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The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment and the Developing Social Brain
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - An Intriguing Look into the Development of Self, Relationships With Others and the Imapct Each Has on the Other
The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment and the Developing Social Brain is beautifully written by Cozolino. It explicitly yet simply shows how the brain is a social organ that's development is not only dependent on genetics but also on experiences from birth into adulthood. This book allows you to understand how your relationships through the years have influenced your brain and formed you into the person you are now socially as well as how you influence the brain development of others through your interactions.
Style and Synopsis of the Book:
The style incorporated in the book is meant to continuously build on Cozolino's resounding fundamental theme that "there are no single brains" but rather our brains are connected and forever interdependent on other brains through six parts, which include:
Part I: The Emergence of Social Neuroscience discusses how the brain has evolved and differentiated from other species, why this evolvement has made our brain social and the importance of realizing the impact our relationships have on the brain.
Part II: The Social Brain: Structures and Functions explores how the brain develops and changes from birth to adulthood and identifies the structures that are a part of the social brain and their functions.
Part III: Bridging the Social Synapse explains the communication between our brains and the brain's regulation via experiences, attachment and memory from interactions with others, such as a mother with her child.
Part IV: Social Vision: The Language of Faces focuses on how our eyes and faces can convey emotion and how social we will be perceived by others as well as how are expressions can evoke emotions in others.
Part V: Disorders of the Social Brain gives examples of social disorders such as autism that affect how we interact socially with others and its impact on our relationships with others.
Part VI: Social Neural Plasticity shows how the brain has the ability to change and how our behavior with people can be relearned through healing relationships.
The book is filled with illustrations and tables as well as psychoanalysis and neurological studies that simplify and help to highlight the key points of each part. Clinical cases from Cozolino's interactions with his clients are also interspersed throughout, giving real life situations that further drive home the importance of our social development through our relationships.
Favorite Parts:
Bridging the Social Synapse was one on my favorite parts, especially chapter 10, "Ways of Attaching". In this chapter, Cozolino discusses the attachment patterns of individuals. To research this, analysts went into homes and observed the interactions between mothers and their children. Four attachment pattern categories were identified from this study--free/autonomous, dismissing, enmeshed-ambivalent, and disorganized. Free/autonomous is where the mother is readily available, sensitive, and perceptive of their children's feelings and needs. Dismissing is when the mother is unavailable, rejecting, and distant. Enmeshed-ambivalents showed inconsistent availability. Disorganized mothers were disoriented as well as frightening to and frightened by their children. The analysts figured out that according to which category the mother fit into influenced the reaction and behavior of the child as well as how the child will develop as a parent based on these interactions. I found this quite interesting because I was able to examine my own relationship with my child as well as the relationship of my husband with our son and see how our upbringing has influenced how we parent.
The clinical cases about Cozolino's clients were also a great addition to the book. Each of their stories allowed you to come into their world and assess how their development was shaping their relationships. It enabled one to see the big picture and bring everything that was previously read together. Some of my favorite cases included Joaquin's, Dylan's and Pedro's.
Opinion and Recommendation:
Cozolino states that "it is the power of being with others that shapes our brains," and this book helps to reiterate this point constantly by giving a greatly-detailed journey into the brain and back out to the world on how we are social and thrive off our interactions with others. Through this review, I hope potential readers gain an informative synopsis of the book as well as discover why it is a great read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the brain's involvement in shaping us into who we are through our relationships with others and its plasticity which allows for change and healing in our lives. I really enjoyed reading this book. It has inspired me to want to learn more about how relationships define us not only socially and emotionally but spiritually and physically also. I highly recommend Cozolino's book to others to read as well.
Rating: - Beautifully written
Cozolino books is outstanding. Simple to read yet he provides empirical evidence into the development of psychopathology by juxtaposing "average" brains to those with pathology.
I enjoyed the research that he explained on trauma and stress and how it can shrink your hippocampus and create memory problems. This seems to be inline with the research that has been coming out on autobiographical memory specificity. This is an excellent book for anyone wanting to explore the biology of attachment and psychopathology.
I also enjoyed in the hope that he provides in being able to change the brain and change neurons and how they connect.
Rating: - biology and psychology fit together!
I am studying infant and child development, and appreciate and enjoy how two fields that normally don't speak the same language come together in this book. The author discusses how parts of the brain work, how hormones play a role, and how these biological substrates can help in understanding the attachment process. This is a useful addition to the typical descriptions of attachment at the "whole organism" level.
Rating:  - A good read for the inquisitive mind
This book is a great read if you are interested in the social development of children or if you take interest in rudimentary neuroscience. You may want to be near a computer to look up more information on the many parts of the brain to which he makes abundant references. Cozolino has done his research, and it definately shows in the depth if insight he exhibits in this book. He is also a seasoned veteran of the psychology field, and this comes through in his personal stories, which lend to the book some reprieve from the technical language of brain development. Highly recommended for those with an inquiring mind.
Rating: - Far and Away the Best Book on Neuroscience I've Read
I've read many books deserving of 4-5 stars over the past year, but none as complete and practical as this one. Author Louis Cozolino does a superb job of discussing the basic neuroanatomy and creating the analog of social synapses in which, by utilizing one another via empathetic circuitry and mirror neurons, we balance one another out biochemically in our relationships. Cozolino distills the information down to the level that is necessary for a novice to understand, while then toward the end of each chapter relating it to a case study; many authors have done this before, but none have 'metabolized' the information so well in comparison to Cozolino--I honestly feel as though a basic conversation with someone reveals quite a bit about the person, and after reading this book I feel as though I could hypothesize as to what areas of the brain may be deficient in certain cases. I am not saying this book will give one super powers or X-Ray vision, but gaining insight is almost certain.
If you wish to understand human relationships on a hard scientific level, then this is a must have.
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