Neuromania and investments in early childhood
Since the end of the 20th century, neuroscience has a growing impact on discussions about early interventions in childhood, in order to prevent a diversity of social problems such as poverty and crime. In this contribution, we reflect on the way neuroscientific research is being used by policy makers and practitioners, and what this means for social work with children and families. We notice that these developments present what we call ‘neuromania’, which contains three important problems: the depolitisation of social work, the dematerialisation of poverty and the culpabilisation of parents. This does not mean that neuroscience is trivial, yet we argue that the misinterpretation and misuse of recent research findings requires scrutiny.