Elizabeth A. Wilson

In Gut Feminism Elizabeth A. Wilson urges feminists to rethink their resistance to biological and pharmaceutical data. Turning her attention to the gut and depression, she asks what conceptual and methodological innovations become possible when feminist theory isn’t so instinctively antibiological. She examines research on anti-depressants, placebos, transference, phantasy, eating disorders and suicidality with two goals in mind: to show how pharmaceutical data can be useful for feminist theory, and to address the necessary role of aggression in feminist politics. Gut Feminism’s provocative challenge to feminist theory is that it would be more powerful if it could attend to biological data and tolerate its own capacity for harm.

Gut Feminism

Adam J. Frank

An accessible guide to the work of American psychologist and affect theorist Silvan Tomkins The brilliant and complex theories of psychologist Silvan Tomkins (1911–1991) have inspired the turn to affect in the humanities, social sciences, and elsewhere. Nevertheless, these theories are not well understood. A Silvan Tomkins Handbook makes his theories portable across a range of interdisciplinary contexts and accessible to a wide variety of contemporary scholars and students of affect. A Silvan Tomkins Handbook provides readers with a clear outline of Tomkins’s affect theory as he developed it in his four-volume masterwork Affect Imagery Consciousness. It shows how his key terms and conceptual innovations can be used to build robust frameworks for theorizing affect and emotion. In addition to clarifying his affect theory, the Handbook emphasizes Tomkins’s other significant contributions, from his broad theories of imagery and consciousness to more focused concepts of scenes and scripts. With their extensive experience engaging and teaching Tomkins’s work, Adam J. Frank and Elizabeth A. Wilson provide a user-friendly guide for readers who want to know more about the foundations of affect studies.

Foundations for Affect Theory

A Silvan Tomkins Handbook

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Feminism and the Microstructure of Cognition

Neural Geographies

In Eingeweide, Pillen, Feminismus fordert Elizabeth A. Wilson Feministinnen auf, ihre ablehnende Haltung gegenüber biologischen und pharmazeutischen Daten zu überdenken. Sie stellt die Frage, welches begriffliche und methodische Neuland sich die feministische Theorie erschliessen kann, indem sie sich der Biologie gegenüber weniger instinktiv ablehnend verhält. Wilson nimmt sich Forschungen zu Antidepressiva, Placebos, Übertragung, Fantasie, Essstörungen und Suizidneigungen vor, um zwei Punkte herauszuarbeiten: inwieweit pharmazeutische und biologische Daten der feministischen Theorie nutzen können und welchen unverzichtbaren Stellenwert Aggression in der feministischen Politik hat. Eingeweide, Pillen, Feminismus provoziert die feministische Theoriebildung mit der Behauptung, dass sie wirksamer wäre, wenn sie sich mit biologischen Daten auseinandersetzen und ihr eigenes aggressives Potenzial zulassen könnte.

Eingeweide, Pillen, Feminismus

How can scientific theories contribute to contemporary accounts of embodiment in the humanities and social sciences? In particular, how does neuroscientific research facilitate new approaches to theories of mind and body? Feminists have frequently criticized the neurosciences for biological reductionism, yet, Elizabeth A. Wilson argues, neurological theories—especially certain accounts of depression, sexuality, and emotion—are useful to feminist theories of the body. Rather than pointing toward the conventionalizing tendencies of the neurosciences, Wilson emphasizes their capacity for reinvention and transformation. Focusing on the details of neuronal connections, subcortical pathways, and reflex actions, she suggests that the central and peripheral nervous systems are powerfully allied with sexuality, the affects, emotional states, cognitive appetites, and other organs and bodies in ways not fully appreciated in the feminist literature. Whether reflecting on Simon LeVay’s hypothesis about the brains of gay men, Peter Kramer’s model of depression, or Charles Darwin’s account of trembling and blushing, Wilson is able to show how the neurosciences can be used to reinvigorate feminist theories of the body.

Elizabeth A. Wilson

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