomenology, its sustained attention to the experience of the self and the consciousness of the body, and its demonstration of the inherent link between the "reasons of the body" and the expression that embodies them.
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En hommage posthume à Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) à l’occasion du centenaire de sa naissance, nous esquissons ici sa pensée sur les « raisons du corps » en la reliant à certains champs de recherche contemporains. Prolongeant le «tournant... more
En hommage posthume à Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) à l’occasion du centenaire de sa naissance, nous esquissons ici sa pensée sur les « raisons du corps » en la reliant à certains champs de recherche contemporains. Prolongeant le «tournant somatique» des années 1980, les «tournants émotionnel» et «intéroceptif» du XXIe siècle prétendent réintégrer le corps dans l’histoire, dans les sciences humaines et dans les sciences neurocognitives. Les interroger à la lumière de la critique starobinskienne fait ressortir leurs limites. Inversement, lire celle-ci au regard de ces «tournants» met en relief sa manière unique d’articuler l’histoire et la phénoménologie ainsi que son intérêt constant pour l’expérience corporelle de soi et pour la conscience du corps propre, dont les «raisons» se métamorphosent en une expression littéraire qui fera corps avec elle.
Research Interests: Literary Criticism, History Of Emotions, Interoception, History of Medicine and the Body, Literary Theory and Criticism, and 8 moreHistory of the Body, Affective turn, History of Emotions, History and Theories of the Emotions, Cultural History of the Body, Emotional Turn, Jean Starobinski, and Interoceptive turn
Press article on the occasion of the death of the Genevan literary critic and intellectual historian Jean Starobinski (1920-2019). (The title, given by the journal without asking me, is not representative of the article's contents.)
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This essay discusses Jean Starobinski's contribution to the history of psychiatry and medicine. At the same time, it suggests that this contribution should be understood less as a contribution to the history of the practices and concepts... more
This essay discusses Jean Starobinski's contribution to the history of psychiatry and medicine. At the same time, it suggests that this contribution should be understood less as a contribution to the history of the practices and concepts of those disciplines than as a historical exploration of discourses regarding embodied self-consciousness and the phenomenological experience of one's own body.
Este ensayo documenta la contribución de Jean Starobinski a la historia de la psiquiatría y de la medicina. Al mismo tiempo, sugiere que conviene entender esa contribución menos como un aporte a la historia de la prácticas y conceptos de... more
Este ensayo documenta la contribución de Jean Starobinski a la historia de la psiquiatría y de la medicina. Al mismo tiempo, sugiere que conviene entender esa contribución menos como un aporte a la historia de la prácticas y conceptos de esas disciplinas que como una exploración histórica de la conciencia y de la experiencia de sí, tal como se enraizan en el cuerpo individualmente vivenciado.
Entry in The New Dictionary of Scientific Biography
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Biographical article on Jean Piaget
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Biographical article on Jean Piaget
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Edition of eight texts the young Jean Piaget wrote between 1910 and 1915 as presentations to the 'Club des amis de la Nature' in his native Neuchâtel. Followed by other documents from the Club's archives (including three by Piaget... more
Edition of eight texts the young Jean Piaget wrote between 1910 and 1915 as presentations to the 'Club des amis de la Nature' in his native Neuchâtel. Followed by other documents from the Club's archives (including three by Piaget himself), an outline of Piaget's activities in the Club, and a survey of Piaget's contributions to mollusk taxonomy.
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Using the example of the author's biography 'Piaget Before Piaget,' this article elaborates the notion of 'contextual biography.' The text appeard in an issue of the 'Creativity Research Journal' in honor of Howard E. Gruber.
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[Immanence, affect, and democracy in Jean Piaget's 1932 "The Moral Judgment of the Child"] Discusses the views on immanence, affectivity, and democracy expressed in Piaget's work The Moral Judgment of the Child, in which he argues... more
[Immanence, affect, and democracy in Jean Piaget's 1932 "The Moral Judgment of the Child"]
Discusses the views on immanence, affectivity, and democracy expressed in Piaget's work The Moral Judgment of the Child, in which he argues against French social scientist Émile Durkheim's theory of authority and moral education. Social interactions in childhood, cognitive development, the paradox of egocentrism, the co-existing opposing tendencies of constraint and cooperation in children, the immanence-transcendance opposition, affectivity and memory, school and society, and children's spontaneous evolution towards moral and intellectual autonomy are examined.
