36 Jan De Vos
personal, emotional level to get the message across. Hence this would
mean that, in relation to the psychology textbooks, we learn psychology
and neuroscience in a psychologizing way!
At the very least, should we not ask: if textbooks pose as glossies and
easy going infotainment are we not heading to a kind of “teaching light” or
“education light”? And if so, where will this commodification if not
outright infantilization of higher education lead? If textbooks take students
by their hand, then psychology textbooks seem the ultimate example of
“the good mother”, giving you guidance and life advice. Or would it be
that after all, as my dean of psychology suggested, this is what a lot of
psychology students are after? “Don’t hide in your room or apartment—
seek out social interaction (except when it interferes with studying).
Remember, the brain thrives on social stimulation” (Hockenbury et al.,
2015, p. 81).
What moreover should not remain unnoticed here – again the issue
hidden in plain sight – is that the students are prompted to have social
interaction, not because it’s nice to have, but because it’s good for their
brain! So go to that party, even when the company does not interest you, it
will stimulate your brain! Before the neuroturn your parents and the psy-
experts prompted you to go out and meet people because it was good for
you, or good for your social development, now the target of social
stimulation is the “soft, spongy, mottled, and pinkish-gray”^5 thing in your
head. But, while the brain thus is your precious agalma that you should
train and take care of, is this in the end not being pictured as something
outside of, or at least external to, yourself? That is, when you should (and
shouldn’t) do a lot of things just for your brain, you yourself are in the end
the issue that drops out of the equation:
“Learn to play a musical instrument. If you can’t afford music
lessons, join a singing group or choir.” (Hockenbury et al., 2015, p. 81)What is the message here? Don’t worry if you are poor! So you are not
prompted to use your brain to get out of poverty or, even, to change your
(^5) Such is the brain described in Feldmann (2015, p. 68).