The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are
Daniel J. Siegel
Language: English
Pages: 394
ISBN: 1572307404
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
the way a life story is told and the manner in which life is lived. In this way, an attachment history revealed in an adult attachment narrative reflects the individual’s capacity to integrate a coherent sense of self. Various forms of mental dysfunction may signal that integration is impaired, leading to a sense of paralysis or chaos. From the perspective of interpersonal neurobiology, the signs, symptoms, and syndromes described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the
work of Mind, Brain, and Relationships 35 mentalization and extends the exploration “Mindsight”—the ability to see the further by embedding notions of neural internal world of self and others. integration and interpersonal relationships as interdependent aspects of the flow of energy and information. Mindsight can thus be conceptualized as the way we perceive energy and information flow within the neural and the relational systems from which the mind emerges. When we see the flow of
minds throughout our lives. Preface to the First Edition W hat is the mind? How does the mind develop? This book synthesizes information from a range of scientific disciplines to explore the idea that the mind emerges at the interface of interpersonal experience and the structure and function of the brain. Like many adolescents, as a teenager I became filled with a particular intellectual passion: I was fascinated with people and the nature of the mind. Through a series of journeys, I
production of related neurotransmitters such as dopamine, may be at especially high risk if exposed to overwhelming stress. In this way, we can see how experience and genetics interact in the development of risk for future disorder. Such risk is ultimately expressed within the neural connections of the brain. An individual’s personality is created from the continual interaction of genetically determined constitutional features and experiential exchanges with the environment, especially the social
distant, emotionless pattern of relating, which then creates a mental state within him that resembles the rejected, frustrated state of mind of his youth. His wife’s interest in a child may also evoke a sense of rejection resembling the feeling of the birth of a sibling in the father’s own childhood history. “State-dependent” memory is a second fundamental way in which parents’ childhood memories are primed. This refers to the way in which events encoded in particular mental states will be more