How might we understand entanglements of the mind, brain, body and world? And how can we develop creative forms of experimentation to enact these entanglements?

In this unique contribution, Blackman focuses upon the affective capacities of bodies, human and non-human as well as addressing the challenges of the affective turn within social sciences. Fresh and convincing, this book uncovers the paradoxes and tensions in work in affect studies by focusing on practices and experiences, including voice hearing, suggestion, hypnosis, telepathy, the placebo effect, rhythm and related phenomena. Questioning the traditional idea of mind over matter, as well as discussing the danger of setting up a false distinction between the two, this book makes for an invaluable addition within cultural theory and the recent turn to affect.

In a powerful and engaging matter, Blackman discusses the immaterial body across the neurosciences, physiology, media and cultural studies, body-studies, artwork, performance, psychology and psychoanalysis. Interdisciplinary in its core, this book is a must for everyone seeking a dynamic and thought provoking analysis of culture and communication today.

The Re-Enchantment of Materialism: Affect and New Materialisms

The Re-Enchantment of Materialism: Affect and New Materialisms

The re-enchantment of materialism: Affect and new materialisms

This chapter will explore the historical antecedents of contemporary work on affect by developing the implications put forward in the last chapter. That is, we take seriously matters spiritual, psychic and psychopathological and how these experiences were connected up through a particular set of terms and concepts. It is this lineage that for the most part is left out and occluded in contemporary theorizing. It continues to haunt cultural theory in terms of the practical and conceptual dilemmas it raises. It is not that these dilemmas are unrecognized, however; as we will see, they are often the starting point for work on affect that assumes that we are not singular ...

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