An exploration of human relationships as understood through basic concepts of interpersonal neurobiology, this revised edition reflects the wealth of social neuroscience research just out, including how mirror neurons, the polyvagal theory, and epigenetics affect the architecture and development of brain systems and, in turn, how we interact with others.
A revised edition of the best-selling text on how relationships build our brains. As human beings, we cherish our individuality yet we know that we live in constant relationship to others, and that other people play a significant part in regulating our emotional and social behavior. Although this interdependence is a reality of our existence, we are just beginning to understand that we have evolved as social creatures with interwoven brains and biologies. The human brain itself is a social organ and to truly understand being human, we must understand not only how we as whole people exist with others, but how our brains, themselves, exist in relationship to other brains. The first edition of this book tackled these important questions of interpersonal neurobiology—that the brain is a social organ built through experience—using poignant case examples from the author’s years of clinical experience. Brain drawings and elegant explanations of social neuroscience wove together emerging findings from the research literature to bring neuroscience to the stories of our lives. Since the publication of the first edition in 2006, the field of social neuroscience has grown at a mind-numbing pace. Technical advances now provide more windows into our inner neural universe and terms like attachment, empathy, compassion, and mindfulness have begun to appear in the scientific literature. Overall, there has been a deepening appreciation for the essential interdependence of brain and mind. More and more parents, teachers, and therapists are asking how brains develop, grow, connect, learn, and heal. The new edition of this book organizes this cutting-edge, abundant research and presents its compelling insights, reflecting a host of significant developments in social neuroscience. Our understanding of mirror neurons and their significance to human relationships has continued to expand and deepen and is discussed here. Additionally, this edition reflects the gradual shift in focus from individual brain structures to functional neural systems—an important and necessary step forward. A great deal of neural overlap has been discovered in brain activation when we are thinking about others and ourselves. This raises many questions including how we come to know others and whether the notion of an “individual self” is anything more than an evolutionary strategy to support our interconnection. In short, we are just beginning to see the larger implications of all neurological processes—how the architecture of the brain can help us to better understand individuals and our relationships. This book gives readers a deeper appreciation of how and why relationships have the power to reshape our brains throughout our life.
How the brain's architecture is related to the problems, passions, and aspirations of human beings. In contrast to this view, recent theoretical advances in brain imaging have revealed that the brain is an organ continually built and re-built by one's experience. We are now beginning to learn that many forms of psychotherapy, developed in the absence of any scientific understanding of the brain, are supported by neuroscientific findings. In fact, it could be argued that to be an effective psychotherapist these days it is essential to have some basic understanding of neuroscience. Louis Cozolino's The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, Second Edition is the perfect place to start. In a beautifully written and accessible synthesis, Cozolino illustrates how the brain's architecture is related to the problems, passions, and aspirations of human beings. As the book so elegantly argues, all forms of psychotherapy--from psychoanalysis to behavioral interventions--are successful to the extent to which they enhance change in relevant neural circuits. Beginning with an overview of the intersecting fields of neuroscience and psychotherapy, this book delves into the brain's inner workings, from basic neuronal building blocks to complex systems of memory, language, and the organization of experience. It continues by explaining the development and organization of the healthy brain and the unhealthy brain. Common problems such as anxiety, trauma, and codependency are discussed from a scientific and clinical perspective. Throughout the book, the science behind the brain's working is applied to day-to-day experience and clinical practice. Written for psychotherapists and others interested in the relationship between brain and behavior, this book encourages us to consider the brain when attempting to understand human development, mental illness, and psychological health. Fully and thoroughly updated with the many neuroscientific developments that have happened in the eight years since the publication of the first edition, this revision to the bestselling book belongs on the shelf of all practitioners.
Born out of the excitement of a convergence of ideas and passions, this book provides a synthesis of the work of researchers, clinicians, and theoreticians who are leaders in the field of trauma, attachment, and psychotherapy. As we move into the third millennium, the field of mental health is in an exciting position to bring together diverse ideas from a range of disciplines that illuminate our understanding of human experience: neurobiology, developmental psychology, traumatology, and systems theory. The contributors emphasize the ways in which the social environment, including relationships of childhood, adulthood, and the treatment milieu change aspects of the structure of the brain and ultimately alter the mind.
An edited collection from some of the most influential writers in mental health. Books in the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology have collectively sold close to 1 million copies and contributed to a revolution in cutting-edge mental health care. An interpersonal neurobiology of human development enables us to understand that the structure and function of the mind and brain are shaped by experiences, especially those involving emotional relationships. Here, the three series editors have enlisted some of the most widely read IPNB authors to reflect on the impact of IPNB on their clinical practice and offer words of wisdom to the hundreds of thousands of IPNB-informed clinicians around the world. Topics include: Dan Hill on dysregulation and impaired states of consciousness; Bonnie Badenoch on therapeutic presence; Kathy Steele on motivational systems in complex trauma.
