Brain, Attachment, Personality

An Introduction to Neuroaffective Development

Susan Hart

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780367106034
• eBook ISBN: 9780429911545
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This book is intended as an inspiration and as an introduction to what Susan Hart has called neuroaffective developmental psychology. As an underlying theme throughout the book, she seeks to emphasize the importance of attachment for the formation of personality in all its diversity. This book presents a merger of systems that are not normally brought together in a structured psychodynamic context. Thus it operates on three levels: a neurobiological level, an intrapsychological level, and an interpersonal level. It also focuses on the brain structures that are essential for the formation of relationships, personality development, and emotions. It attempts to provide an understanding of the way that the uniquely human nervous system develops capacities for empathy, mentalization, and reflection that enable us to address such aspects as: past and present, interpersonal relations, ethics, art, and aesthetics. Susan Hart has endeavoured to make the text meaningful and comprehensible in order to make the topic interesting and inspiring to the reader, and to spark an interest in further studies.

Chapter One

The dynamic brain in a dynamic environment: an epigenetic understanding

Just as everything about our minds is caused by our brains, everything about our brains is ultimately caused by our evolutionary history. For human beings, nurture is our nature. The capacity for culture is part of our biology, and the drive to learn is our most important and central instinct

(Gopnik, Meltzoff, & Kuhl, 1999, p. 8)

From the moment of conception there is a dynamic interaction between our genetic and hereditary properties and our environment. From birth, infants are predisposed to establish attachment and to engage in interactions with their care-givers. They initiate and control interactive situations and have an intuitive basis for sharing other people’s feelings and grasping their intentions. Three-week-old infants are able to imitate other people’s facial expressions, and two-day-old infants are able to reliably imitate a face that smiles, frowns, or looks surprised (Field, Woodson, Greenberg, & Cohen, 1982; Meltzoff & Moore, 1977; Stern, 1985).

The discussion of nature vs. nurture seems never-ending and is, in many respects, meaningless, since nature and nurture can be only expressed through intimate interaction. Nature and nurture are expressed at the moment of conception, throughout gestation, during childhood and youth, and in adulthood. A mother, father, or other primary care-giver affects the development of the infant’s affect-regulating system, which is neurally conditioned, and which later helps regulate other attachment functions. John Bowlby viewed attachment as the part of human biology through which social bonds are enacted. The attachment process enables the development of complex mental functions through complex actions from the primary care-giver. Many of these mental functions are uniquely human (Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, & Target, 2002).

In this first chapter, I address the issue of nature vs. nurture and discuss man’s inherent biological properties as tailor-made to provide us with the capacity for interacting with our environment or culture; I also look at the evolution of the human nervous system. Paul MacLean’s view of the triune brain will be incorporated in a discussion of the human nervous system as consisting of different forms of mentalization, which are capable of functioning independently but usually function in close interaction through a sprawling and tight-knit network of neural paths. At the end of the chapter, I offer a brief introduction to brain development from birth and to the importance of stimulation as the key driver of, and condition for, this development.

Nature and nurture

Howard Gardner (1996) notes that our potential capacities are expressed through the basic structures of the brain, i.e. through heredity, but that environmental factors mobilize these latent capacities by altering the efficiency of the existing neural pathways and causing new behavioural patterns to emerge. We are born with physiological and psycho-biological equipment that must be exposed to human culture in order to reach its potential; our innate potential can only be realized through culture. Our life experiences are critical for the differentiation of brain tissue. The innate structure of the nervous system determines children’s interactions with their surroundings, and the resulting responses in turn affect the structure. Thus, there is no inside and outside in relation to the nervous system; as Daniel Stern (2001) has pointed out, we are all born to engage in each other’s nervous systems.

The neural structure determines the potential, but experience gives it its specific form. As humans, we are predisposed to develop language, for example, but the specific language that we acquire depends on our environment. The specific information derived from experiences is incorporated into the neural structures. The structure that the nervous system has from birth determines the opportunities and the changes that environmental influences can lead to. Nature and nurture are not each other’s opposites; they interact in an interdependent process and are inseparable. Some genes only express themselves under certain life circumstances, and individuals who are particularly genetically vulnerable are also more receptive to psychological damage from environmental factors. We respond differently to similar stress stimuli, and environmental factors affect our personalities in different ways (Rutter & Rutter, 1997).

The human biological capacity for participating in culture

No individual can be divorced from his or her history and culture; we are not fully contained within our own skin. We have a biological capacity for taking part in social interactions and communication because we are born with the predisposition for forming attachments and interacting with our care-givers. Humans are social beings, and our psychological functions depend on interactions and transactions with the social environment during infancy. Biology does not determine a person’s actions and experiences—biology determines what is possible. Culture shapes the human mind. It is impossible to determine how much of a child’s psychological function is the child’s own, and how much is a product of the child’s relationships. Culture consists of an infinite number of ways of being together, through language, narrative explanations, etc., in a shared life where people rely on each other. Culture makes actions meaningful by imbuing these actions with intentions within a particular interpretive system that is active from birth (Bruner, 1986). The child arrives with certain innate abilities for participating in culture, and the resulting life and personality are derived from a developmental process that unfolded under particular historical circumstances.

