Definitions by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal

Neurotransmitterism

A secular neuroscientist religion that reduces all mental states, emotions, and even social phenomena to the action of specific neurotransmitters: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, oxytocin. It treats low serotonin as the cause of depression (ignoring context, biography, power), dopamine as the basis of reward (ignoring meaning), and oxytocin as “the love molecule” (ignoring complex social bonds). Neurotransmitterism sells quick fixes (SSRIs for sadness, dopamine detox for distraction) and offers a tidy, materialist explanation for messy human life. Critics call it “chemical reductionism” and note that correlation is not causation.

Neurotransmitterism Example: “The neurotransmitterist explained her grief as ‘low serotonin’ and prescribed pills, ignoring the death of her child. He reduced a unique, meaningful loss to a chemical imbalance.”

Neurotransmitterism by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 5, 2026

Neuroscientism

A variant of scientism that elevates neuroscience to the supreme epistemic authority. It holds that brain scans reveal ultimate truth about values, beliefs, and even truth itself. Neuroscientism often reduces mental states to neural states, dismisses first‑person experience as “subjective,” and claims that morality can be grounded in brain chemistry. It is a secular religion with its own iconography (colored brain scans), its creation myth (evolution of the brain), and its eschatology (uploading consciousness). Critics argue it commits the mereological fallacy (confusing the part for the whole) and ignores the social and embodied dimensions of mind.

Neuroscientism Example: “The neuroscientism follower claimed that fMRI proves altruism doesn’t exist—only reward circuits lighting up. He ignored that the brain scan was of people doing altruistic acts. The act was real; the reduction was ideology.”

Neuroscientism by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 5, 2026

Scientism

The belief that science is not just a valuable method for understanding the natural world, but the only source of genuine knowledge, the ultimate arbiter of truth, and a comprehensive worldview that can replace philosophy, religion, and art. In its secular‑religious form, scientism has dogmas (methodological naturalism, reductionism, materialism), sacred texts (popular science books), high priests (celebrity scientists), and rituals (worship of peer review). It also has an eschatology: salvation through technology. Critics argue that scientism is self‑refuting, because its core claim—that only science produces knowledge—cannot itself be proven by science. It is a faith, not a science.

Scientism Example: “The scientism devotee declared that ‘science has answered all important questions’ and that anyone who reads poetry for meaning is ‘irrational.’ He was practicing a religion, not science.”

Scientism by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 5, 2026

Cognitomania

The cognitive science version of Neuromania: the belief that cognition—often modeled as computation or information processing—is the master key to explaining mind, behavior, and society. Cognitomania reduces all mental phenomena to algorithms, heuristics, and biases, and insists that cognitive science will eventually replace psychology, sociology, and even philosophy. It is common in AI hype, where human thinking is treated as a buggy version of machine logic. Critics argue that it neglects embodiment, emotion, culture, and the material conditions of cognition. It also tends to universalize Western individualist models as the norm for all human thinking.

Example: “The cognitomaniac insisted that ‘reasoning is just Bayesian updating’ and that all cultural differences in decision‑making are ‘performance errors.’ He couldn’t see that rationality itself is culturally shaped.”

Cognitomania by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 5, 2026

Psychomania

The psychological and psychiatric version of Neuromania: the belief that all human experience, behavior, and social phenomena can be reduced to psychological mechanisms, diagnostic categories, or therapeutic frameworks. It manifests in over‑diagnosis (every quirk is a disorder), in the psychologization of politics (“voters are irrational because of cognitive biases”), and in the claim that all problems are ultimately mental health problems. Psychomania ignores structural, economic, and cultural factors, attributing poverty to “learned helplessness” and oppression to “trauma.” Critics argue it pathologizes normal human variation and shifts focus from social change to individual adjustment. It is a form of therapeutic authoritarianism.

Psychomania Example: “The psychomaniac explained student debt as a ‘symptom of poor financial impulse control’ and prescribed therapy, ignoring decades of tuition inflation and wage stagnation. Everything was a diagnosis.”

Psychomania by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 5, 2026

Neuromania

A critical term for the excessive, uncritical faith that all human phenomena—consciousness, emotion, social behavior, morality, art, love—can be fully explained by brain activity, and that neuroscience is the ultimate arbiter of truth about human nature. Neuromania manifests in pop‑science headlines (“Your brain on love”), in reductionist claims that “you are your brain,” and in the dismissal of psychological, social, or cultural explanations as mere “folk psychology.” Critics argue that neuromania confuses correlation with causation, ignores the embodied and embedded nature of cognition, and reduces persons to neural firing patterns. It is a form of neurocentrism that grants neuroscience a monopoly on legitimate knowledge about the mind. While neuroscience is valuable, neuromania treats it as a secular theology.

Example: “The neuromaniac declared that ‘anger is just serotonin and amygdala activation,’ ignoring the abusive relationship history that gave the anger its meaning. He reduced a life story to neurotransmitter levels.”

Neuromania by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 5, 2026

Dialectical Science Theory

A meta‑scientific framework inspired by Marxist dialectics, applied to the philosophy and practice of science. It holds that scientific knowledge develops through the clash of contradictory theories (thesis vs. antithesis) producing a higher synthesis. It emphasizes that contradictions are not errors but engines of progress. It also insists that science cannot be separated from its material and social context; scientific facts are produced within historical relations of production. Dialectical Science Theory challenges both positivist (facts are independent) and postmodernist (facts are mere discourse) extremes, offering a materialist, processual, and contradictory account of scientific change.

Dialectical Science Theory Example: “Dialectical science theory explains the shift from classical to quantum mechanics not as a peaceful accumulation of facts, but as a contradiction between experimental anomalies and old theory, resolved by a revolutionary synthesis that retained partial truths from both sides.”

Dialectical Science Theory by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 1, 2026