An exploration of the ways the immune system, epigenetics, affect regulation, and attachment intersect in mental health. The evolution of psychotherapy in the 21st Century demands integration. Instead of choosing from the blizzard of modalities and schools of the past, therapists must move toward finding common denominators among them. Similarly, today’s psychotherapy necessitates the integration of the mind and body, not the past practice of compartmentalization of mental health and physical health. This book contributes to the sea change in how we conceptualize mental health problems and their solutions. Mind-Brain-Gene describes the feedback loops between the multiple systems contributing to the emergence of the mind and the experience of the self. It explains how our mental operating networks “self”-organize, drawing from and modifying our memory systems to establish and maintain mental health. Synthesizing research in psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics with interpersonal neurobiology and research on integrated psychotherapeutic approaches, John Arden explores how insecure attachment, deprivation, child abuse, and trauma contribute to anxiety disorders and depression to produce epigenetic affects. To help people suffering from anxiety and depression, it is necessary to make sense of the multidirectional feedback loops between the stress systems and the dysregulation of the immune system that lead to those conditions. Successful psychotherapy modifies the feedback loops among the self-maintenance systems. Through the orchestration of the mental operating networks, psychotherapy promotes the re-regulation of immune system functions, stress systems, nutrition, microbiome (gut bacteria), sleep, physical inactivity, affect regulation, and cognition. This book makes a strong case for healthcare and psychotherapy to be combined—together they can revolutionize the way we conceive of, and attain, optimal health in the 21st Century.
A new edition of the classic text that links neuroscience and human behavior in a therapeutic context. This groundbreaking book explores the revolution in psychotherapy that brought an understanding of the social nature of people’s brains into a therapeutic context. Louis Cozolino is a master at synthesizing neuroscience and demonstrating how it applies to psychotherapy practice. Here, he argues that all forms of psychotherapy are successful to the extent to which they enhance change in relevant neural circuits. Beginning with an overview of the intersecting fields of neuroscience and psychotherapy, this book delves into the brain’s inner workings, from basic neuronal building blocks to complex systems of memory, language, and the organization of experience. In this updated edition, readers will also find new content on the evolutionary foundations of psychotherapy; the necessity of gaining broad perspectives on mind, brain, and culture in clinical training; the importance of interpreting research with the human brain’s biases in mind; the debatable applicability of Eurocentric perceptions of “self”; and more.
Using Trauma-Focused Therapy Stories is a groundbreaking treatment resource for trauma-informed therapists who work with abused and neglected children ages nine years and older as well as their caregivers. The classic edition includes a new preface from the author reflecting on changes in the field since the book’s initial publication. The therapy stories are perfect accompaniments to evidence-based treatment approaches and provide the foundation for psychoeducation and intervention with the older elementary-aged child or early pre-teen. Therapists will also benefit from the inclusion of thorough guides for children and caregivers, which illustrate trauma and developmental concepts in easy-to-understand terms. The psychoeducational material in the guides, written at a third- to fourth-grade reading level, may be used within any trauma-informed therapy model in the therapy office or sent-home for follow-up. Each therapy story illustrates trauma concepts, guides trauma narrative and cognitive restructuring work, and illuminates caregiver blind spots; the caregiver stories target issues that often become barriers to family trauma recovery. No therapist who works with young trauma survivors will want to be without this book, and school-based professionals, social workers, psychologists and others committed to working with traumatized children will find the book chock-full of game-changing ideas for their practice.
Teaching teachers the importance of social connection in the classroom. Human brains are social, and a student's ability to learn is deeply influenced by the quality of his or her attachment to teachers and peers. Secure attachment relationships not only ensure our overall well-being, but also optimize learning by enhancing motivation, regulating anxiety, and triggering neuroplasticity. This book presents a classroom model of secure attachment, exploring how teacher-student rapport is central to creating supportive, "tribal" classrooms and school communities.
"While not traditionally named as a virtue, accountability plays a vital part in healthy relationships and in a morally integrated life. The idea that one is answerable to others besides oneself-to give others what they are due-places relational accountability within a frame of justice and serves to counterbalance the prevalent emphasis on autonomy in mental health and human flourishing. Welcoming responsibility to and caring about one's impact on others is basic to making personal relationships work over time. Without accountability, resentment and withdrawal from relationships would ensue. Accountability is also critical to the trust and cooperation needed for effective work with others. Moreover, accountability serves as a critical support to the integrity and wholeness of the morally virtuous person. Actively knowing to whom and for what one is accountable is clarifying in terms of connecting one's relational responsibilities with one's identity, direction and sense of purpose"--
