Uma neuro-weltanschauung? Fisicalismo e subjetividade na divulgação de doenças e medicamentos do cérebro

Abstract

Of all the organs of the human body, the brain is taken today as the one that defines our personal identity. A 'serotonin language' is used to explain a wide range of symptoms, including moods such as 'depression' and 'anxiety,' and has now become part of everyday discourse. The literature indicates the contemporary emergence of a 'cerebral subject' where the frontiers between mind and brain become blurred. Every year, pharmaceutical labs invest millions of dollars in marketing drugs designed to treat so-called mental-cerebral disorders. Part of this investment is focused not on marketing the products but the diseases themselves. The aim of this article is to examine the notion of 'person' contained in this material, where the 'cerebral subject' paradigm goes hand-in-hand with physico-moral imagery.