Neuroreductionism: “the tendency to perceive human experiences as valid or genuine only when they can be linked to measurable brain activity”

In Reason, Stanton Peele is skeptical that brain studies can tell us much about the nature of addiction: “Addiction is a specific involvement a person forms in a particular period in his life. Nothing more scientific can be said than that.”

I once heard a scientist – can’t remember who – say that interpreting brain-imaging scans is like looking down from an airplane at night and trying to figure out what people are talking about in their living rooms by interpreting the pattern of the lights.