The human brain is the most complex and plastic natural system in the known universe. Humans and mammals have many instinctive operational brain systems, but in the mature adult human brain the instinctive processes are difficult to observe because they are no longer expressed directly but are filtered and modified by higher cognitive activity. The instinctive operative systems form the basis for our sophisticated abilities. The human ability to acquire language, for example, is genetically determined, but the genetic programming concerning language is unusually open and susceptible to environmental influences. The construction of mammalian brains is governed by genetically dictated rules that include innate development programmes. Specific genes are expressed at specific developmental stages. There are programmes for selective cell death, which selectively kill off surplus neurons in order to make room for new and more advanced possibilities. These processes are controlled by chemical substances and molecules that foster optimal neuronal growth patterns. Darwin (1872) mentioned that certain primary emotions arose through genetic dictate, but that they matured and were shaped by environmental influences through personal experiences throughout the lifespan. Neuronal migration and the formation of billions of synapses follow a set of general principles, which cannot be exclusively under genetic control because we simply do not have that many genes. Our genes enable us to feel and behave in certain ways, and cultural learning enables us to effectively utilize these abilities and navigate in a complex world. These trends are combined in motor skills, sensory perception, affect, motivation, emotion, thinking, behaviour, etc.—all the aspects that we define as personality.

The relationship between genetic predispositions and environmental factors

Many hereditary phenomena require transactions with the environment in order to be expressed, and the care-givers’ behaviour plays an important role in determining which hereditary predispositions actually unfold, and how (Plomin, 1983). Heredity defines the basic parameters for our development, but many other factors determine the actualization and expression of these hereditary elements. All learning depends on a genetically programmed capacity for learning and involves environmental influences on hereditary properties. Genes contribute to, but do not dictate, the formation of synapses. Schizophrenia is a case in point: if one identical twin develops schizophrenia, the other twin has a high likelihood of also developing the disorder. On average, about one per cent of the population develops schizophrenia. The non-identical twin of a person with schizophrenia has a seventeen per cent risk of also developing the disorder, while the risk for a non-twin sibling is nine per cent. The risk that the identical twin of a person with schizophrenia also develops the disorder is only about fifty per cent, although they share the same genetic material (LeDoux, 2001; Plomin, 1999).

The Finnish psychologist Pekka Tienari (1991) compared adoptive children who had schizophrenic birth mothers with adoptive children whose biological parents had no psychological disorders. He found that the adoptive children with schizophrenic birth mothers were somewhat more likely to develop a personality disorder than the children in the other group—but only when they lived in homes that were considered emotionally dysfunctional. Even a high genetic risk does not necessarily mean that the consequences of a given behaviour are linked with this risk. If, for example, child abuse were found to be conditioned by genetic factors, the damage that the child suffered would still happen, via the child’s loss of trust in the environment. Similarly, criminal behaviour only seems to be related to genetic risk if the child spends the first few years of life in a dysfunctional family. Whether the genetic risk manifests itself depends on the quality of the child’s family network (Fonagy, 2003).

Genetic factors and the way they are expressed are more amenable to environmental influences at certain developmental stages. These are often referred to as particularly sensitive or critical periods. Genes do not exercise their full influence at birth, but are boosted periodically by maturational progress and through interactions at the various developmental stages. The human brain develops about seventy per cent of its final content and potential after birth (Schore, 1994).

Certain innate dispositions are more susceptible to outside influences than others; for example, experiments with monkeys have showed that monkeys’ innate fear of snakes requires not only exposure to a snake but also to the mother’s expression of fear when encountering the snake. A single exposure is sufficient to trigger fear in the young monkey, but without the mother’s fear response the young monkey’s innate fear will not be activated. Thus, the unconscious reaction to snakes has both an innate and an acquired component, and these are interconnected somewhere deep inside the unconscious system (Damasio, 2003). The biological factors create the predispositions and conditions for our interactions with our surroundings, which in turn shape our behaviour. In addition, some of these elements may become symbols, laden with meaning. For example, snakes, bears, and other powerful animals play an important role in the myths and storytelling of most communities. When these symbols are applied they affect us on a deep emotional level.

Our genes are environmentally responsive

Edelman and Tononi (2000) point out that the specific environment that a child is born into determines which neural networks and synapses are formed and strengthened. Already, at birth, the stimulation that the child is exposed to initiates and strengthens certain specific patterns of neural activity. In this manner, genetic and environmental factors interact at every stage of brain development. The environment plays a key role in the establishment and strengthening (selection) of synaptic connections after birth. Because the human brain is so relatively unfinished at birth, the care-givers have a major impact on the detailed structure and functions of the brain. The care-givers affect the unfolding of the brain’s genetic programmes through experience-dependent influences and development. The genetic potential plays out on a background of specific social experiences that impact the way that neurons interconnect. Human contact creates neural connections. For example, although the ability and desire for play is a genetically programmed behaviour, these traits are only expressed under the right circumstances. Anxiety and hunger, for example, inhibit play. Most mammals only play when they are in a warm, supportive, and safe setting with engaged and involved care-givers. Thus, environmental stimuli regulate the anatomical and cellular organization in the developing nervous system (Schore, 1994).

