ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter I analysed the formation of bioidentities as the subjective pole of the ‘somatic culture’ or, more specifi cally, of biosociality. We saw that somatic individualities (Rose 2007) result from recent mutations in personhood associated with biomedical technologies and life sciences. Genetics, pharmacology, brain imaging and reproductive technologies are among the more important instances of this transformation. Genetics in particular has attained the attention of several scholars who described the multiple forms and contexts of a geneticisation of personhood (Rose 2007). Terms such as ‘neurochemical self’ (Rose 2007), ‘cerebral subject’ (Ortega and Vidal 2011; Vidal 2009) or ‘pharmaceutical self’ ( Jenkins 2011) epitomise, as we saw, the description of personal identity in corporeal, bodily terms and relate to the diffusion of imaging technologies and a neuroscientifi c vocabulary among larger audiences.
