Know Thyself, Dissect Thyself: A Genealogy of Neuroscience's Pastoral Power through Anatomical Dissection and Illustration

Coupling "know thyself" with anatomical illustrations produced a spatialized understanding of the self, providing preconditions for "brainhood," the view that "we are our brains." To picture oneself, whether in anatomical illustrations or neuroimaging, is to know thyself. This paper traces the historical development of the conflation of self-image and self-knowledge. First, I explore the Renaissance development of linear perspective. Second, I look at how the soul becomes spatialized in psychology as a science of the soul and its relationship to anatomical dissection. Third, I investigate the innovation of anatomical illustration and how it intersects with Renaissance visual culture. Finally, I show how these varied developments manifest "know thyself" in anatomical illustrations and its significance for how we see ourselves. I conclude that, according to the ideology of the neuro, we still "know thyself" through pictures of the body, but with neuroimaging as the new anatomical illustration.