Technology, potentialisation and psychotechnics

Stenner, Paul and Andersen, Niels Åkerstrøm (2025). Technology, potentialisation and psychotechnics. In: Bösel, Bernd and Weber, Julia eds. Die Macht der Psychotechnologien [On Psychotechnological Power]. Frankfurt, Germany: Campus Verlag (In Press).

URL: https://www.campus.de/buecher-campus-verlag/wissen...

Abstract

As the modern politico-economic system of nationalistically organised capitalism was crashing into the crisis of the two World Wars, a keen awareness grew amongst philosophers and social theorists about a) the fragmented and contradictory condition of humanity’s self-knowledge, and b) the ambivalent role of technoscience. A direct connection was observed between the collapse of self-knowledge and the triumphant advance of technoscience: the more the material world was placed at humanity’s disposal by technology, the less was humanity ready or competent to grasp and manage these new powers. In the second half of the 20th century the conviction grew that self-knowledge and cognitive insight can themselves be manipulated technologically by altering biochemical structures and processes or augmenting with AI and cybernetics. But ‘psychotechnics’ need not be understood exclusively on this model (i.e. of technological manipulations to ‘humaneer’ the capacities considered lacking). Under the header of ‘potentialisation technologies’ we discuss the nature, development, and pros and cons, of a form of psychotechnics that is oriented directly toward subjectivity and the expansion of possibilities.

Plain Language Summary

This chapter features in a book on the power of psycho-technologies. A psycho-technology is a technology designed to manipulate some aspect of psychology (e.g. to enhance cognition or perception, or to monitor emotions). This chapter introduces a new way of thinking about a particular type of psychotechnology. It calls them 'potentialisation technologies' because they are techniques for generating possibilities. Several examples are provided as well as a history of why potentialisation arose as a problem.

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