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Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience Paperback – May 12, 2015
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What can't neuroscience tell us about ourselves? Since fMRI -- functional magnetic resonance imaging -- was introduced in the early 1990s, brain scans have been used to help politicians understand and manipulate voters, determine guilt in court cases, and make sense of everything from musical aptitude to romantic love. >In Brainwashed, psychiatrist and AEI scholar Sally Satel and psychologist Scott O. Lilienfeld reveal how many of the real-world applications of human neuroscience gloss over its limitations and intricacies, at times obscuring -- rather than clarifying -- the myriad factors that shape our behavior and identities. Brain scans, Satel and Lilienfeld show, are useful but often ambiguous representations of a highly complex system. Each region of the brain participates in a host of experiences and interacts with other regions, so seeing one area light up on an fMRI in response to a stimulus doesn't automatically indicate a particular sensation or capture the higher cognitive functions that come from those interactions. The narrow focus on the brain's physical processes also assumes that our subjective experiences can be explained away by biology alone. As Satel and Lilienfeld explain, this "neurocentric" view of the mind risks undermining our most deeply held ideas about selfhood, free will, and personal responsibility, putting us at risk of making harmful mistakes, whether in the courtroom, interrogation room, or addiction treatment clinic.
Although brain scans and other neurotechnologies have provided groundbreaking insights into the workings of the human brain, Brainwashed shows readers that the increasingly fashionable idea that they are the most important means of answering the enduring mysteries of psychology is misguided -- and potentially dangerous.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBasic Books
- Publication dateMay 12, 2015
- Dimensions5.45 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
- ISBN-109780465062911
- ISBN-13978-0465062911
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Editorial Reviews
Review
This thoughtful, provocative book provides a needed counterbalance to the arrogant neuromythology that purports to explain all of human behavior through brain imaging. It makes a strong moral argument that we are, ultimately, creatures of choice who can exercise will; it grapples boldly with a science that has sometimes threatened our understanding of what it is to be human.”
Charles Murray, author of Coming Apart
Science develops new tools that have promise for illuminating age-old questions, and those new tools are then misused or oversold until expectations are finally reconciled with reality. Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfield tell the story of neuroscience's real and illusory contribution to goals that range from treating addiction and detecting lies to mapping the neural underpinnings of morality. It is a daunting topic, but Brainwashed somehow manages to blend the authors' mastery of their subject with compulsive readability.”
Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
A smart and sometimes devastating critique of neurobollocks'… this book is a brisk read, but a good one — and, I would argue, an important one.”
Nature
Satel and Lilienfeld provide an engaging overview of the technical and conceptual factors that complicate the interpretation of brain scans obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging and other techniques.... Brainwashed offers much to bolster popular understanding of what brain imaging can and cannot achieve.”
Huffington Post
"[An] important new book.... Brainwashed is not an anti-neuroscience book by any means. Indeed, the authors celebrate the new insights into human thought and behavior that brain studies have yielded. But the book does take a hard stand against the prevailing neurocentrism, and aims to restore some balance to our understanding of human fallibility, including drug and alcohol addiction."
BBC Focus
"In a witty but no-hold-barred book, the authors skewer the ridiculous claims of those who tell us that brain imaging can unlock the secrets of the mind.... Brainwashed explains why we must be skeptical and accept that, if anything, brain research has revealed just how much further we have to go."
Gary Marcus, Newyorker.com
"The book does a terrific job of explaining where and how savvy readers should be skeptical."
Discover
"Well-written and remarkably balanced . Should you buy it?... For new readers, or as a gift, it would be fantastic."
Metapsychology
Offers an availing expose on the recklessly radical conclusions of Naïve Neuroscience and what must be addressed to maintain a comprehensive, sensible and constrained Modern Neuroscience.”
Reason
"A skeptical but fair-minded review of the field that carefully distinguishes between wild hopes and actual accomplishments."
Commentary
[A] lucid new book”
The Scientist
Brainwashed is a reasoned, humane addition to the growing neuroskeptic' bookshelf.”
Booklist, Starred Review
"[A] fascinating book."
Library Journal
An accessible entry point to important and timely neuroethical discussions. Above all, readers will learn why they should turn a critical eye to reports that begin, Brain scans show…'”
Kirkus Reviews
A valuable contribution to the neuroscience bookshelf.”
