Dr. Allan Schore: How Relationships Shape Your Brain

From sibling arguments to temper tantrums, parents constantly have to manage conflict. These challenging moments are pivotal opportunities to promote your child’s psychological development. The Whole-Brain Child explains the neurological and developmental reasons for many of your child’s meltdowns and misbehaviors. When the different parts of your child’s brain—such as the logical left brain and the emotional right brain—are not integrated, it makes your child mentally and emotionally off-balance, which causes her to act out.

The book teaches you how to diagnose signs of dis-integration, as well as strategies to help your child to re-integrate her mind. With these tools, your child will develop a stronger relationship with you, increase her self-awareness and emotional self-control, and build the foundation for a lifetime of healthy relationships and mental and emotional stability.

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic

According to psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, pop psychology has given us a wrong—and dangerous—impression of the brain’s two hemispheres. In The Master and His Emissary, McGilchrist rebuts the popular misconception that the brain’s left hemisphere is dominant because it’s responsible for logical thinking and problem-solving, while the right hemisphere is used only for creative endeavors. Against this myth, McGilchrist argues that the right hemisphere is more important than the left hemisphere, and failure to recognize this fact threatens to rob our lives of meaning and happiness.

In this guide, we’ll examine the differences between the brain’s hemispheres, the reasons McGilchrist thinks the right hemisphere belongs in control, and the historical eras that he says illustrate power imbalances between the hemispheres. We’ll also examine McGilchrist’s predictions about a world dominated by the left hemisphere and his reasons for thinking this world would diminish our happiness. Throughout the guide, we’ll consider counterarguments from other experts in fields like history, philosophy, and literary criticism, and we’ll discuss updates since the book’s publication.

What’s the key to a happy relationship? In Attached, psychiatrist Dr. Amir Levine and psychologist Rachel Heller argue that the secret is understanding attachment styles: the different ways that people express and perceive romantic intimacy.

In this guide, you’ll learn what attachment styles are and how you can use your knowledge of them to find a good relationship—or improve the one you already have. You’ll also discover the hidden dynamics that play a starring role in your relationship conflicts, even if you’re just fighting about who’ll make dinner. Along the way, you’ll also discover the latest research regarding attachment and discover practical tips from other psychologists so you can have the best relationship possible.

Ever wondered how to thrive in a multiple-partner relationship while feeling secure and connected? In Polysecure, psychologist Jessica Fern explores the importance of healthy attachment or bonding in polyamorous relationships. She offers a roadmap to becoming “polysecure”—feeling healthy and grounded in secure attachment with both yourself and your partners. This book is for anyone who’s curious about or engaged in polyamory (or consensual non-monogamy) and who wants to build secure, fulfilling, and respectful connections with multiple people.

In this guide, you’ll learn about different attachment styles and why they matter in polyamorous relationships. You’ll also find practical advice about how to develop secure attachments and navigate the unique challenges of consensual non-monogamy. We’ll supplement Fern’s advice with insight on how attitudes toward polyamors have changed over time and compare Fern’s views with those of other relationship experts like Esther Perel and John Gottman.

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic

According to psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, pop psychology has given us a wrong—and dangerous—impression of the brain’s two hemispheres. In The Master and His Emissary, McGilchrist rebuts the popular misconception that the brain’s left hemisphere is dominant because it’s responsible for logical thinking and problem-solving, while the right hemisphere is used only for creative endeavors. Against this myth, McGilchrist argues that the right hemisphere is more important than the left hemisphere, and failure to recognize this fact threatens to rob our lives of meaning and happiness.

In this guide, we’ll examine the differences between the brain’s hemispheres, the reasons McGilchrist thinks the right hemisphere belongs in control, and the historical eras that he says illustrate power imbalances between the hemispheres. We’ll also examine McGilchrist’s predictions about a world dominated by the left hemisphere and his reasons for thinking this world would diminish our happiness. Throughout the guide, we’ll consider counterarguments from other experts in fields like history, philosophy, and literary criticism, and we’ll discuss updates since the book’s publication.

If you’re like most people, you have a pretty good sense of who you are and how you relate to the world. But everything you know about yourself is wrong—according to neuroscientist Chris Niebauer. In No Self, No Problem, he explains that your sense of self is nothing more than an illusion crafted by your storytelling left brain. While science is just catching on to how this works, Niebauer notes that Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism have been teaching something similar for thousands of years.

In this guide, we’ll follow Niebauer through a tour of your sense of self and the brain regions that bring it into being. We’ll also consider his advice for loosening your grip on the thoughts and judgments that make you dissatisfied with your reality. Along the way, we’ll explore what other scientists, philosophers, and artists have to say about who we are and what it means to be a person.

From sibling arguments to temper tantrums, parents constantly have to manage conflict. These challenging moments are pivotal opportunities to promote your child’s psychological development. The Whole-Brain Child explains the neurological and developmental reasons for many of your child’s meltdowns and misbehaviors. When the different parts of your child’s brain—such as the logical left brain and the emotional right brain—are not integrated, it makes your child mentally and emotionally off-balance, which causes her to act out.

The book teaches you how to diagnose signs of dis-integration, as well as strategies to help your child to re-integrate her mind. With these tools, your child will develop a stronger relationship with you, increase her self-awareness and emotional self-control, and build the foundation for a lifetime of healthy relationships and mental and emotional stability.