Science and Technology of the Self

Harvard FAS

This class examines how scientists tried to capture (and define) the self through new methodologies and technologies. How did large research enterprises comprising “big social science” emerge in the 20th century at the meeting place between anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis, and other human and life sciences? We begin by looking broadly at the history of the self, and ask how to define “technologies of the self.” The course then explores 20th and 21st century attempts to…