The cultural and political implications of research on emotions and recent studies of the "essential difference" in male and female brains and behaviors.
The now-popular idea that emotions have an intelligent core (and the reverse, that intelligence has an emotional core) comes from the neurosciences and psychology. Similarly, the fundamental sexualization of the brain--the new interest in "essential differences" in male and female brains and behaviors--is based on neuroscience research and neuroimages of emotions. In Sexualized Brains, scholars from a range of disciplines reflect on the epistemological claims that emotional intelligence (EI) can be located in the brain and that it is legitimate to attribute distinct kinds of emotions to the biological sexes. The brain, as an icon, has colonized the humanities and social sciences, leading to the emergence of such new disciplines as neurosociology, neuroeconomics, and neurophilosophy. Neuroscience and psychology now have the power to transform not only the practice of science but also contemporary society. These developments, the essays in this volume show, will soon affect the very heart of gender studies. Contributors examine historical views of gender, sex, and elite brains (the influential idea of the "genius"); techniques for representing and measuring emotions and EI (including neuroimaging and pop science); the socioeconomic contexts of debates on elites, EI, and gender and the underlying power of the brain as a model to legitimize social disparities.
Contributors
Anne Bartsch, Carmen Baumeler, Myriam Bechtoldt, Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Malte-Christian Gruber, Michael Hagner, Bärbel Hüsing, Eva Illouz, Nicole C. Karafyllis, Carolyn MacCann, Gerald Matthews, Robert Nye, William Reddy, Richard D. Roberts, Ralf Schulze, Gotlind Ulshöfer, Moshe Zeidner
About the Author: Henrik Selin is Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at Boston University. He is the coeditor, with Stacy VanDeveer, of Changing Climates in North American Politics: Institutions, Policymaking, and Multilevel Governance (MIT Press, 2009).
