From psychobabble to neuro-nonsense: cognitivism, neuroscience and children’s literature

Lesnik-Oberstein, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4970-0556 (2026) From psychobabble to neuro-nonsense: cognitivism, neuroscience and children’s literature. Anuario de Investigación en Literatura Infantil y Juvenil. ISSN 2660-7395 (In Press)

Abstract/Summary

Drawing on Jacqueline Rose’s thesis on the “impossibility” of children’s literature, the study explores how childhood and the child are inherently shaped by adult desires both in what are seen to be “fiction” and “real life”. Through an examination of key theorists and critical debates, this paper analyses the influence of neuroscientific and cognitivist paradigms on the conceptualization of empathy, theory of mind, and identification. The article concludes that while cognitivist approaches and evolutionary psychology claim to offer a universal and unchanging knowledge of the child, they necessarily rely on “old” psychology models that in turn also reproduce prior discourses of childhood.