In fact, he positions himself as being 'enlightened' because he does not advocate for the 'lock up and throw away the key' approach. He does not acknowledge or give weight to any of the counterarguments to this approach, which you think should be standard for his 'scientific approach'. But what is particularly disturbing about this book is Eagleton's deceptive approach. Our sordid history of 'treating' criminals includes institutionalizing gays and lesbians and 'treating' them for their 'disorder', medical experiments with African American prisoners, and institutionalizing people with developmental disabilities for the minor offenses.

This should send a chill up his readers' spines.

Even when they have forfeited the right to be physically free and are imprisoned, our government does not have the right to force medical treatment and that includes psychological treatment.Įagleton is advocating for 'treating' criminals. Our criminal justice system, in fact our whole legal framework, is based on the underlying assumption that individuals have the right to control their own bodies. But when you take a step back from this book, this idea is disturbing. The bottom line is that he believes in 'treatment' for those who commit crimes. For those who do not have 'correctable' problems, he actually uses the work 'warehouse' for their fate. He admits that frontal lobotomies were a clumsy early attempt to do this, but he feels science is much more advanced now and continues to advance every day. When he has you hooked, he launches into a treatise about how the criminal justice system should be used to correct our brains for he assumes that criminal activity is the result of a brain not functioning correctly. He explains how we become 'wired' for routine actions, such as driving to work, and can put forward little effort on accomplishing such things. For example, he outlines research on split brain patients and the difference between the right and left sides.

How does he do this? He strings together an a serious of interesting tidbits about how the brain is controlled by chemistry and its hardwiring. Just as he describes how magic tricks deceive the brain, Eagleman uses this entertaining little book to advocate for a social and justice system that disregards civil rights. Eagleman uses a 'slight of hand' writing style. Let me move on to the more interesting stuff. However, it reads more like a series of interesting essays on neuroscience rather than a book. On a literary note, this book is entertaining.

Incognito by david eagleman