Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain | Sue Gerhardt

Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain | Sue Gerhardt | Great book for parents, parents-to-be, and clinicians.

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Why Love Matters: ...

	Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain Sue Gerhardt Brunner-Routledge, 2004 - 232 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Why Love Matters explains why love is essential to brain development in the early years of life, particularly to the development of our social and emotional brain systems, and presents the startling discoveries that provide the answers to how our emotional lives work. Sue Gerhardt considers how the earliest relationship shapes the baby's nervous system, with lasting consequences, and how our adult life is influenced by infancy despite our inability to remember babyhood. The way that we respond to stress, in particular, depends on how our brains are set up to deal with it in early life. Gerhardt shows how the development of the brain can affect future emotional well being, and goes on to look at specific early 'pathways' that can lead to conditions such as anorexia, addiction, and anti-social behavior. Early experience leaves its mark, not only in our degree of confidence in other people, but also in the structure and functioning of the brain. Why Love Matters is a lively and very accessible interpretation of the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, psychoanalysis and biochemistry. It will be invaluable to psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, mental health professionals, parents and all those concerned with the central importance of brain development in relation to many later adult difficulties.

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A must-read for all parents and parents-to-be

Why Love Matters offers an eloquent overview of the latest scientific research on attachment. The author has accomplished the formidable task of linking the concrete language of neurochemistry to the more abstract area of attachment theory. In so doing, she has greatly clarified the nature-nurture argument. Her book beautifully establishes the critical importance of close emotional attachment for optimum brain development in childhood, and one's subsequent capacity for love and trust in adulthood. Why Love Matters is an essential new work in the field of attachment.

Jan Hunt, author of The Natural Child: Parenting From the Heart

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Great book for parents, parents-to-be, and clinicians.

This book really opened my eyes to the fundamentals of brain development in infancy. I had no idea how much the actual physiology of the brain is affected by infant experience, not just the psychological. Sources are well cited, ideas are well backed up in scientific research, and the information is presented in a way which benefits lay readers as well as researchers (with an introduction about brain structure and development).

I suggest every parent-to-be get a hold of this book. One reviewer was dissapointed by the lack of specific exercises to play with. However, I don't think they are necessary because this book gives specifics about why certain strategies affect infants. I think understanding why certain types of parenting work better than others makes parents more likely to come up with the kind of adaptive spontaneous strategies which come out of such a way of thinking. You could also check out Brazelton for more specific info about exercises to do with your baby.

As a side note, once you read this book and make decisions about parenting based on the exhaustive research cited within, you will not only feel more confident about your parenting, but you will be able to defend against attacks from helpful but persistent grandparents, in-laws, and friends - should you want to engage in such discussions.

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outstanding information

An excellent source of information for everyone. Would be extremely helpful for mothers-to-be. Helps you understanding your developmental psychology. Gives you more information on you and why you turned out the way you did. Should be required reading for high school students who will be parents of the future. It would give them a better overview on how to interact with their children in a more positive way.

Outstanding INformation for communication scholars and sociologists alike!

The text is well written and provides readily accessible information related to cognitive development and lifelong impacts. I believe the comparison of nature/nurture and the ensuing debates in this area are well served by this material. Any parent, communication scholar, or educator would be well served by reading this text. The only conflict I had with this book was the title, which may mislead people seeking pop press to believing that this is one of those frothy self-help books. When I finished the book, I could feel and hear the applause for the author!

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Why Love Matters

A scientific, psychoanalytic look at brain development differences in babies who are loved, cuddled, touched vs babies whose mothers are cold. The book focuses on the relationship between mother and child and gives us an understanding of "how babies needs cannot be put off". We as adults, need to adjust our schedules to babies needs. Not receiving the stimulation necessary has been shown to affect brain development.

reviews: page 1, 2

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