In Chapter 5, I move to consider some of the challenges of waiting lists and associated targets that configure clinical psychology. Taking the position that targets operate as what Nikolas Rose calls a ‘technology of government’, the chapter indicates some of the affective and material consequences of their instantiation. In particular, I show how clinical psychologists rework processes of entry into therapy, and the aims and character of care, in order to meet – and sometimes accommodate – targets. While professional autonomy is often regarded as being constrained through these technologies of government, practitioners nevertheless find ways of performing autonomous action in a matter that can advantage some patients over others. I illuminate how shifts in psychological care in response to targets could recast clinical psychologists’ relationships to their work and with patients, with implications for the subjectivities that are (not) assembled through therapy.

Chapter 12 examines the methodological foundations for conducting effective brain imaging research, positioning experimental design as the cornerstone of meaningful neuroscientific inquiry. It outlines a systematic approach to developing experiments, beginning with the essential groundwork of literature review and theoretical development before proceeding to stimulus creation and experimental implementation. The chapter emphasizes the critical balance between simplicity and complexity in design, advocating for well-controlled paradigms that isolate specific cognitive processes while acknowledging the brain’s inherent complexity. Particular attention is given to the technical considerations unique to different imaging modalities, addressing how fMRI’s hemodynamic response requires different design considerations than EEG’s direct measurement of neural activity. The chapter explores the philosophical challenges of constructing appropriate control conditions that effectively isolate the cognitive processes of interest, comparing cognitive subtraction approaches with factorial designs that reveal interaction effects. It emphasizes the importance of piloting experiments to identify potential confounds like expectancy bias and the role of jittered intertrial intervals in minimizing such effects. Throughout, the chapter underscores that experimental design in neuroimaging requires interdisciplinary expertise: understanding of brain anatomy and physiology, mastery of imaging technology, and sophisticated experimental psychology skills to translate abstract cognitive concepts into operationalizable experimental paradigms.

Chapter 3 explores and historicises attempts to revise the 1983 Mental Health Act of England and Wales. I focus on the traffic between: first, clinical affirmations about the need to enhance access to treatment – increasingly understood to be psychological therapy – for people diagnosed with a personality disorder; and, second, political aims to detain criminal offenders living under this diagnosis for longer periods. The rewriting of the Act, and the significance of personality disorder among these, represent a key yet underacknowledged moment in the unfolding story of access to psychological care, while also demonstrating how improved access is not an unproblematic social good. The chapter demonstrates how legal and professional discourses contoured each other such that an understanding of personality disorder as treatable through psychological intervention was produced. This improved the accessibility of therapy for some people; however, this was often as a consequence of their involuntary confinement.

In this short Coda, I describe some of the ambivalences that come with an ethic of access. I reflect on the procedural and ethical challenges that can be propelled by ostensibly progressive healthcare initiatives, and consider what could perhaps be done about these. In light of the arguments made throughout the preceding chapters, I decline to advance discrete recommendations in what is already an overdetermined policy space. Rather, I urge an ethos of reconfiguration within mental healthcare that fosters variability and mutability in services through direct and ongoing engagement with communities. In so doing, psychological practitioners might be enabled to better comprehend, articulate, and serve the needs of those with whom they undertake therapeutic work.

Chapter 6 explores magnetoencephalography (MEG), a neuroimaging technique that measures magnetic fields generated by neural activity with millisecond temporal precision. Starting with MEG’s development by David Cohen in 1967 and the crucial introduction of SQUID sensors, the chapter examines how MEG differs from EEG while measuring activity from the same neural sources. While EEG predominantly detects signals from gyri parallel to the skull, MEG captures perpendicular signals from sulci with superior spatial resolution as magnetic fields pass unimpeded through tissue. The practical aspects of MEG acquisition are covered, including participant preparation, artifact removal, and the importance of structural MRI for anatomical coregistration. The chapter addresses source localization challenges, such as the inverse problem of determining which neuronal sources created the detected signals, and explores solutions ranging from single dipole models to distributed approaches using anatomical constraints. Clinical applications in epilepsy and presurgical mapping are discussed, as is the complementary nature of combining MEG with other imaging modalities, particularly fMRI, to leverage their respective spatial and temporal strengths for comprehensive brain activity visualization.

