Picturing Personhood

by Dumit, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780691113975
• ISBN10: 0691113971
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

By showing us the human brain at work, PET (positron emission tomography) scans are subtly--and sometimes not so subtly--transforming how we think about our minds.Picturing Personhoodfollows this remarkable and expensive technology from the laboratory into the world and back. It examines how PET scans are created and how they are being called on to answer myriad questions with far-reaching implications: Is depression an observable brain disease? Are criminals insane? Do men and women think differently? Is rationality a function of the brain? Based on interviews, media analysis, and participant observation at research labs and conferences, Joseph Dumit analyzes how assumptions designed into and read out of the experimental process reinforce specific notions about human nature. Such assumptions can enter the process at any turn, from selecting subjects and mathematical models to deciding which images to publish and how to color them. Once they leave the laboratory, PET scans shape social debates, influence courtroom outcomes, and have positive and negative consequences for people suffering mental illness. Dumit follows this complex story, demonstrating how brain scans, as scientific objects, contribute to our increasing social dependence on scientific authority. The first book to examine the cultural ramifications of brain-imaging technology,Picturing Personhoodis an unprecedented study that will influence both cultural studies and the growing field of science and technology studies.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Chapter 1 Introduction	1	(21)
Interlude 1 Thinking about Reading	19	(3)
Chapter 2 Metaphors, Histories, and Visions of PET	22	(31)
Interlude 2 Reading Function	50	(3)
Chapter 3 Producing Brain Images of Mind	53	(56)
Interlude 3 Who Can Read Other Minds?	106	(3)
Chapter 4 Ways of Seeing Brains as Expert Images	109	(30)
Interlude 4 Reading into Images	134	(5)
Chapter 5 Traveling Images, Popularizing Brains	139	(33)
Interlude 5 Living One's Images	170	(2)
Chapter 6 Conclusion: Here Is a PET Image of a Person that Shows Depression	172	(15)
Notes	187	(22)
Bibliography	209	(26)
Index of Names	235	(7)
General Index	242