(Source: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1998-11807-008)
Discusses the views on immanence, affectivity, and democracy expressed in Piaget's work The Moral Judgment of the Child, in which he argues against French social scientist Émile Durkheim's theory of authority and moral education. Social interactions in childhood, cognitive development, the paradox of egocentrism, the co-existing opposing tendencies of constraint and cooperation in children, the immanence-transcendance opposition, affectivity and memory, school and society, and children's spontaneous evolution towards moral and intellectual autonomy are examined.
(Source: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1998-11807-008)
[Introduction to two previously unkown poems by Jean Piaget, and the poems themselves.]
Aucune documentation n'existe sur la relation entre Jean Piaget (1896-1980) et Sabina Spielrein (1885-1941 ), qui fut son analyste au debut des annees 1920. Cependant, plusieurs indices manifestent leur sympathie mutuelle et... more
Aucune documentation n'existe sur la relation entre Jean Piaget (1896-1980) et Sabina Spielrein (1885-1941 ), qui fut son analyste au debut des annees 1920. Cependant, plusieurs indices manifestent leur sympathie mutuelle et laissent entrevoir un projet de collaboration. Spielrein et Piaget avaient des racines intellectuelles communes dans I'ecole psychiatrique et psychanalytique de Zurich. Par ailleurs, Spielrein avait commence a étudier l'enfance et le développement mental dès avant sa rencontre avec Piaget; et c'est dès 1916, lors de sa découverte de la psychanalyse à travers Theodore Flournoy, que Piaget s'intéressait a la psychanalyse. La collaboration entre Spielrein et Piaget, qui devait porter sur la théorie du symbole et du symbolisme, ne s'est pas realisée. Ceci peut s'expliquer par la divergence de leurs centres d'intérêt (la psychanalyse pour Spielrein, l'épistémologie pour Piaget). Mais ce sont peut-être leurs attitudes opposées vis à-vis du symbolisme qui en rendent compte le mieux : Piaget, qui se mefiait de la pensee symbolique pour des rai sons ancrees dans son adolescence, y voyait un stade inferieur dans !'evolution de l'intel ligence vers l'objectivite; Spielrein, comme le manifeste le contenu autant que le style de son discours, trouvait dans les racines incons cientes du symbole la "sève" de toute pensée, y compris de celle dont le but etait de comprendre objectivement la vie mentale.
There is hardly any documentation on the relationship between Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and Sabina Spielrein (1885-1941), who was his psychoanalyst in the early 1920s. There are some indications of their mutual sympathy, as well as... more
There is hardly any documentation on the relationship between Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and Sabina Spielrein (1885-1941), who was his psychoanalyst in the early 1920s. There are some indications of their mutual sympathy, as well as traces of a shared project. Spielrein and Piaget had common intellectual roots in the Zurich psychiatric and psychoanalytic school. Moreover, Spielrein had started to study child psychology before meeting Piaget. Piaget seems to have become interested in psychoanalysis in 1916, through a lecture given by Theodore Flournoy. The collaboration between Spielrein and Piaget, which was to deal with the theory of symbolism, never came into being. This could be explained by a divergence in intellectual focuses: psychoanalysis for Spielrein, epistemology for Piaget. But it is perhaps their contrasting attitudes to symbolism that best account for the failure of the project. Piaget, who mistrusted symbolic thought for reasons that can be traced to his adolescence, considered it as a lower stage in the growth of intelligence. On the contrary, as is apparent in both the form and the content of her writings, Spielrein found roots of symbolism in the unconscious.
En février 1916, le futur psychologue et épistémologue Jean Piaget (1896-1980) publia "Les mystères de la douleur divine," un texte absent de toute bibliographie piagétienne. "Les mystères de la douleur divine" éclaire le passage, chez le... more
En février 1916, le futur psychologue et épistémologue Jean Piaget (1896-1980) publia "Les mystères de la douleur divine," un texte absent de toute bibliographie piagétienne. "Les mystères de la douleur divine" éclaire le passage, chez le jeune Piaget, d'une attitude religieuse et métaphysique liée à la recherche d'un absolu transcendant, à une attitude immanentiste annonçant le point de vue caractéristique de son œuvre scientifique et philosophique ultérieure.
