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(2016) The metamorphoses of the brain, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
The cerebellum, so it would appear, must be celebrated. That is, the death of Psychological Man, deserves a party. This chapter critically engages with Brain Festivals, which offer their guests "An entertaining mix of scientific presentations, live brain dissection and workshops!" Distrusting such party mongers, I not only show the integral role of psychology and psychologists in such celebrations, but also attempt to corroborate an obscene kernel unwittingly structuring the festivities by highlighting some of the more morbid aspects of Brain Festivals. Furthermore, by drawing upon Guy Debord's Society of the spectacle, Baudrillard's second order iconoclasm, Lacan's mirror stage and Freud's Totem and taboo, I conclude that the celebrative drive in popularizing neuroscience is indicative of tendencies and underlying dynamics within regular academic neuroscience itself.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-50557-6_6
Full citation:
De Vos, J. (2016). The celebrated brain: the role of the brain in the society of the spectacle, in The metamorphoses of the brain, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169-201.
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