Samuels Psychoanalyzing the Politics of the New Brain Sciences

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-319-71891-0
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 143 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Progress in Mathematics

This book argues that neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral economics often function as a political ideology masquerading as a new science. In looking at works by Antonio Damasio, Steven Pinker, Richard Thaler, Cas Sunstein, and John Tooby, Robert Samuels undertakes a close reading of the new brain sciences, and by turning to the works of Freud and Lacan, offers a counter-discourse to these new emerging sciences.  He argues that an unintentional political manipulation of scientific thinking serves to repress the psychoanalytic conception of the unconscious and sexuality as it reinforces neoliberalism and promotes the drugging of discontent. This innovative book is intended for those interested in science, psychoanalysis, and politics and offers a new definition of neoliberal subjectivity.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Samuels, Robert

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Damasio’s Error: The Politics of Biological Determinism after Freud.- Chapter 3. The Backlash Politics of Evolutionary Psychology: Pinker’s Blank Slate.- Chapter 4. Behavioral Economics: Nudge and Technocratic Liberalism.- Chapter 5. The Brain Sciences Against the Welfare State.- Chapter 6. Drugging Discontent: Psychoanalysis, Drives and the Governmental University Medical Pharmaceutical Complex (GUMP).- Chapter 7. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Robert Samuels has PhDs in English and Psychoanalysis.  He teaches advanced writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.  He is the author of eleven books including Psychoanalyzing the Left and Right after Donald Trump and Educating Inequality (2016).