Resumo

ZAMBENEDETTI, Gustavo. Media and the process of spraying of the figure of the cerebral subject. Rev. Mal-Estar Subj [online]. 2012, vol.12, n.1-2, pp.73-99. ISSN 1518-6148.

The term "cerebral subject" refers to a way of expressing one's relationship with oneself. It express a contemporary modes of subjectivation, which has the brain as reference to the sense of identity, and to define who people are and what / how they should be. The goal of this study is to analyze how the figure of the cerebral subject is conveyed in the media, taking as analyzers stories presented in two Brazilian TV news programs. It is understood that the reports conveyed in the TV programs show how scientific-academic language is aggregated to daily life, providing a spraying and naturalization of the figure of the cerebral subject. From the perspective of the ontology of the present, outlined by Michel Foucault, it is proposed to interchange, from an evidence position to a questioning one, what the reports convey. In examining reports that show what happens in the brain as an "explanation" for behavior and mental disorders, it is discussed the ambiguous meaning of the "explanation" term, as well as the difference between the brain understood as a cause of a particular phenomenon or a condition of possibility for it to happen. Based on three stories that show differences or similarities of heterosexuals' and homosexuals' brains; pedophiles' and not pedophiles'; and psychopaths' and non-psychopaths', it is discussed the demarcations between facts and the assignment of values to these facts, as well as possible confusion effects of the two processes. It is also presented a set of stories where the brain appears as an explanatory matrix for quite different phenomena, indicating the movement of widespread spraying of the figure of cerebral subject. A political position that does not ignore the advances of neuroscience and the importance of the brain as one model to explain certain phenomena, but that challenges the fetishization and autonomization of such model, is embraced, pointing out the risks of such processes.

Palavras-chave : Cerebral subject; neurochemical self; subjectivation; media; social psychology.

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