Psychosomatic

Wilson Elizabeth A. Wilson

Description

How can scientific theories contribute to contemporary accounts of embodiment in the humanities and social sciences? In particular, how does neuroscientific research facilitate new approaches to theories of mind and body? Feminists have frequently criticized the neurosciences for biological reductionism, yet, Elizabeth A. Wilson argues, neurological theories—especially certain accounts of depression, sexuality, and emotion—are useful to feminist theories of the body. Rather than pointing toward the conventionalizing tendencies of the neurosciences, Wilson emphasizes their capacity for reinvention and transformation. Focusing on the details of neuronal connections, subcortical pathways, and reflex actions, she suggests that the central and peripheral nervous systems are powerfully allied with sexuality, the affects, emotional states, cognitive appetites, and other organs and bodies in ways not fully appreciated in the feminist literature. Whether reflecting on Simon LeVay’s hypothesis about the brains of gay men, Peter Kramer’s model of depression, or Charles Darwin’s account of trembling and blushing, Wilson is able to show how the neurosciences can be used to reinvigorate feminist theories of the body.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 16 juin 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822386384
• Langue: English

Extrait

p s y c h o s o m a t i c

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e l i z a b e t h a . w i l s o n

P S Y C H O S O M A T I C

Feminism and the Neurological Body

Duke University Press

Durham / London 2004

∫2004 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$ Typeset in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data appear on the last printed page of this book.

Instead of talking about the natural and the unnatural—or even nature and culture— we can talk about the parts of nature we prefer and why we prefer them.—Adam Phillips, Darwin’s Worms

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C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments

ix

Introduction: Somatic Compliance

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Freud, Prozac, and Melancholic Neurology

The Brain in the Gut

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Hypothalamic Preference: LeVay’s Study of Sexual Orientation

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Trembling, Blushing: Darwin’s Nervous System

Emotional Lizards: Evolution and the Reptilian Brain 79

Notes

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References

Index

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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ This book was written under the auspices of an Austra- lian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, held in the Research In- stitute for Humanities and Social Sciences (rihss) at the University of Sydney. My thanks to Paul Patton, Margaret Harris, Rowanne Couch, and Melissa McMahon for their support atrihss. It has been an exemplary research environment, and a happy place to work. Sydney continues to give me wonderful intellectual allies, especially Helen Keane, Vicki Kirby, Elizabeth McMahon, Robert Reynolds, and Vanessa Smith. Peta Allen Shera did great research work for me. During the writing of this book I was a member of the Silvan Tomkins Research Group in Syd- ney; I have learned many good things in the company of Maria Angel, Susan Best, Anna Gibbs, Melissa Hardie, Doris McIlwain, and Gillian Straker. Isobel Pegrum has been the most wonderful friend, and Jeanette Martin has made all the good things better. In the United States and the United Kingdom I am grateful to Karen Barad, Penelope Deutscher, Richard Doyle, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Michael Fortun, Mariam Fraser, Marsha Rosengarten, Susan Squier, and Elizabeth Weed, who have responded to my work generously and have invited me into their workplaces and oftentimes their homes. They have made my intellec- tual world richer and more emotionally substantial. Much of the material in this book was test-driven at the annual conferences of the Society for Litera- ture and Science. Thesls has been an important source of intellectual encouragement for me over many years; many thanks to my colleagues and friends atslsfor their hospitality. Reynolds Smith at Duke University Press