The chapter investigates the mobilizing effect of moral rhetoric, that is, effects on party supporters. I theorize that moral rhetoric is likely to mobilize the party base, or those who identify with the party. This works by moral rhetoric priming the moral intuitions of supportive voters. Heightened moral intuitions activate their emotions, which in turn increase willingness to participate in politics. In particular, I focus on the mediating role of positive emotions, especially pride about one’s partisan preference. I test my argument using experimental and panel survey data from Britain. First, I show that moral rhetoric can increase positive emotions, especially pride. Second, I find that voters who held more positive emotions about their party before an election were more likely to politically participate during the election. Interestingly, analyses show that pride plays a big role for expressive participation, like displaying an election poster. Third, I investigate the entire argument using mediation analysis. The chapter shows that while moral rhetoric can mobilize the party base, the effects are rather limited. Moral rhetoric promotes expressive, cheap forms of participation.

Chapter 13 discusses the analysis processes that transform raw brain imaging data into meaningful neuroscientific insights. It explains the methodical progression from preprocessing to advanced analytical techniques, emphasizing that analysis is not merely a technical afterthought but a fundamental component of neuroimaging research. The chapter begins by addressing preprocessing steps – quality control, artifact correction, normalization, and smoothing – that prepare data for subsequent analysis while preserving signal integrity. It then explores single-subject processing approaches that aggregate experimental conditions and trials to establish individual response patterns before proceeding to group-level analyses that enable population-level inferences. Statistical considerations receive particular attention, with the chapter explaining how techniques like statistical parametric mapping function as the interpretive lens through which brain activity becomes visible. The problematic issue of multiple comparisons is thoroughly examined, illustrating how whole-brain analyses necessitate statistical correction to prevent false positives in the tens of thousands of simultaneous tests typical in neuroimaging. The chapter extends beyond traditional univariate approaches to cover network analysis methodologies that reveal functional connectivity patterns between brain regions. It concludes by addressing emerging analytical frontiers: real-time analysis for brain–computer interfaces, closed-loop brain stimulation paradigms, and the methodological limitations that necessitate careful interpretation of neuroimaging results. Throughout, the chapter emphasizes that analytical expertise is as essential as technical proficiency with imaging hardware, and that understanding analytical limitations is crucial for responsible interpretation of the neural basis of cognition and behavior.

Chapter 3 explores event-related potentials (ERPs), one of electroencephalography’s most powerful analytical techniques for investigating cognitive processing. The chapter traces ERPs’ evolution from Pauline and Hallowell Davis’s pioneering work in 1939 through its exponential growth as a research methodology. It explains how ERPs extract meaningful neural signals by time-locking and averaging EEG segments surrounding stimulus presentations, thereby revealing characteristic voltage deflections that correspond to specific cognitive processes. The text examines key ERP components, including C1, P1, N1, P2, N2, and P300, detailing their temporal progression, neuroanatomical origins, and functional significance in the processing hierarchy. It evaluates ERPs’ exceptional capacity to discriminate between processing stages occurring within milliseconds of each other, from early sensory encoding through attention allocation to semantic processing. The chapter addresses methodological considerations essential for robust ERP research, including experimental design principles, artifact reduction techniques, and the interpretation of scalp topographies. By analyzing ERPs’ comparative advantages, including millisecond-precise temporal resolution, ability to track covert processing without behavioral responses, and sensitivity to processing stage differences, alongside their limitations in spatial localization and specific experimental contexts, the chapter positions ERPs as a vital methodology for understanding the sequential unfolding of perceptual and cognitive processes in the human brain.

Chapter 10 discusses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a noninvasive brain imaging technique that utilizes light to measure hemodynamic responses. It traces the evolution of spectroscopy from Newton’s prism experiments to modern neuroimaging applications, explaining how near-infrared light penetrates tissue to detect changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin. The chapter details the physical principles underlying fNIRS, comparing continuous wave, frequency domain, and time domain approaches while examining the instrumentation of modern systems. It addresses practical considerations including optode placement, signal quality optimization, and noise reduction techniques. The relationship between fNIRS signals and neural activity is discussed, highlighting similarities to the BOLD response in fMRI while acknowledging limitations in depth penetration. The chapter covers analytical approaches for fNIRS data processing and emphasizes its unique advantages: portability, relative affordability, and functionality in environments hostile to electromagnetic recordings. Case studies demonstrate fNIRS applications in specialized contexts like underwater environments and space exploration, illustrating why this technique has become an essential tool for specific research questions despite its spatial limitations.