In 1913, the future psychologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), then a seventeen-year-old naturalist, gave a talk criticizing 'the notion of the species according to the Mendelian school'. In it, he confounded Mendelism and... more
In 1913, the future psychologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), then a seventeen-year-old naturalist, gave a talk criticizing 'the notion of the species according to the Mendelian school'. In it, he confounded Mendelism and mutationism, and misunderstood both. He attributed an environmental nature to the 'factors' postulated by Mendel's laws for inherited characteristics, and thought that mutations resulted from the appearance of a new environmental factor. Such misinterpretations are closely related to Piaget's assimilation of the Bergsonian critique of 'mechanistic' science into his work in malacological taxonomy.
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Long before becoming the well-known creator of a theory of the development of intelligence in children, Jean Piaget was a naturalist. In 1912, at the age of sixteen, and as member of a young naturalists' club, he gave a talk called « The... more
Long before becoming the well-known creator of a theory of the development of intelligence in children, Jean Piaget was a naturalist. In 1912, at the age of sixteen, and as member of a young naturalists' club, he gave a talk called « The Vanity of Nomenclature », the manuscript of which was recently discovered. The introduction to the present edition of that manuscript aims at suggesting its significance for a historical biography of Piaget. On the one hand, Piaget's text is the best exponent of his integration into the field of natural history; however, it is also the first sign of his reorientation towards the philosophical biology that would play a fundamental role in his later work. On the other hand, « The Vanity » illustrates the persistence of nominalism in post-Darwinian thinking about the species, and reveals certain relations between Henry Bergson's philosophy and the history of biology.
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Review of Danijela Kambaskovic, ed., 'Conjunctions of Mind, Soul and Body from Plato to the Enlightenment' (2014).
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Stanley Finger et al., eds. The Fine Arts, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Neuro-Historical Dimensions; The Fine Arts, Neurology, and Neuroscience: New Discoveries and Changing Landscapes; Literature, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Historical... more
Stanley Finger et al., eds. The Fine Arts, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Neuro-Historical Dimensions; The Fine Arts, Neurology, and Neuroscience: New Discoveries and Changing Landscapes; Literature, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Historical and Literary Connections; Literature, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders (Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2013, Progress in Brain Research, vols. 203-206)
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Essay review of H. F. Ellenberger, 'Histoire de la découverte de l’inconscient' ('1994) and Marc S. Micale, ed., 'Beyond the Unconscious : Essays of Henri F. Ellenberger in the History of Psychiatry' (1993).
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An even to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Jean Starobinski (1920-2019). Organized by the Luis Piñero Institute for Science Studies (Valencia), and to be held online on Wednesday, November 11, 2020, from 6 to 7:30 pm (CET).
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Workshop to take place in Barcelona, 17-18 November 2016: The locked-in syndrome (LIS), in which persons are conscious but almost entirely paralyzed and voiceless, is one of the most dramatic states a human being can find himself or... more
Workshop to take place in Barcelona, 17-18 November 2016:
The locked-in syndrome (LIS), in which persons are conscious but almost entirely paralyzed and voiceless, is one of the most dramatic states a human being can find himself or herself in. This interdisciplinary international workshop will bring together cognitive neuroscientists, care and neuro-rehabilitation professionals, brain-computer interface experts, individuals involved in LIS patients associations, philosophers, bioethicists, medical anthropologists and sociologists, and historians of the brain/mind sciences to discuss the impact this unique condition has on ways of understanding personhood at the theoretical and practical levels. While the philosophy of personhood in the Western tradition since the late 17th century has emphasized cognitive capacities and self-consciousness, the experience of LIS contributes to open new ground for understanding how relationality, emotion, communication and phenomenal consciousness (the feeling of what it is like to be in a certain state) are constitutive of personal identity and the sense of self.
The locked-in syndrome (LIS), in which persons are conscious but almost entirely paralyzed and voiceless, is one of the most dramatic states a human being can find himself or herself in. This interdisciplinary international workshop will bring together cognitive neuroscientists, care and neuro-rehabilitation professionals, brain-computer interface experts, individuals involved in LIS patients associations, philosophers, bioethicists, medical anthropologists and sociologists, and historians of the brain/mind sciences to discuss the impact this unique condition has on ways of understanding personhood at the theoretical and practical levels. While the philosophy of personhood in the Western tradition since the late 17th century has emphasized cognitive capacities and self-consciousness, the experience of LIS contributes to open new ground for understanding how relationality, emotion, communication and phenomenal consciousness (the feeling of what it is like to be in a certain state) are constitutive of personal identity and the sense of self.