Wall Street Journal
In their concise and well-researched book, [Satel and Lilienfeld] offer a reasonable and eloquent critique of this fashionable delusion, chiding the premature or unnecessary application of brain science to commerce, psychiatry, the law and ethics.... In a book that uses 'mindless' accusatively in the subtitle, you might expect an excitable series of attacks on purveyors of what's variously called neurohype, neurohubris and neurobollocks. But more often than not Dr. Satel and Mr. Lilienfeld stay fair and levelheaded. Good thing, because this is a topic that requires circumspection on all sides.”
New York Times
Dr. Satel and Dr. Lilienfeld offer a methodical critique of this oversimplified neuro-nonsense, convincingly arguing that in many ways the M.R.I.'s of today are simply the phrenology heads of yesteryear, laughably primitive attempts to wrangle human character and behavior into tractable form.”
Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale and author of How Pleasure Works
In this smart, provocative and very accessible book, Satel and Lilienfeld are not out to bury neuroscience; they are here to save itto rescue it from those who have wildly exaggerated its practical and theoretical benefits. Some of this book is very funny, as when they review the dubious history of neuromarketing and neuropolitics, and some of it is dead serious, as in their discussion of how the abuse of neuroscience distorts criminal law and the treatment of addicts. Brainwashed is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the use and abuse of one of the most important scientific developments of our time.”
Hal Pashler, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego
Brainwashed provides an engaging and wonderfully lucid tour of the many areas in which the progress and applications of neuroscience are currently being overstated and oversold. Some of the hyping of neuroscience appears fairly harmless, but more than a little of it carries potential for real damageespecially when it promotes erroneous ideas about addiction and criminal behavior. The book combines clearheaded analysis with telling examples and anecdotes, making it a pleasure to read.”
Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, and author of How the Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought
Neuroscience is an exhilarating frontier of knowledge, but many of its champions have gotten carried away. This book shows how attempts to explain the human condition by pointing to crude blotches of brain activity may be superficially appealing but are ultimately unsatisfying. Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfeld are not dualists, romantics, mystics, or luddites. Their case for understanding the mind at multiple levels of analysis will resonate with thoughtful psychologists and biologists, and they make that case lucidly, expertly, and entertainingly. Anyone who is interested in the brainand who isn't?will be enlightened by this lively yet judicious critique.”
PsycCRITIQUES
In this volume, these two prolific authors combine their talents to provocatively call for caution concerning many of the promises associated with neuroscience.... A very readable, even entertaining, commentary on how neuroscience is beginning to change the world.... A welcome reminder of the never-ending need for healthy skepticism as we encounter the various creative endeavors that so often accompany emerging scientific developments.”
The National Review
[An] incisive and clearly written book.... [I]f you want to know where and why the neuroscientific used-car salesmen are wrong, if you want to arm yourself against their preposterous overselling, read this book.”
David Brooks, New York Times
"[A] compelling and highly readable book."
Slate
A well-informed attack on the extravagances of neurocentrist” thought.”
The New Scientist
The intrepid outsider needs expert guidance through this rocky terrain and there's no better place to start than Brainwashed by Sally Satel and Scott O. Lilienfeld. Satel, a practising psychiatrist, and Lilienfeld, a clinical psychologist, are terrific sherpas. They are clear-sighted, considered and forgiving of the novice's ignorance”
Jeffrey Rosen, Professor of Law, George Washington University and Legal Affairs Editor, The New Republic
Brainwashed challenges the much-hyped claim that neuroscience will transform everything from marketing to the legal system to our ideas of blameworthiness and free will. Satel and Lilienfeld bring much needed skeptical intelligence to this field, giving neuroscience its due while recognizing its limitations. This is an invaluable contribution to one of our most contested debates about the ability of science to transform society.”
Peter D. Kramer, author of Against Depression
An authoritative, fascinating argument for the centrality of mind in what, doubtless prematurely, has been called the era of the brain.”
About the Author
Scott O. Lilienfeld is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Emory University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Product details
- ASIN : 0465062911
- Publisher : Basic Books; 1st edition (May 12, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780465062911
- ISBN-13 : 978-0465062911
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.45 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #761,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,100 in Popular Neuropsychology
- #1,995 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)
- #2,794 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Customers find the book informative and well-written. They describe it as an easy, readable read that provides perspective on neuroscience and imaging techniques. Readers also mention that the book is insightful and helps clarify various issues.
