David Pierson, professor of Communication and Media Studies, has published a chapter “‘We Are Our Brains’: Disembodied Brain Films in 1950s Cold War America” in Personified Body Parts in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture, edited by Gilad Pavda and Yair Koren-Maimon, Routledge in April 2025. The chapter critically reviews popular representations of the disembodied, living brain. This chapter suggests that although René Descartes’ dualism has been disavowed, the idea of the mind separate from the body persists in popular culture. This chapter analyzes popular culture’s mediation of the wonders and fears attributed to the rise of modern scientific technocracy and psychology. It also explores popular representations of the anxieties related to middle-class professionals, “mad scientists” who must sell their mental labor under the domain of capitalism. Finally, this chapter analyzes popular representation of the fears and fascination, especially in the Cold War era, with brainwashing and mind control.