The Myth of Normal 105

The architecture of the brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth, continues into adulthood, and establishes either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all the health, learning, and behavior that follow. The interaction of genes and experiences literally shapes the circuitry of the developing brain, and is critically influenced by the mutual responsiveness of adult-child relationships, particularly in the early childhood years.[4] In other words, early development sets the ground—whether strong or shaky—for all the learning, behavior, and health (or lack of it) that will come later. The researchers’ words, if taken to heart, would call our attention to much in our current culture that cries out for immediate renovation. If emotion is the ground of cognition, then relationships are the tectonic plates that shape that ground. Of these, a child’s early emotional interactions with their nurturing caregiver(s) exert the primary influence on how the brain is programmed—again, the unconscious comes first, followed later by things like intellect.[5] In the words of the renowned developmental psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan and colleagues, “Emotional rather than intellectual interaction serves as the mind’s primary architect.”[6] Given this order of operations, children’s sense of security, trust in the world, interrelationships with others, and, above all, connection to their authentic emotions hinge on the consistent availability of attuned, nonstressed, and emotionally reliable caregivers. The more stressed or distracted the latter, the shakier the emotional architecture of the child’s mind will be. If that sounds like an indictment of parents, that’s the farthest from my intention. At the risk of being overly repetitious, let me state again that parent-blaming isn’t only cruel and unfair; it’s nonsensical. Suffice it for now to say that the quality of early caregiving is heavily, even decisively, determined by the societal context in which it takes place. As we will see, children are increasingly set upon by an accumulation of potent influences— social, economic, and cultural—that overwhelm and, in many ways, subjugate their internal emotional apparatus to imperatives that have nothing