The brain's body : neuroscience and corporeal politics / Victoria Pitts-Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pitts-Taylor, Victoria, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Neurosciences--Social aspects.

Neurosciences.

Cognitive neuroscience--Social aspects.

Cognitive neuroscience.

Feminist theory.

Feminism.

Socioeconomic Factors.

Social aspects.

Medical Subjects:

Neurosciences.

Feminism.

Socioeconomic Factors.

Physical Description:

x, 181 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2016.

Summary:

In The Brains Body Victoria Pitts-Taylor brings feminist and critical theory to bear on new development in neuroscience to demonstrate how power and inequality are materially and symbolically entangled with neurobiological bodies. Pitts-Taylor is interested in how the brain interacts with and is impacted by social structures, especially in regard to race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability, as well as how those social structures shape neuroscientific knowledge. Pointing out that some brain scientists have not fully abandoned reductionist or determinist explanations of neurobiology, Pitts-Taylor moves beyond debates over nature and nurture to address the politics of plastic, biosocial brains. She highlights the potential of research into poverty's effects on the brain to reinforce certain notions of poor subjects and to justify particular forms of governance, while her queer critique of kinship research demonstrates the limitations of hypotheses based on heteronormative assumptions. In her exploration of the embodied mind and the "embrained" body, Pitts-Taylor highlights the inextricability of nature and culture and shows why using feminist and queer thought is essential to understanding the biosociality of the brain. Book jacket.

Contents:

The phenomenon of brain plasticity

What difference does the body make?

I feel your pain

Neurobiology and the queerness of kinship

Conclusion: The multiplicity of embodiment.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-176) and index.

ISBN:

9780822361077

0822361078

9780822361268

0822361264

9780822374374

0822374374

OCLC:

910856210