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Sexualized Brains
Sexualized Brains
Scientifi c Modeling of Emotional Intelligence from a Cultural Perspective
edited by Nicole C. Karafyllis and Gotlind Ulshöfer
A Bradford Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or
mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval)
without permission in writing from the publisher.
MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional
use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales
Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142.
This book was set in Stone sans & Stone serif by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed
and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sexualized brains : scientifi c modeling of emotional intelligence from a cultural perspective /
edited by Nicole C. Karafyllis and Gotlind Ulshöfer.
p. cm.
“A Bradford Book”.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-11317-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Sex differences (Psychology) 2. Sex role–
Psychological aspects. 3. Emotional intelligence. I. Karafyllis, Nicole C., 1970– II. Ulshöfer,
Gotlind, 1967–
BF692.2.S497 2008
155.3′3—dc22
2008008736
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to Simone de Beauvoir, on the one hundredth anniversary of her birthday (January
9, 1908).
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
List of Abbreviations xv
1 Introduction: Intelligent Emotions and Sexualized Brains—Discourses, Scientifi c
Models, and Their Interdependencies 1
Nicole C. Karafyllis and Gotlind Ulshöfer
I Historical Analysis: Cultural and Scientifi c Forces
2 Genius, Gender, and Elite in the History of the Neurosciences 53
Michael Hagner
3 The Biosexual Foundations of Our Modern Concept of Gender 69
Robert A. Nye
4 Emotional Styles and Modern Forms of Life 81
William M. Reddy
II Emotions in the Laboratories: Methods and Impacts
5 Technology Assessment of Neuroimaging: Sex and Gender Perspectives 103
Bärbel Hüsing
6 Emotional Intelligence, Professional Qualifi cations, and Psychologists’ Need for
Gender Research 117
Myriam N. Bechtoldt
7 Emotional Intelligence as Pop Science, Misled Science, and
Sound Science: A Review and Critical Synthesis of Perspectives from
the Field of Psychology 131
Carolyn MacCann, Ralf Schulze, Gerald Matthews, Moshe Zeidner, and
Richard D. Roberts
viii Contents
III Socioeconomic Contexts: Emotional Brains at Work
8 Emotional Capital, Therapeutic Language, and the Habitus of
“The New Man” 151
Eva Illouz
9 Technologies of the Emotional Self: Affective Computing and the “Enhanced
Second Skin” for Flexible Employees 179
Carmen Baumeler
10 The Economic Brain: Neuroeconomics and “Post-Autistic Economics” through
the Lens of Gender 191
Gotlind Ulshöfer
IV Self-Representations: The Human Person and Her Emotional Media
11 Emotional Intelligence at the Interface of Brain Function, Communication, and
Culture: The Role of Media Aesthetics in Shaping Empathy 221
Kathrin Fahlenbrach and Anne Bartsch
12 Oneself as Another? Autism and Emotional Intelligence as Pop Science, and the
Establishment of “Essential” Differences 237
Nicole C. Karafyllis
13 Social Emotions and Brain Research: From Neurophilosophy to a
Neurosociology of Law 317
Malte-Christian Gruber
References 329
About the Authors 391
Name Index 399
Subject Index 405
Preface
Our title promises an interdisciplinary inquiry into the role of scientifi c research on
emotions and its cultural implications in a broad sense. Scientifi c culture has a long
history of creating the brain as an epistemic object, and science has always intermin-
gled with the life worlds beyond the laboratory’s boundaries and shaped practices and
ideas. But now, some new developments have prompted us to ask new questions,
foremost among them those concerning gender and elite issues—because at present,
we observe a fundamental (hetero)sexualization of the brain, which is based on
neuroscientifi c research on emotions and neuroimages of emotions. Other than the
rational capacities of the human (usually male) brain, a person’s emotional compo-
nents were long considered to be diffuse properties open to all sexes and gender roles.
However, in light of cognitive science research, emotions have acquired cognitive
content and thus serve certain functions—for example, in the workplace, for mating,
for raising children. The central aim of this book is to elucidate the different architec-
tures of means and ends, in which emotions are scientifi cally and culturally imple-
mented and according to which they are transmuted into actions and policies.
The idea that emotions have an intelligent core (and vice versa: that intelligence
has an emotional core) was triggered by both the neurosciences and psychology, but
it recently became popular because of a specifi c cultural climate. This is also true of
the new interest in “essential differences” of male and female brains and behaviors.
The book offers a thorough analysis and critical refl ection upon both discourse fi elds
and the scientifi c models underlying these new developments.
The editors’ Introduction provides transdisciplinary insight into the basic concepts
(e.g., sex, gender, elite, brain, emotion) involved in the neuroscientifi c discourses and
the ones on emotional intelligence (EI), preparing the reader for the chapters that
follow and showing the cultural range of neuroscientifi c impact. It also explains why
these fi elds of expertise, and their experts, were chosen to investigate the intercon-
nected models and discourses of EI, sexualized brains, and emotions research. Outlin-
ing the goal envisioned, the development of a cultural philosophy of science that takes
“brains” (strictly speaking: persons) and meanings inside and outside the laboratory
