Daniel J. Siegel - Pocket guide to interpersonal neurobiology: an integrative handbook of the mind

THE NORTON SERIES ON
INTERPERSONAL NEUROBIOLOGY

Allan N. Schore, PhD, Series Editor
Daniel J. Siegel, MD, Founding Editor

The field of mental health is in a tremendously exciting period of growth and conceptual reorganization. Independent findings from a variety of scientific endeavors are converging in an interdisciplinary view of the mind and mental well-being. An interpersonal neurobiology of human development enables us to understand that the structure and function of the mind and brain are shaped by experiences, especially those involving emotional relationships.

The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology provides cutting-edge, multidisciplinary views that further our understanding of the complex neurobiology of the human mind. By drawing on a wide range of traditionally independent fields of researchsuch as neurobiology, genetics, memory, attachment, complex systems, anthropology, and evolutionary psychologythese texts offer mental health professionals a review and synthesis of scientific findings often inaccessible to clinicians. These books aim to advance our understanding of human experience by finding the unity of knowledge, or consilience, that emerges with the translation of findings from numerous domains of study into a common language and conceptual framework. The series integrates the best of modern science with the healing art of psychotherapy.

A NORTON PROFESSIONAL BOOK

DANIEL J. SIEGEL, MD

An Integrative Handbook of the Mind

Copyright 2012 by Mind Your Brain, Inc.

All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Siegel, Daniel J., 1957
Pocket guide to interpersonal neurobiology:
an integrative handbook of the mind / Daniel J. Siegel.1st ed.
p. cm.(The Norton series on interpersonal neurobiology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-393-70713-7 (pbk.)
1. Neuropsychology. 2. Thought and thinkingPhysiological aspects.
3. Interpersonal relations. 4. BrainLocalization of functions. I. Title.
QP360.S4853 2012
612.8dc23

2011044216

ISBN: 978-0-393-70713-7 (pbk.)

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FOR ALEX

Thank you for joining me on this journey into the nature of the mind! Weaving the entries of the Pocket Guide together to reveal the sphere of knowledge underlying Interpersonal Neurobiology has been an exciting challenge, and I hope you will find that this exploration of mind, brain, and relationships is of value in your professional as well as personal life. Building and being a part of a community of people who nurture integration and well-being in our world is one of the most rewarding endeavors in which Ive been fortunate to participate. Whether we are together in person at our monthly seminars and the annual IPNB conference at UCLA, or online in our global mindsight community, sharing this journey to bring more compassion and kindness into the world is a profound privilege.

Creating a common ground in which to bring science and subjectivity into a deep and respectful discussion with each other has been a wonderful conversation to facilitate over these last two decades. Our interdisciplinary community continues to grow, and I am deeply grateful to the many people who have been a part of this emerging new approach to understanding the mind and promoting mental health in the world. The Mindsight Institute is a wonderful home for Interpersonal Neurobiology, a place where it has been nurtured to grow and develop. Caroline Welch has been a powerful presence in our work and organizing the Institute and moving it to a new level of outreach in the world. Eric Bergemann, Tina Bryson, Erica Ellis, and Aubrey Siegel are mental health professionals who were a part of the institute from the beginning. Stephanie Hamilton and Whitney Stambler offer regular support for our many programs, nearby and around the planet. The many members of the Global Association for Interpersonal Neurobiology Studies (MindGAINS.org) are a continual source of stimulation and encouragement. Bonnie Goldstein and Marion Solomon of the Lifespan Institute have been of invaluable support in the creation of the annual Interpersonal Neurobiology Conference held in collaboration with UCLA. Deborah Malmud, Vice President and Director of Norton Professional Books, has been of great support in working with me to create the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology. She has great insights into what the field of mental health has needed. Working together to develop the series over this past decade has been an honor and a pleasure. Vani Kannan, the Associate Managing Editor of Norton Professional Books, has also been of great assistance. I would also like to thank Allan Schore for serving as the Series Editor in recent years.

In the creation of this book, Lee Freedman, Laura Hubber, Lynn Kutler, Sally Maslansky, Adit Shah, Aubrey Siegel, and Caroline Welch offered invaluable comments regarding the whole manuscript. The Norton Interpersonal Neurobiology authors Bonnie Badenoch, Lou Cozolino, Pat Ogden, Steve Porges, and Ed Tronick were so generous with their time in reviewing the annotated index and nodal network and offering ), and Madeleine W. Siegel, aka MAWS, and company.

The approach of the Pocket Guide has been to weave an integrated handbook of the mind in a non-linear way so that the reader, you, could make this sphere of knowledge your own. The discussions in this book of the concepts and scientific principles, the research findings, and the facts, have been possible only because of the hard, painstaking work of a wide range of researchers from over a dozen different disciplines of science. As described in the introduction, the references to those thousands of studies can be found in the many other Norton Interpersonal Neurobiology texts, as well as the second edition of The Developing Mind. Here, I would like to acknowledge the gifts of those scientists whose shoulders we stand upon in Interpersonal Neurobiology. It is their work that creates the foundation for us to build this interdisciplinary view of mind, brain, and relationships, and to attempt to create new ways to define the mind and to bring more well-being into the world. Finding the universal principles across many academic fields, discovering the consilience that emerges when usually independent research endeavors are explored together, has been an exciting challenge at the heart of creating this integrative approach. I hope youll find that this effort has born fruit, and that you and all of the people in the many parts of your life will be the beneficiaries of our collective efforts.

We are all outsiders when we travel. Whether we go abroad or roam about our own city or country, we often enter territory so unfamiliar that our frames of reference become inadequate. We need advice not just to avoid offense and danger, but to make our experiences richer, deeper, and more fun. So begins the preface of