Previous experiences affect development on both a psychological and a neurophysiological level. The infant’s early care-givers help create a personality foundation, which enables the infant to engage in many other future human relations. The quality and nature of these relationships determine the infant’s opportunity for unfolding his or her genetic potential.

An example of the interdependence of nature and nurture is illustrated in experiments with rhesus monkeys, where Stephen Suomi (1985, 1991, 1997, 2000) studied different monkey personalities. Suomi found that young monkeys often display personality features that resemble those of their fathers, even though, in many cases, they had never met their fathers. He also found that maternal care can effectively turn particularly vulnerable and unfortunate personality features around and that such traits as shyness or a reactive temper are innate features that may unfold in advantageous or disadvantageous ways, depending on the monkey’s upbringing. Thus, temper is hereditary, but open to both positive and negative influences through environmental factors—our genes are environmentally responsive. Suomi found that a caring rhesus monkey mother might make up for difficult temperamental aspects; for example, by taking the time to teach the young monkey coping strategies. The young monkey learns how to seek support from others, and as an adult it will often command a high position in the group hierarchy. In monkeys, the effect of early experiences may be reversible, even in extreme cases, although this is not an easy process. In humans, too, the early social environment has substantial impact on subsequent behaviour, and even the “best genes” in the world cannot ensure that an individual will grow up to be socially competent if he or she is raised in a harmful environment. On the other hand, even the best or the worst environment imaginable cannot prevent certain innate features from appearing at specific times in the child’s development and being integrated into the child’s behavioural repertoire.

Vulnerability and environmental influences

Temperamental components such as passivity or hyperactivity, for example, may be induced by either innate or environmental manipulations. Several studies (including van Ijzendoorn, Goldberg, Kroonenberg, & Frenkel, 1992) conclude that parental factors have a much greater influence on the infant’s attachment pattern than the infant’s temperamental characteristics. There is also documentation that innate factors help determine an infant’s attachment competencies in the form of secure or insecure attachment (Brodén, 1991). Children are born with different temperaments, which affect their encounter with the world.

As Allan Schore (1994) has pointed out, humans have an innate template for engaging in interactions with a primary care-giver and for unfolding their potential through specific interactions with this person. The mother regulates interactions with the infant, regulates the infant’s endocrine and nervous system, and acts as an external regulator of the neurochemistry in the infant brain, as has previously been pointed out by Plomin (1983), Hofer (1983), and others.

Sroufe (1979, 1996) has studied infants with depressed, inattentive mothers and found a clear connection between the degree and character of the interaction and a progressive deterioration of the conditions of these infants. At three months, the infants’ responses were unremarkable, at six months, they seemed anxious or passive Around the age of one year, half the children showed an insecure attachment to their mothers, and at age eighteen months all the children had an insecure attachment. The mother’s personality has been found to be a more reliable predictor of the child’s future attachment pattern than the child’s own temperament. The child’s temperament—responsiveness, activity level, attention management, etc.—influences the expression of a particular attachment pattern but not the nature of the pattern. Other studies have shown that parents may have difficulty establishing a safe and secure base for children with difficult innate temperaments: for example, children who are difficult to regulate or children with an innate temperament that differs from that of their parents (Belsky & Isabella, 1988; Chess & Thomas, 1987; Karen, 1998).

According to Rutter and Rutter (1997), there is no evidence that specific behavioural patterns are hereditary. From birth, children have individual temperamental differences, and some infants are more amenable to emotional regulation than others. Temperamental differences affect the interaction with the care-giver, and difficulties in the interaction may stem from the mother’s personality, the child’s personality, differenc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Foreword
• Chapter One The dynamic brain in a dynamic environment: an epigenetic understanding
• Chapter Two Genetics and embryology: the cradle of personality
• Chapter Three The brain: a complex and dynamic structure
• Chapter Four Windows of opportunity: the programmable hardwired system
• Chapter Five Resonance, synchronicity, and mirror neurons: the basic units of brain circuitry and affect attunement
• Chapter Six The basic body-sensing and affect-regulating brain: brainstem and cerebellum
• Chapter Seven The brain of motor systems and emotions: the diencephalon and the limbic system
• Chapter Eight The brain of complex emotions, mentalization, abstraction, and reason: the parietal lobes and the prefrontal cortex
• Chapter Nine Neurotransmitters, peptides, and hormones: the messengers of the brain
• Chapter Ten The affect-regulating system of the brain
• Chapter Eleven Girls, boys, men, and women: the impact of sex hormones and environment on differences between the sexes
• Chapter Twelve The lateralized brain: right and left hemisphere
• Chapter Thirteen Memory and its impact on the formation of personality and mentalization
• Chapter Fourteen The foundation of personality: self and consciousness
• Epilogue
• Glossary
• References
• Index