Neurotechnologies of the Self

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Jonna Brenninkmeijer

   Pages 1-10

3. Brain Devices and the Marvel

   • Jonna Brenninkmeijer

   Pages 11-44

4. Glancing Behind the Scenes

   • Jonna Brenninkmeijer

   Pages 45-76

5. Taking Care of One’s Brain

   • Jonna Brenninkmeijer

   Pages 77-107

6. Intermezzo: From Self to Others to Agents

   • Jonna Brenninkmeijer

   Pages 109-116

7. Neurofeedback as a Dance of Agency

   • Jonna Brenninkmeijer

   Pages 117-139

8. Reflection and Conclusion

   • Jonna Brenninkmeijer

   Pages 141-155

9. Back Matter

   Pages 157-169

   PDF

Taking care of oneself is increasingly interpreted as taking care of one’s brain. Apart from pills, books, food, and games for a better brain, people can also use neurotechnologies for self-improvement. This book explores how the use of brain devices to understand or improve the self changes people’s subjectivity.


This book describes how the effects of several brain devices were and are demonstrated; how brains and selves interact in the work of early brainwave scientists and contemporary practitioners; how users of neurofeedback (brainwave training) constitute a new mode of self that is extended with a brain and various other (physiological, psychological, material, and sometimes spiritual) entities, and; how clients, practitioners and other actors (computers, brain maps, brainwaves) perform a dance of agency during the neurofeedback process. Through these topics, Jonna Brenninkmeijer provides a historical, ethnographical, and theoretical exploration ofthe mode of being that is constituted when people use a brain device to improve themselves.

• STS
• Science and Technology Studies
• Sociology of Science
• Neurotechnology
• Philosophy

“Brenninkmeijer (Univ. of Groningen, Netherlands) explores electronic brain therapies with the primary focus on neurofeedback. This book is as much about philosophy as it is a review of neurotechnologies. … This book is … for those delving into the philosophy of caring for one’s brain.” (J. Swiatek, Choice, Vol. 54 (6), February, 2017) 

• University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

  Jonna Brenninkmeijer

Jonna Brenninkmeijer works at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. She previously conducted her doctoral research at the University of Groningen, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK, and at the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Policies and ethics