Walter Glannon: Psychiatric neuroethics: studies in research and practice
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Walter Glannon: Psychiatric neuroethics: studies in research and practice Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019, 408 pp, $44.95, ISBN: 978-0-19-87885-3 Mirko Daniel Garasic1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Walter Glannon is one of the most representative scholars of the recently established field of neuroethics [1]; hence a book of his deserves the attention of anyone interested in the subject. In fact, the author provides such a rigorous and well-written scientific exploration of the philosophical challenges accompanying our increasing knowledge of the brain that even experts from the neighboring fields in which he engages—from political philosophy to law to psychiatry—should consider reading Psychiatric Neuroethics: Studies in Research and Practice for their own professional growth and teaching. Organizationally speaking, the volume is divided into two parts. The first addresses the ways in which psychiatric disorders affect human behavior and thought; the second is centered on the different techniques and tools that are available (or might be in the near future) for psychiatric interventions—at times even preventing psychiatric disorders from developing in the first place. He is not reductionist, and he does not want his readers to believe that the solution to psychiatric disorders is to be found only in such techniques—be they psychopharmacological intervention, neuromodulation, or neurosurgery. However, he convincingly shows that neuroscience offers tools to better understand how people function and, in this way, can at times help them to “fix” themselves. The exploratory landscape that the book covers is vast, so I will limit myself to highlight only a few specific points of the many fascinating and deeply researched ones put forth by the author throughout these chapters. To start, in the fifth chapter of the book, “Neuromodulation: Control, Identity, and Justice,” Glannon engages with challenges related to the implementation of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and the use of this invasive—and yet promising in many respects—technology as a way of restoring autonomy. The author is certainly conscious of the * Mirko Daniel Garasic [email protected] 1
LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
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problems implicated by large-scale application of this form of neuromodulation. Not only is it more invasive than a drug insofar as the neural implant remains in one’s brain indefinitely, but it also carries with it certain novel considerations. For example, there are concerns that the implant could be hacked (or “channeled” in a way that is not representative of the patient’s autonomous choice) or that it could malfunction in ways that make it difficult for the law to assess whether and how a person is responsible for a given action, and there are questions about the continuity of the agent more broadly. These are issues that have received attention elsewhere [2, 3] and that advancements in neuroscience could help to mitigate. Such considerations would have an enormous legal and ethical impact, a
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