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Images and captions for "Performing Brains on Screen" (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2022). See under BOOKS.
We propose to use “endangerment sensibility” to designate the perception that vast portions of the world are in danger of extinction or destruction, together with the complex of concepts, values and practices dealing with human and... more
We propose to use “endangerment sensibility” to designate the perception that vast portions of the world are in danger of extinction or destruction, together with the complex of concepts, values and practices dealing with human and non-human entities considered threatened. We then sketch main issues associated with the endangerment sensibility in three areas that are crucial across all domains from biodiversity to cultural heritage: diversity as a constitutive value; listing as a fundamental epistemic practice; and emotions as integral to both the values and the sciences of endangerment. Exploring “endangerment” in such a perspective highlights the extent to which it is rooted in historically situated ethical, political, emotional and epistemic configurations.
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Research Interests: Geography and Sensibility
The conclusion underlines that all the fields analyzed in the book share what we characterized as a “modern creed.” It explains that such creed is modern because of its chronology, and because it is an element of the psychological,... more
The conclusion underlines that all the fields analyzed in the book share what we characterized as a “modern creed.” It explains that such creed is modern because of its chronology, and because it is an element of the psychological, philosophical, political and scientific cosmologies usually identified to modernity. It is a creed because it states basic beliefs that guide action. As this conclusion emphasizes, that idea is best understood as a historically contingent resource, born to uphold and make plausible a redefinition of personhood that ultimately functioned as the core of an ideology (in the sense of a complex set of notions, beliefs and ideals). The title comes from a remark by intellectual historian Louis Menand: “every aspect of life has a biological foundation in exactly the same sense, which is that unless it was biologically possible it wouldn’t exist. After that, it’s up for grabs.”
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The chapter addresses forms of the neuro in popular culture. Film and literature have in many ways rehearsed the connection between personal identity, having a body and being a brain, and have been major sites for elaborating and... more
The chapter addresses forms of the neuro in popular culture. Film and literature have in many ways rehearsed the connection between personal identity, having a body and being a brain, and have been major sites for elaborating and questioning the human as cerebral subject. Numerous works can be identified as “brain movies” and “brain novels:” most Frankenstein films since the 1940s; B-series productions from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, in which brains themselves are protagonists; science-fiction novels of the same period, which stage and exploit brain transplants or brains in vats. While we shall give room to this particular literary and filmic subgenres, our focus will be on later novels and films. We shall privilege works that explore existential, interpersonal, psychological, ethical and scientific aspects of the relations between having a brain and being a person less through the basic structure of their plots or the direct display of physical brains than through stylistic...
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Consecuencias del feminicidio en violencia machista: análisis de necesidades de hijos, hijas y familiares para nuevas propuestas de intervención integral en CataluñaAntropologia i fenomenologia de la síndrome del captiveri (Locked-in... more
Consecuencias del feminicidio en violencia machista: análisis de necesidades de hijos, hijas y familiares para nuevas propuestas de intervención integral en CataluñaAntropologia i fenomenologia de la síndrome del captiveri (Locked-in Syndrome)El cuidado importa. Impacto de género en las cuidadoras/es de mayores y dependientes en tiempos de la Covid-19La gestió col·laborativa de la medicació: cap a una nova cultura assistencial en salut mentalSYNCHROS: SYNergies for Cohorts in Health Integrating the ROle of Stakeholders
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Critical discussion of the editorial work done for Jean Starobinski's collection of essays "Le corps et ses raisons" (2020).
