Neurotechnologies of the Self

Taking care of oneself is increasingly interpreted as taking care of one's brain. Apart from pills, books, food, and games for a better brain, people can also use neurotechnologies for self-improvement. This book explores how the use of brain devices to understand or improve the self changes people's subjectivity.
This book describes how the effects of several brain devices were and are demonstrated; how brains and selves interact in the work of early brainwave scientists and contemporary practitioners; how users of neurofeedback (brainwave training) constitute a new mode of self that is extended with a brain and various other (physiological, psychological, material, and sometimes spiritual) entities, and; how clients, practitioners and other actors (computers, brain maps, brainwaves) perform a dance of agency during the neurofeedback process. Through these topics, Jonna Brenninkmeijer provides a historical, ethnographical, and theoretical exploration ofthe mode of being that is constituted when people use a brain device to improve themselves.

Brenninkmeijer (Univ. of Groningen, Netherlands) explores electronic brain therapies with the primary focus on neurofeedback. This book is as much about philosophy as it is a review of neurotechnologies. This book is for those delving into the philosophy of caring for one's brain. (J. Swiatek, Choice, Vol. 54 (6), February, 2017)

Autorentext
Jonna Brenninkmeijer works at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. She previously conducted her doctoral research at the University of Groningen, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK, and at the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Inhalt
Preface.- Chapter 1. Brain Devices and the Marvel.- Chapter 2.- Glancing Behind the Scenes.- Chapter 3. Taking Care of One's Brain.- Intermezzo: From Self to Others to Agents.- Chapter 4. Neurofeedback as a Dance of Agency.- Chapter 5. Reflection and Conclusion.- Summary.