Review of: The 21st Century Brain: Explaining, Mending and Manipulating the Mind
by Steven Rose
"The modern emphasis on being the best you can be in a competitive marketplace is a great normalising force that will drive the uptake of any proffered brain fix. A drug like Ritalin is the perfect example. Some eight million US kids pop such pills so they fit better into the classroom. Rather than society adjusting to the individual, the individual is tailoring him or herself to society. So, asks Rose, what happens when some of the expected steroids for the mind come along - the drugs being developed to treat memory loss in Alzheimer's or boost blood flow in tired brains? Surely, just as in sport, they will become impossible for university students and City traders to resist even if the known side-effects are severe. As a vision of dystopia, this may not be exactly Orwellian. But the "user pays" model is unsettling none the less..."
FULL MONTY
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