As with anything that gains mainstream popularity, neuroscience is becoming gummed up with a bunch of, well, hogwash. Such are the charges from legions of critics, as pointed out by a New York Times write-up entitled, “Neuroscience: Under Attack.”
Article author Alissa Quart discusses the neuroscience backlash, brought about by the folly of believing some folks are genetically inferior and publishing books that hold truths skewed to meet the author’s own purposed. Quart offers ample introductions to the type:
Meet the “neuro doubters.” The neuro doubter may like neuroscience but does not like what he or she considers its bastardization by glib, sometimes ill-informed, popularizers.
Too true, especially when these same folks use neuroscience to explain pretty much anything and everything under the sun.
Voting Republican? Oh, that’s brain chemistry. Success on the job? Fortuitous neurochemistry! Neuroscience has joined company with other totalizing worldviews — Marxism, Freudianism, critical theory — that have been victim to overuse and misapplication.
But at least neuroscience has yet to make the full plunge into pop culture madness – it’s not yet the topic of a reality show. And anyone who suffers from driving fear knows there is nothing amusing or ridiculous about the condition.
Read Quart’s full neuroscience opinion article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/opinion/sunday/neuroscience-under-attack.html?_r=1&
