A New Lease on Life: A Lacanian Analysis of Cognitive Enhancement Cinema.

Abstract

The brain is a fascinating object, both in science and in cinema. Brain movies often focus on cognitive enhancement, involving either neuro-pharmaceuticals or neuro-devices. What is so fascinating about these movies? What are they telling us about contemporary society, cognitive capitalism, technology discontent and shifting gender roles? I will opt for a case study approach, focussing on a recent cognitive enhancement movie, namely Limitless (2011). It tells the story of a tormented author suffering from a writer’s block, and stages a quest for self-enhancement in an era of fierce social competition, when human neural biochemistry is opened up for pharmaceutical tinkering. Limitless will be analysed from a psychoanalytic, Lacanian perspective, but in a way that is accessible for non-adepts.

Keywords: Brain research, brain cinema, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Philosophy of the life sciences, Cinema studies