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Customers appreciate the book's clear explanation of neuroscience and neuroresearch. They find it informative and easy to read, helping them understand various issues. The book helps clarify and lend perspective to a variety of issues, including understanding autonomic parts of themselves. Readers describe the book as intelligent and engagingly written, taking brain science out of pop psychology and putting it where it belongs.
"...This is a highly readable, smart, and beautifully written treatise. Despite the somewhat dramatic title, the narrative here is not extreme...." Read more
"A good corrective to the much hyped, and even over hyped, promises made by some for the future found in neuroscience...." Read more
"...consumers’ buying habits, to name only a few topics discussed in this concise, elegantly written book...." Read more
"...It is a valuable addition to the growing library of neuroscience, policy, freewill, and personal liberty." Read more
Customers find the book readable and engaging for any audience. They describe it as a well-written, smart treatise that provides an interesting overview of the topic. The book does a solid job of laying out key issues about human brains.
"...This is a highly readable, smart, and beautifully written treatise. Despite the somewhat dramatic title, the narrative here is not extreme...." Read more
"...I believe I made a free choice to read Satel and Lilienfield’s superb book, but maybe the writer Issac Bashevis Singer is on to something when he..." Read more
"...of Mindless Neuroscience by Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfeld is an important book on an emerging problem: brain-scan-driven pop psychology in mass..." Read more
"...of overreach given in "Brainwashed." Combined, a worthwhile read for people outside of the neuroscientific field, but take it with a grain..." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2013Drs Satel and Lilienfeld, two thought leaders in the mental health field, have produced a terrific book on a subject of high importance. We all see articles and blogs and scientific papers everywhere we look signaling that advanced technologies in the neurosciences (e.g., brain scans) are revolutionizing our understanding of the human mind, consciousness, and even soul. There is no question such technologies and perspectives provide invaluable scientific advances, but this book provides a refreshing and balanced perspective that they are not yet the answer to all mysteries and may never be. This is a highly readable, smart, and beautifully written treatise. Despite the somewhat dramatic title, the narrative here is not extreme. The authors provide a careful and rationale review of the evidence, and the limitations inherent in it. This book offers a valuable reset to the reductionistic notions that are sweeping across the research approach of many fields of human behavior.
This book is highly accessible, though not "dumbed down" and it should be of interest to active scientists and lay readers alike. It is a terrific entree to the intersecting fields of neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry. I highly recommend it!
- Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2014A good corrective to the much hyped, and even over hyped, promises made by some for the future found in neuroscience. It looks at the hit-or-miss applications of neurobiology in advertising, law, addiction, and ethics, and takes on the occasions when proponents of reductionist thought wander into unfounded statements that have more to do with philosophical or even metaphysical presuppositions. They also point out the flaws in the current technology and the probabilities of those being overcome.
Many of the criticisms of the book seem to rely upon attacks upon Dr Satel's membership in the American Enterprise Institute, and a tendency to lump all critiques of neuroscience, and indeed any science, into the, ill defined, "post-modernist" or "neo-marixst" camps. This is unfortunate, and lazy. It is also not unexpected. Any deviation from the, fairly narrow, accepted dogmas of any field are seen as betrayals and related to accordingly. In addition, the fairly philosophically, not to mention historically, unsophisticated takes many of the critics have only underscores just how weak their position is.
What, stopped me from scoring the book with a full five stars, is that Statel and Lilianfeld do not stop themselves from occasionally indulging to far in their own speculative philosophizing
- Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2014“Fifty Shades of Gray Matter,” was the first title Sally Satel wanted but she had to go with “Brainwashed. The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience.”
The book has six chapters and an epilogue:
1. This Is Your Brain on Ahmadinejad: Or What is Brain Imaging?
2. The Buyologist Is In: The Rise of Neuromarketing
3. Addiction and the Brain-Disease Fallacy
4. The Telltale Brain: Neuroscience and Deception
5. My Amygdala Made Me Do It: The Trials of Neurolaw
6. The Future of Blame: Neuroscience and Moral Responsibility
Epilogue: Mind over Gray Matter
Satel and her co-author Scott O. Lilienfeld discuss the stunning progress in neuroscience and its implications for society, especially through the development of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that takes pictures of the brain in action.
