Neuromania
A critical term coined by certain philosophers and psychologists (e.g., Raymond Tallis) to designate the contemporary craze or obsession with explaining every aspect of human experience—love, art, morality, religion, consciousness—exclusively through brain activity. Neuromania reduces the human being to their brain, ignoring the body, environment, culture, and personal history. It is a form of neuroscientific imperialism that promises to “unveil the mysteries of the soul” with fMRI, but often produces trivial or circular explanations. Critics point out that neuromania is an academic and media fad that lends a scientific aura to commonplaces. It mistakes correlation for causation and confuses necessary neural conditions with sufficient psychological explanations.
NeuromaniaExample: “A columnist wrote: ‘Passion doesn’t exist – it’s just dopaminergic neurons in the nucleus accumbens.’ A psychologist replied: ‘That’s neuromania: you explained the brain chemistry, but said nothing about the meaning of love.’”
Neuromania by Abzu Land May 27, 2026
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