Vivette Glover's Top Book Recommendations

Vivette GloverThis is a bit more specialist. It’s a more recent book which discusses the possible evolutionary reasons for why the fetus in the womb maybe especially sensitive to its environment. The authors develop the concept of the “predictive adaptive response”, suggesting that this is an additional evolutionary mechanism to prepare the offspring for the environment in which it is going to find itself.... (Source)

Vivette GloverThis is a very clear and stimulating overview of how sensitive the development of the fetus is to outside influence, and how this can have implications for the health of the individual, across the lifespan. Nathanielsz discusses the work of David Barker and colleagues who have shown that babies who are born smaller are more likely to die of coronary heart diseases at the end of life, than those... (Source)

Vivette GloverThis is the most outstanding book of photography showing the development of a child from the very beginning. It shows the initial blob of a few cells after the sperm meets the egg, and all the later developmental stages, culminating in the fetus at the end of pregnancy, just ready to be born as a new baby. It shows the development of all the organs, and of the hands and feet, and an unborn baby... (Source)

Vivette GloverThis is by a colleague of mine, and I have been very influenced by her. It describes how mothers with post-natal depression can effect the outcome of the child. The babies are more anxious and more depressed themselves with some cognitive delay and ADHD. (Source)

Nicholas EpleyIt’s a book about Harry Harlow, a primatologist, a psychologist who worked mostly with rhesus macaques. He became a giant in the field of behavioral science through his work on attachment. Blum gives a great historical perspective on how psychologists thought about interpersonal attachment for most of our history and how Harry Harlow changed that. Harlow introduced the concept of love to the... (Source)

Vivette GloverThis centres round the work of Harry Harlow who worked with monkeys and needed to breed more of them. He isolated them very early and took them away from their mothers and kept them clean and well-fed. They were fat and appeared healthy but they were miserable and rocked backwards and forwards. He started to understand that what was missing was maternal affection. This was very out of the current... (Source)