There is a common perception that brain imaging poses a great threat to our ability to control our own minds and hence to our ability to have a whole cluster of abilities (autonomy, responsibility, culpability) relevant in the context of the law. It is said that brain imaging in the future will give scientists the ability to get direct access to our inner most selves possibly even against our will. Equally, it is claimed that brain imaging might allow for mind reading and make us fully predictable, thereby rendering us helpless to thwart the predictions. In this paper I want to debunk these myths. I argue that brain imaging only seems more worrying than behavioural sciences, because it taps into a folk reductionist view of the mind according to which the mind is the brain. Secondly, I argue that predictability in the relevant sense is a myth for conceptual reasons. Nevertheless, I think there is a real threat to our ability to control our own minds that comes from the cognitive sciences that deal with the cognitive unconscious. I end with some suggestions how this challenge can be transformed into a chance.