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A partir de una lectura de los trabajos del crítico ginebrino Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) sobre la historia de la medicina y de la experiencia del cuerpo, este artículo se propone dos objetivos. En primer lugar, se trata de esbozar cómo... more
A partir de una lectura de los trabajos del crítico ginebrino Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) sobre la historia de la medicina y de la experiencia del cuerpo, este artículo se propone dos objetivos. En primer lugar, se trata de esbozar cómo su distintiva manera de articular las perspectivas histórica y fenomenológica implica una comprensión esencialmente ética de la medicina y de la práctica médica. En segundo lugar, se trata de relacionar esos trabajos con investigaciones de las últimas décadas sobre la historia y antropología de las emociones y de l
Jean Starobinski on the Reason of Body In posthumous homage to Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) on the centennial of his birth, this article sketches his thought on the «reasons of the body», linking it to certain contemporary fields of... more
Jean Starobinski on the Reason of Body In posthumous homage to Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) on the centennial of his birth, this article sketches his thought on the «reasons of the body», linking it to certain contemporary fields of research. Prolonging the «somatic turn» of the 1980s, more recent «emotional» and «interoceptive turns» claim to reintegrate the body into history, the humanities and the neurocognitive sciences. Starobinski's perspective helps bring their limits to light. Conversely, approaching his critical enterprise from their vantage point highlights its unique way of linking history and phenomenology, its sustained attention to the experience of the self and bodily self-awareness, and its demonstration of how the «reasons of the body» may be intimately bound to the literary expression that embodies them.
In Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998), people live in a city that is constantly in the dark. The city is in fact a laboratory constructed by a race of Strangers who live below the urban surface to do experiments aimed at discovering what makes... more
In Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998), people live in a city that is constantly in the dark. The city is in fact a laboratory constructed by a race of Strangers who live below the urban surface to do experiments aimed at discovering what makes human beings human. The Strangers will survive only by becoming like them. To find out what humanity is, but assuming it is essentially related to memory, every day they paralyze all human activity, extract memories from individuals, mix them, and inject them back. When people wake up, they are totally different persons – but do not know it. This article examines how, starting with such a situation, Dark City explores the role of memory in personhood, the problem of authenticity, and the status of "false" memories in making the self, and how the connect to the experimental psychology and the neuroscience of memory.
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L'A. analyse un poeme peu connu du jeune Piaget, «Les mysteres de la douleur divine», qui revele le passage d'une attitude religieuse et metaphysique liee a la recherche d'un absolu transcendant, a une attitude immanentiste... more
L'A. analyse un poeme peu connu du jeune Piaget, «Les mysteres de la douleur divine», qui revele le passage d'une attitude religieuse et metaphysique liee a la recherche d'un absolu transcendant, a une attitude immanentiste annoncant sa philosophie ulterieure et son point de vue scientifique
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The title of this issue of Science in Context – “Believing Nature, Knowing God” – is intended to suggest the moral, emotional, and cognitive conditions in which the historical alliance of “nature” and “God” operated, and to make a more... more
The title of this issue of Science in Context – “Believing Nature, Knowing God” – is intended to suggest the moral, emotional, and cognitive conditions in which the historical alliance of “nature” and “God” operated, and to make a more general point about knowing and believing. The production of scientific knowledge includes mechanisms for bringing about acceptance that such knowledge is true, and thus for generating a psychological state of belief. To claim to have knowledge of nature involves an attitude of belief in certain epistemic values, in the procedures associated with them, and in the results to which they lead. “Nature,” both as a totality to be known, and as the sum of the results of research directed towards it, turns out to be an object of belief.
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Aquest article explora contexts i significats de la nocio, extremament difosa des de mitjan segle XX, segons la qual som essencialment els nostres cervells, a traves de diferents exemples, principalment del mon de la ficcio literaria i... more
Aquest article explora contexts i significats de la nocio, extremament difosa des de mitjan segle XX, segons la qual som essencialment els nostres cervells, a traves de diferents exemples, principalment del mon de la ficcio literaria i cinematografica. L'autor assenyala com altres caracteristiques han desafiat aquesta afirmacio en els arguments narratius per reafirmar la identitat personal dels seus protagonistes.
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Poco se sabe sobre como las personas que sufren de sindrome de cautiverio o de enclaustramiento (Locked-in Syndrome, LIS) experimentan la situacion en la que se encuentran. Todavia no existe una fenomenologia del LIS, en el sentido de una... more
Poco se sabe sobre como las personas que sufren de sindrome de cautiverio o de enclaustramiento (Locked-in Syndrome, LIS) experimentan la situacion en la que se encuentran. Todavia no existe una fenomenologia del LIS, en el sentido de una descripcion de la vivencia de la enfermedad y de la experiencia subjetiva del paciente. Las encuestas sobre calidad de vida y otras investigaciones basadas en cuestionarios suministran datos valiosos. Las mejores fuentes serian los relatos autobiograficos de las personas “enclaustradas”, pero no se han estudiado sistematicamente. Este articulo presenta materiales pertinentes para una fenomenologia del LIS y sugiere algunas direcciones para emprenderla como proyecto metodico.