The authors do not aim to critique science and the technology of brain scans. Rather Satel and Lilienfeld sound a warning bell that we are witnessing premature applications of these seductive, techno-color images of the brain that promise to help diagnose drug addicts, understand the influence of neurological damage on criminal responsibility, and predict consumers’ buying habits, to name only a few topics discussed in this concise, elegantly written book.
Psychologists, psychiatrists, and neuroscientists are alert to this warning and know we are in danger of losing the mind to this age of neurocentrism.
For example, in his new book, The Spark: The Science of Human Development. Jerome Kagan (1) reviews in detail the many problems using blood flow measures in the brain to understand emotions:
…many events evoke a brief feeling that lasts about a second and then disappears. But there is little change in blood flow to a brain site during the initial second. The peak in the blood flow signal occurs about sic second after the event occurred and therefore, five seconds after the feeling may have vanished. The blood flow measure reflects a cascade of phenomena that include association to the event, a possible feeling, and perhaps a private query as to why the scientist presented that particular stimulus.
The rigor of psychological studies of the mind cited in Kagan’s book often take a back seat to the fMRI scans which measure brain activity by noting associated changes in blood flow. Since cerebral blood flow and neuron activity are correlated, when an area of the brain is in use, blood flows to the region also increases. We are flooded with observations of brain parts lighting up. There are no shortages of interpretations when certain regions of the brain glow --- even though we know that brain regions have millions of interconnections, we sometimes confuse the meaning of excitatory and inhibitory functions on brain sites, and that the better people become at a skill, the less hard the brain appears to work.
Yet this neuromania pervades the culture, supplying consumers craving certainty the illusion of simple black-and-white answers to their many shades of gray psychic distress.
For example, the other day I watched the Dr. Oz Show, a daily television program focusing on medical issues and personal health launched by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions and Sony Pictures. Dr. Mehmet Oz is a cardiac surgeon, and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University. I watched Dr. Oz interview child and adult psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen on the topic: “Your Brain: Up Close and Personal.” Dr. Amen runs the many national outlets called Amen Clinics (sounds religious) in Newport Beach, California; San Francisco, California; Bellevue, Washington; Reston, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia; and New York, NY.
According to Satel and Lilienfeld:
…Daniel Amen, oversees an empire that includes book publishing, television shows, and a line of nutritional supplements. Single photon emission computer tomography, SPECT, a nuclear-imaging technique that measure blood flow, is the type of scan favored by Amen. His clinics charge over three thousand dollars for an assessment…he grossed over 20 million in 2011…There is near universal agreement among psychologists and psychiatrists that Amen’s scans cannot diagnose mental illness.
In another chapter, Satel and Lilienfeld focus on neuromarketing --- a field with a long history. Using consumer motivational research, depth psychology and subliminal tactics to manipulate expectations and induce desire for products was the theme of Vance Packard’s (I read it in high school) classic book on advertising, “The Hidden Persuaders,” published in 1957. Now, enter the fMRI and marketing. Some neuromarketers sell the idea that focus groups are not a reliable means to find out what consumers like or what they are going to buy. Instead of asking people about their buying preferences, neuromarketers bypass the conscious mind and go straight to analyzing fMRI’s of consumers to determine both their unconscious desires and decision making processes.
Satel’s specialty is treating drug addicts. She is frustrated with the accepted definition of addiction as a chronic and relapsing brain disease. To treat drug addicts, Satel reminds us, we must help them change their behavior and cravings for drugs. To do this, we appeal to their desire and motivation for change. To call something a disease implies there is a medication to stop the disease process. There is no such medication for drug addicts --- and for many other mental maladies. Drug addicts sometimes respond to incentives to change. People with disease are not able to reverse their disease voluntarily. To treat drug addicts, we have to understand minds.
In their last chapter, Satel and Lilienfeld turn their attention to neuroscience and moral responsibility. They wonder if advances in neuroscience bring us closer to solving the age-old dilemma of how much of our behavior is determined and how much is the result of our free will. As Satel and Lilienfeld note, the proper use of reason is to recognize reason’s limitations. Neuroscience does not bring us closer to understanding this predicament.
We do have a choice about learning from neuroscience and accepting the limits of our new technology, without throwing out our minds with the brain water. We remain mystified about how the water of the brain becomes the wine of self-consciousness. Our limits spring from the mystery of the generation of consciousness, the basic experience of humans on which our social and personal relationships rest. We do not understand how consciousness is produced, nor do we understand its full potential.
