Research Article

Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization

Number: 2 October 1, 2018
  • Jan De Vos

Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization

Abstract

This paper will not be about understanding digital culture or digital (inter) subjectivity with the help of (neuro)psychology. Rather, it will look critically into how (neuro)psychological models are used precisely in modelling our avatars and smart environments, today’s placeholders of (inter)subjectivity. So instead of “Your brain on digital: How digitalization is shaping our brains”, I choose for another approach informed by critical theory and psychoanalytic critique: “How neuropsychological models shape digitality”. Hence, if anything, the digitalization of (inter)subjectivity rather than be assessed with (neuro) psychology should be connected to the psychologization and neurologization of (inter)subjectivity. From here the key question becomes, if current (neuro) psychological models allow for a technology with limited emancipatory potential (in which datafication equals the capitalist exploitation of intersubjectivity), would then a different psychology open up to something different? Hence, would the following be a viable question: which subject for the digital?

Keywords

References

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  2. Althusser, L. (2006). “Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towardsan investigation)”. S. Aradhana and G. Akhil (eds.). The Anthropology of the State: A Reader. (86-111).
  3. Arendt, H. (1958). The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  4. BAW. (2018). Brain Awareness Week (BAW). http://dana.org/BAW/.
  5. Berry, D. M. and Beer, D. (2014). “Interview with David Berry on Digital Power and
  6. Critical Theory”. Theory, Culture & Society. http://www.theoryculturesociety.org/interview-with-david-berry-on-digital-power-and-critical-theory/.1 May 2014.
  7. Berry, D. M. and Galloway, A. R. (2016). “A Network is a Network is a Network: Reflections on the Computational and the Societies of Control”. Theory,Culture & Society. 33(4). 151-172.
  8. Cadwalladr, C. (2018). “The Cambridge Analytica Files. ‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower”. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Communication and Media Studies

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Jan De Vos This is me

Publication Date

October 1, 2018

Submission Date

August 1, 2018

Acceptance Date

-

Published in Issue

Year 2018 Number: 2

APA
De Vos, J. (2018). Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization. Etkileşim, 2, 20-34. https://doi.org/10.32739/etkilesim.2018.2.26
AMA
1.De Vos J. Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization. Etkileşim. 2018;(2):20-34. doi:10.32739/etkilesim.2018.2.26
Chicago
De Vos, Jan. 2018. “Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization”. Etkileşim, nos. 2: 20-34. https://doi.org/10.32739/etkilesim.2018.2.26.
EndNote
De Vos J (October 1, 2018) Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization. Etkileşim 2 20–34.
IEEE
[1]J. De Vos, “Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization”, Etkileşim, no. 2, pp. 20–34, Oct. 2018, doi: 10.32739/etkilesim.2018.2.26.
ISNAD
De Vos, Jan. “Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization”. Etkileşim. 2 (October 1, 2018): 20-34. https://doi.org/10.32739/etkilesim.2018.2.26.
JAMA
1.De Vos J. Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization. Etkileşim. 2018;:20–34.
MLA
De Vos, Jan. “Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization”. Etkileşim, no. 2, Oct. 2018, pp. 20-34, doi:10.32739/etkilesim.2018.2.26.
Vancouver
1.Jan De Vos. Which Subject for the Digital?: A Critique of Digitalization’s Roots in (Neuro)Psychologization. Etkileşim. 2018 Oct. 1;(2):20-34. doi:10.32739/etkilesim.2018.2.26

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