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Objective Brains, Prejudicial Images

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Joseph Dumit
Joseph Dumit
Affiliation:
Program in Science, Technology and Society Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Abstract

In this article I argue that brain images constructed with computerized tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) are part of a category of “expert images” and are both visually persuasive and also particularly difficult to interpret and understand by non-experts. Following the innovative judicial analogy of “demonstrative evidence” traced by Jennifer Mnookin (1998), I show how brain images are more than mere illustrations when they enter popular culture and courtrooms. Attending to the role of experts in producing data in the form of images, in selecting extreme images for publication, and in testifying as to their relevance, I argue that there is an undue risk in courtrooms that brain images will not be seen as prejudiced, stylized representations of correlation, but rather as straightforward, objective photographs of, for example, madness.

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Article
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Science in Context , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , Spring 1999 , pp. 173 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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