Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain (Paperback)

by Sue Gerhardt (Author) "This book is the outcome of many years of casual observations, followed by training and practising as a psychotherapist, particularly working with the disturbed or..." (more)
Key Phrases: Allan Schore, Billy Connolly, Candace Pert (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Why Love Matters is hugely important. It should be mandatory reading for all parents, teachers and politicians. - The Guardian

Sue Gerhardts choice of title reflects the loving attention to detail that is the essence of this book... excellently researched and well-written book which deserves to be widely read by practitioners, researchers and parents. - Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice

Sue Gerhardt has written a vitally important book - a must-read for every parent, teacher, physician and politician. - Daniel Goleman, author Emotional Intelligence

I would like to add to that positive view and suggest that this book be on every reading list you offer to new parents, politicians, clients, colleagues, family and friends. - Jeannie Wright, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling

Why Love Matters has a scientific rigour not always found in books by practicing psychotherapists such as Gerhard...it is largely free both of sentimentality and psychobabble. The author trades in the hard currency of neuroscience when describing how different kinds of parenting affects brain chemistry.
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–Financial Times (UK), August 7, 2004

Brief mention.
Family Datebook
–New Orleans Times-Picayune, February 7th

Product Description
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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Brunner-Routledge; 1 edition (December 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583918175
• ISBN-13: 978-1583918173
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #60,057 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Building Better Baby Brains, January 27, 2005

By	R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Everything we do or say or learn is mediated by the wrinkled and gelatinous matter inside our skulls. As children grow up, their brains obviously change; not only do the neurons get charged with all the information the children acquire, but the brains physically change as well. It should be no surprise that children who have physical problems in upbringing, like, say, a bad diet, have brains that don't properly grow. It is also no surprise that children who are brought up in emotionally distressing situations have trouble getting along with others into adulthood. It was a surprise to find out, however, that children who are brought up under stress actually have brains that are physically different, and operate differently, from those who are well cared for. In the ambitiously-titled _Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain_ (Brunner-Routledge), Sue Gerhardt has summarized current findings in neuroscience about the developing brains of infants and how that development is influenced by the infants' early attachment experiences. Her work will be tough in parts for those unfamiliar with the neurological territory, but she presents many appealing examples, illustrations, and case studies, so that anyone might enjoy here learning about the inchoate findings of the links between attachment experiences and brain development.

The idea that experiences change brains physically, beyond the mere instillation of learning, is fully accepted. Gerhardt concentrates on the orbitofrontal cortex and on the effects of cortisol, a stress hormone which is required for development of the cortex and other brain regions, but which causes such development to be thwarted if the levels are too high. Babies who are stressed, who do not get proper attention and do not have confidence in being cared for, are likely to have high cortisol levels with resultant malformation of the orbitofrontal cortex. Early experience and patterns of attachment do change brain chemistry and structure in ways that cannot be changed back after a circumscribed period of development. It used to be that studying how babies would respond to their caregivers could only be done by sitting behind a two-way mirror and doing limited, uncruel experiments and watching the behavioral results. It could be observed, for instance, that an inconsistent parent could tend to produce an anxious child. This is the sort of "soft" science that is a target for being woolly-headed liberal supposition, but it can now begin to be supplemented with the hard facts of neuroscience.

How we are treated as babies influences how our brains develop and determines how we get along with others. As Gerhardt says, this is one of the strange things about research in this field: "After developing ingenious experiments and rigorous controls, the fruits of its labours tend to be blindingly obvious." It is, however, important that we now are getting a scientific basis to show that what is self-evident actually can be shown by evidence. The evidence compellingly argues for a responsive style of care, continuously available, as the best environment for a baby, and Gerhardt's own work as a psychotherapist has taken on cases of parents and babies who need assistance in arranging such an environment. Her case illustrations are excellent and readable, and the simple lesson, now backed by hard science, that babies need and deserve responsive care for proper emotional development, cannot be overstressed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for all parents and parents-to-be, January 31, 2007

By	Jan Hunt (Sunriver, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for professionals, August 14, 2005

By	A. R. Pollock "chat lady" (Magnolia, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book offers an overview of baby brain development that makes me want to learn more and to educate others about the crucial nature of responsive infant care. It is a must read for those who work with families in any capacity as well as those with infants at home.