The neoliberal leaning of the neuroscience discourse when it deals with mental health and learning disorders.
Neurobiol Dis
; 199: 106544, 2024 Sep.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38823458
ABSTRACT
Neuroscience attracted increasing attention in mass media during the last decades. Indeed, neuroscience advances raise high expectations in society concerning major societal issues such as mental health and learning difficulties. Unfortunately, according to leading experts, neuroscience advances have not yet benefited patients, students and socially deprived families. Yet, neuroscience findings are widely overstated and misrepresented in the media. Academic studies, briefly described here, showed that most data misrepresentations were already present in the neuroscience literature before spreading in mass media. This triumphalist neuroscience discourse reinforces a neuro-essentialist conception of mental disorders and of learning difficulties. By emphasizing brain plasticity, this discourse fuels the neoliberal ethics that overvalue autonomy, rationality, flexibility and individual responsibility. According to this unrealistic rhetoric, neuroscience-based techniques will soon bring inexpensive private solutions to enduring social problems. When considering the social consequences of this rhetoric, neuroscientists should refrain from overstating the interpretation of their observations in their scientific publications and in their exchanges with journalists.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Neurociencias
/
Discapacidades para el Aprendizaje
/
Trastornos Mentales
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article