AP/ANTH 4570 3.00 The Brain, Self and Society

This upper-year seminar course explores sociocultural perspectives on the brain, self, and society. Drawing on anthropological theories and methodologies, we will investigate how the brain and the self are understood, experienced, and transformed in global and local contexts. The brain, mind, and soul are often considered fundamental elements of defining human beings. By paying attention to beliefs, norms, and power, we will explore how culture and society shape the experiences and meanings of brains and selves through institutional structures and everyday relationships. To do this, we will familiarize ourselves with anthropological research on the relationship between the self and the mind/body relationship. We will then explore the interplay between the brain, self, and society within the context of mental illness and health. Through close reading, analysis, and discussion of theoretical and ethnographic texts, we will examine how the social elements of gender, race, and class map onto powerful institutions and modes of understanding in psychiatry, medicine, and other spaces of treatment and care. We will assess how these institutions and modes of understanding the brain, self, and society shape and limit personhood and subjectivity as people navigate complex and often violent experiences of mental illness, health and healing, addiction, treatment, and care.

Cross-listed: AP/SOSC 4145 3.0 A

Course Director: M. Evans - mgb.evans@yorku.ca