Denielle a Elliott, York University; Tara Mahfoud, University of Essex; Megh Marathe, Michigan State University
Posted: February 28, 2022 Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês
The neurosciences have led to profound changes in how the mind and the self are studied and understood. An underlying assumption guiding neuroscientific investigation is that a better understanding of the brain can lead to insights into what makes us human and that these insights can lead to changes and improvements in how brain-related conditions are diagnosed and treated. Social scientists and humanities scholars have engaged with the turn towards the ‘neuro’ in mental health and psychiatry since the 1990s ‘Decade of the Brain’, arguing that a focus on the brain alone is not adequate to understand the experiences of mental ill health and to understand the effects that environments and adversity can have in shaping mental life. However, neurology has comparably received very little attention.
‘Cerebral frictions’ denotes the material and epistemological boundaries and tensions that arise with neuro-centric conceptions of personhood and illness. We understand frictions to be positive and productive – it is often through frictional encounters within and across disciplines and settings that new knowledge and understanding can be brought about. This panel invites contributions that attend to, but are not limited to, the following questions: How are the boundaries between neurology and psychiatry delineated and contested? How are the whole-body experiences associated with neurological conditions experienced? How are they medically interpreted and measured in laboratory settings? What is changed, left out or gained in the move towards computational approaches to studying mind and brain?