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We propose to use “endangerment sensibility” to designate the perception that vast portions of the world are in danger of extinction or destruction, together with the complex of concepts, values and practices dealing with human and... more
We propose to use “endangerment sensibility” to designate the perception that vast portions of the world are in danger of extinction or destruction, together with the complex of concepts, values and practices dealing with human and non-human entities considered threatened. We then sketch main issues associated with the endangerment sensibility in three areas that are crucial across all domains from biodiversity to cultural heritage: diversity as a constitutive value; listing as a fundamental epistemic practice; and emotions as integral to both the values and the sciences of endangerment. Exploring “endangerment” in such a perspective highlights the extent to which it is rooted in historically situated ethical, political, emotional and epistemic configurations. Wir verwenden den Begriff “Sensibilität der Gefährdung” als Bezeichnung der Wahrnehmung, dass weite Teile der Welt Gefahr laufen, vernichtet zu werden, sei es durch Aussterben oder Zerstörung. Wir schließen in den Begriff all jene Konzepte, Werte und Praktiken ein, die sich auf als gefährdet eingestufte menschliche wie nichtmenschliche Einheiten beziehen. Wir skizzieren drei Kernpunkte, welche die Sensibilität der Gefährdung von der Biodiversität bis zum Kulturellen Erbe prägen: Erstens Diversität als grundlegende Wertschätzung; zweitens Listung als fundamentale epistemische Praxis; und drittens Gefühle als integralen Bestandteil der Werte wie auch der Wissenschaften der Gefährdung. Aus dieser Perspektive bringt die Erforschung der “Gefährdung” als Phänomen der Wahrnehmung zum Vorschein, inwieweit die betreffenden Sensibilitäten jeweils in historisch situierten ethischen, politischen, emotionalen und epistemischen Konstellationen wurzeln
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Performing Brains on Screen deals with film enactments and representations of the belief that human beings are essentially their brains, a belief that embodies one of the most influential modern ways of understanding the human. Films have... more
Performing Brains on Screen deals with film enactments and representations of the belief that human beings are essentially their brains, a belief that embodies one of the most influential modern ways of understanding the human. Films have performed brains in two chief ways: by turning physical brains into protagonists, as in the ‘brain movies’ of the 1950s, which show terrestrial or extra-terrestrial disembodied brains carrying out their evil intentions; or by giving brains that remain unseen inside someone's head an explicitly major role, as in brain transplantation films or their successors since the 1980s, in which brain contents are transferred and manipulated by means of information technology. Through an analysis of filmic genres and particular movies, Performing Brains on Screen documents this neglected filmic universe, and demonstrates how the cinema has functioned as a cultural space where a core notion of the contemporary world has been rehearsed and problematized.
T he history of psychology as an autonomous discipline is driven not only by its theoretical, methodological, and institutional developments but also by the elab oration of the concept of psychology itself and by theorizations of its... more
T he history of psychology as an autonomous discipline is driven not only by its theoretical, methodological, and institutional developments but also by the elab oration of the concept of psychology itself and by theorizations of its position among other domains of knowledge. Classificatory schemes of the sciences have a preeminent function in such a context. They imply a reflection that exceeds the problems proper to any one discipline, and precisely because they both reflect situations of fact and embody metascientific ideals, they contribute not only to the project of identifying domains of knowledge but also to the process of defining them. This is what Francis Bacon (1561–1626) noted in the Novum Organum (1620) when he observed that “[t]he received division of the sciences [is] suitable only for the received totality of the sciences,” and that “we find in the intellectual as in the terrestrial globe cultivated tracts and wilderness side by side.” 2
Since it first appeared in the public eye in the early 2000s, neuroethics has acquired all the sociological features that define a discipline, such as international societies, university chairs, journals, and academic programs. An... more
Since it first appeared in the public eye in the early 2000s, neuroethics has acquired all the sociological features that define a discipline, such as international societies, university chairs, journals, and academic programs. An important element of its rapid development as a discipline was the claim that it should be autonomous from the field that could claim to be its “parent discipline,” namely, bioethics. This position gave rise to debate. Theoretical questions of the debate may remain open; on the ground, however, neuroethics won. It was born and has remained free. This chapter examines the ultimate foundation of neuroethics’ claim to autonomy, namely (in Adina Roskies’ words), the “peculiar relationship between our brains and our selves,” and how it functions in the discipline’s theory and practice.
