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The Machinery of Consciousness: A Cautionary Tale
Author(s) -
Mentor Steven
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
anthropology of consciousness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1556-3537
pISSN - 1053-4202
DOI - 10.1525/ac.2007.18.1.20
Subject(s) - consciousness , parallels , shadow (psychology) , cybernetics , rhetoric , field (mathematics) , psychic , psychology , unconscious mind , sociology , cognitive science , psychoanalysis , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience , engineering , mechanical engineering , linguistics , mathematics , pure mathematics , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
The emerging transdisciplinary field of consciousness studies merges transpersonal psychology with recent brain studies. In this paper, I argue that this new discipline must come to terms with the rhetorics of control in the history of brain research. I establish parallels between the discourses of lobotomy and psychosurgery, Electrical Stimulation of the Brain (ESB), and cybernetics, using the work of Jose Delgado, Norbert Wiener, and Bernard Wolfe. The rhetoric of social control remains a shadow side of brain research, of the popularization of brain science, and of attempts to apply such research.