84

Brain science, this paper argues, has become the latest fetish of American scientism and behaviorism. It claims to explain everything, from how we decide to how we create, using simplistic platitudes about the brain to account for incredibly complex psychological states. Among its many effects, such thinking views mental pathology largely as a set of biological disorders. While in practice neuropsychiatry can explain just 3 percent of mental pathologies, its views increasingly shape American psychiatry where “biomarkers” define behavior and suffering as neurochemical, and psychiatrists frequently aim to treat both pharmacologically.