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Depuis la Décennie du cerveau des années 1990, un "tournant neuroscientifique" affecte le monde contemporain à l'échelle mondiale. Les neurosciences semblent s'imposer comme le meilleur moyen de... more
Depuis la Décennie du cerveau des années 1990, un "tournant neuroscientifique" affecte le monde contemporain à l'échelle mondiale. Les neurosciences semblent s'imposer comme le meilleur moyen de comprendre l'être humain et promettent de fournir la clé des phénomènes les plus divers. Des expériences sensorielles les plus élémentaires aux créations culturelles les plus complexes, l'être humain est devenu un "sujet cérébral." Quelle est la portée de cette prétendue révolution qui annonce un "nouvel humanisme" et des transformations radicales dans nos façons d'aborder la morale, l'éducation ou la justice Le présent article explore cette questionà partir du tournant neuroscientifique au sein des sciences humaines et sociales.
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En 2011, nous avons consacre un dossier de la Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines aux « sciences de l’homme a l’âge du neurone ». Il s’agissait d’enqueter sur des phenomenes savants contemporains : la mobilisation par les sciences... more
En 2011, nous avons consacre un dossier de la Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines aux « sciences de l’homme a l’âge du neurone ». Il s’agissait d’enqueter sur des phenomenes savants contemporains : la mobilisation par les sciences humaines et sociales de travaux menes par des neuroscientifiques. Nous intriguait la dissemination de ces references qui interrogeaient pourtant l’irreductibilite des phenomenes sociaux consideree par beaucoup de chercheurs en sciences humaines et sociales comme ...
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Desde meados do século XX, numerosos discursos e práticas, dentro e fora das disciplinas científicas e filosóficas, têm apresentado o desenvolvimento da noção de ser humano como um ‘sujeito cerebral’. O cérebro é concebido como a única... more
Desde meados do século XX, numerosos discursos e práticas, dentro e fora das disciplinas científicas e filosóficas, têm apresentado o desenvolvimento da noção de ser humano como um ‘sujeito cerebral’. O cérebro é concebido como a única parte do corpo que devemos possuir, e que deve ser nossa, para que sejamos nós mesmos. Já que a personalidade é a qualidade ou condição para ser considerado um indivíduo, a ‘cerebralidade’ é, dessa forma, a qualidade ou condição de ser um cérebro. Esta propriedade define o sujeito cerebral. A antropologia da ‘cerebralidade’ pode parecer uma conseqüência natural do progresso das neurociências – mas procede de desenvolvimentos das filosofias da matéria e da identidade pessoal do século XVII. As neurociências confirmam e reforçam esta perspectiva. O autor delineia a narrativa histórica relacionada ao desenvolvimento do sujeito cerebral assim como alguns temas contemporâneos que surgem a partir das neurociências.
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Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Self and Identity, Bioethics, and 15 moreDisability Studies, Phenomenology, Quality of life, Personhood, Neuroethics, Brain Computer Interface, Phenomenology of the body, Chronic illness, Illness Narrative, Biomedical Ethics, Brain Computer Interfaces, Tetraplegia, Disorders of Consciousness, Locked In Syndrome, and Medical Anthroplogy
This book offers a critical exploration of the influential and pervasive belief that “we are our brains” (and that therefore he neurosciences will provide the key to all human phenomena). Since the 1990s, “neurocentrism” has become... more
This book offers a critical exploration of the influential and pervasive belief that “we are our brains” (and that therefore he neurosciences will provide the key to all human phenomena). Since the 1990s, “neurocentrism” has become widespread in most Western and many non-Western societies. Advances, especially in neuroimaging, decisively bolstered it and helped justify increased funding for the brain sciences. Such a belief permeates many other contexts beyond basic research. Major national health agencies consider that “mental” illnesses are “brain disorders.” People diagnosed with some of those disorders advocate “neurodiversity” rights. In the human sciences, subspecialties such as neuroanthropology, neuroaesthetics, neuroeducation, neurohistory, neurolaw, neurosociology or neurotheology quickly professionalized. Dubious businesses, aimed for example at building neuroimaging lie detectors, selling (“neuromarketing”), or promoting wellbeing thanks to regimens said to target the br...