I believe I made a free choice to read Satel and Lilienfield’s superb book, but maybe the writer Issac Bashevis Singer is on to something when he says:
We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice.
Notes:
(1) Kagan, Jerome. The Human Spark. The Science of Human Development. New York: Basic Books, 2013.
by Steven J. Ceresnie, Ph.D.
Psychologist
Top reviews from other countries
Monica TomlinsonReviewed in Canada on October 11, 20145.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book.
This book is timely, consequential, and innovative. An excellent book.
TenzinReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 20145.0 out of 5 stars Well done in the areas examined.
Well written with a dry sense of humor. I do wish they had gone more into the meditation/mindfulness research. I suspect that there is some oversell there also.
A. VolkReviewed in Canada on August 3, 20134.0 out of 5 stars Dose of reality for those unaware of actual neuroscience research
The premise of Brainwashed is quite simple- the results of neuroscientific studies are often exaggerated, misunderstood, or misapplied. For anyone who is familiar with the research literature, that's not a shock. The book looks at several areas of "neurohype" in particular: causal claims of brain imaging (fMRI mostly, some EEG and other techniques are rightfully included), neuroscience advertising, addiction, lie-detecting, legal culpability, and morality. These areas reflect the authors' forensic inclinations as there are certainly other areas where neuroscience is overly hyped-up. The authors are clear that they are not against the majority of neuroscientific research that is conducted and reported responsibly. Instead, they are against those who overinflate the applied implications of neuroscience in general and fMRIs in particular. For these reasons, it's a very worthwhile book as it reminds us that brain science, while tremendously important, is still very much in its infancy.
The negative side to this book is that it wanders a fair bit into territories of general philosophy, cognitive (mind, not brain) science, general psychology, and even anecdotal evidence. In some ways then, I find the book is lacking in breadth. In other ways, it's lacking in depth. At only 150 pages, that's not surprising (although there are quite a few references). So for anyone looking for a detailed and broad critical examination of neuroscience as a field, this isn't it. As I mentioned, most of the criticisms are aimed solely at neuroimaging studies. That doesn't make this book useless, it simply means that one must take the author's advice and be cautious about over-extending any conclusions from the book.
Overall then, I think this is a good book for the general public as well as for researchers. Particularly for researchers, it may not radically alter your view of neuroscience, but it is a healthy reminder of the need to both better understand as well as to be generally skeptical of all research. Neuroscience does not get a free pass in this regard simply because it studies the brain. With that advice in mind, I think this is a solid 4-star book.
Dr. D. Lewis-hodgsonReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 20134.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and balanced
I approached this critical review of what some have termed 'neuromania' with trepidation. What value could one place, I wondered, on the views of two authors who, despite their manifest intelligence, are specialists in neither neuroscience or marketing. I expected a rant. Instead I was delighted to discover a largely balanced and thoughtful review of this rapidly developing field. Satel and Lilienfeld express sensible reservations about the claims by some neuromarketers, reservations I share. I also agree that neuromarketing has become a 'band waggon' on which some 'smoke and mirror' merchants have hitched a ride. Indeed as the first researcher in the UK, and probably the second in the world, to explore the potential of EEG as a market research tool, I have been amazed at the speed with which interest in the topic has developed since 2000. In 1990 when I published the results of my analysis of TV commercials no one showed the slightest interest. Indeed a spokesperson for Millward Brown, one of the world's largest market research companies, dismissed out of hand the very idea that neuroscience could add anything useful to traditional techniques. It may have taken twenty years but my how times have changed!
Two small cavets on an otherwise interesting, balanced and readable book. I am quoted (page 26) as commenting that 'consumer choice is an inescapable biological process'. Unless one is a dualist, this was I would have thought fairly obvious and non-controversial. The context in which this remark is set, however, makes it appear that I am among those who 'lean heavily on hype.' I do not and have never done so, as I make clear in my forthcoming book The Brain Sell. Secondly, Neuroco was taken over by Neurofocus some six years ago. More thorough research would have revealed this fact and avoided the use of the present tense when describing a long defunct company.
Ernest PryorReviewed in the United Kingdom on March 8, 20165.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
bought it for academic reasons