Since its emergence in the early 2000s, neuroethics has become a recognized, institutionalized and professionalized field. A central strategy for its successful development has been the claim that it must be an autonomous discipline,... more
Since its emergence in the early 2000s, neuroethics has become a recognized, institutionalized and professionalized field. A central strategy for its successful development has been the claim that it must be an autonomous discipline, distinct in particular from bioethics. Such claim has been justified by the conviction, sustained since the 1990s by the capabilities attributed to neuroimaging technologies, that somehow ‘the mind is the brain’, that the brain sciences can illuminate the full range of human experience and behavior, and that neuroscientific knowledge will have dramatic implications for views of the human, and challenge supposedly established beliefs and practices in domains ranging from self and personhood to the political organization of society. This article examines how that conviction functions as neuroethics’ ideological condition of possibility.
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Argument "Deficit model" designates an outlook on the public understanding and communication of science that emphasizes scientific illiteracy and the need to educate the public. Though criticized, it is still widespread,... more
Argument "Deficit model" designates an outlook on the public understanding and communication of science that emphasizes scientific illiteracy and the need to educate the public. Though criticized, it is still widespread, especially among scientists. Its persistence is due not only to factors ranging from scientists' training to policy design, but also to the continuance of realism as an aesthetic criterion. This article examines the link between realism and the deficit model through discussions of neurology and psychiatry in fiction film, as well as through debates about historical movies and the cinematic adaptation of literature. It shows that different values and criteria tend to dominate the realist stance in different domains: accuracy for movies concerning neurology and psychiatry, authenticity for the historical film, and fidelity for adaptations of literature. Finally, contrary to the deficit model, it argues that the cinema is better characterized by a surplus...
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Even before the brain’s deterioration became a health problem of pandemic proportions, literature and film rehearsed the fiction of brain transplantations that would allow an aging person to inhabit a younger body, so that successive... more
Even before the brain’s deterioration became a health problem of pandemic proportions, literature and film rehearsed the fiction of brain transplantations that would allow an aging person to inhabit a younger body, so that successive surgeries may result in that person’s immortality. Such fiction makes the brain operate like an immaterial soul that does not undergo physical decline. This article examines that fiction as elaborated in Hanif Kureishi’s The Body and several films in connection with older fantasies that articulate desire, eternal youth, and personal immortality, with philosophical discussions about brain and personhood, and with people’s assimilation of neuroscientific idioms into their views and practices of personal identity. In conclusion it discusses how, in contrast to philosophical approaches that tend to focus on self-consciousness, first-person perspectives, and individual autonomy, fiction may contribute to direct attention to relationality as constitutive of p...
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Literature and cinema, Personhood, Personal Identity, and 11 moreCinema, Theory of Mind (Psychology), Body and Personal Identity, Ageing and Health, Immortality, Human Biological Immortality, Rejuvenation, Hanif Kureishi, Brainhood, Brain transplantation, and Neurocentrism
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Since the 1990s, several disciplines have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences. For the most part, they aim at capturing the commonalities that underlay the heterogeneity of human behaviors and... more
Since the 1990s, several disciplines have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences. For the most part, they aim at capturing the commonalities that underlay the heterogeneity of human behaviors and experiences. Neuroanthropology and cultural neuroscience, or the "neurodisciplines of culture," appear different, since their goal is to understand specificity rather than commonality and to address how cultural differences are inscribed in the brain. After offering an overview of these disciplines, and of their relation to endeavors such as cultural psychology and social neuroscience, this article discusses some of the most representative studies in the area in order to explore in which ways they are relevant for an understanding of culture.
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Research Interests: Humanities and Art
Review of Danijela Kambaskovic, ed., 'Conjunctions of Mind, Soul and Body from Plato to the Enlightenment' (2014).
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In 1913, the future psychologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), then a seventeen-year-old naturalist, gave a talk criticizing 'the notion of the species according to the Mendelian school'. In it, he confounded... more
In 1913, the future psychologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), then a seventeen-year-old naturalist, gave a talk criticizing 'the notion of the species according to the Mendelian school'. In it, he confounded Mendelism and mutationism, and misunderstood both. He attributed an environmental nature to the 'factors' postulated by Mendel's laws for inherited characteristics, and thought that mutations resulted from the appearance of a new environmental factor. Such misinterpretations are closely related to Piaget's assimilation of the Bergsonian critique of 'mechanistic' science into his work in malacological taxonomy.