The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are

This highly influential work; now in a revised and expanded third edition incorporating major advances in the field; gives clinicians, educators, and students a new understanding of what the mind is, how it grows, and how to promote healthy development and resilience. Daniel J. Siegel synthesises cutting-edge research from multiple disciplines, revealing the ways in which neural processes are fundamentally shaped by interpersonal relationships throughout life. And even when early experiences are not optimal, building deeper connections to other people and to one's own internal experience remains a powerful resource for growth. Professors praise the book’s utility in courses from developmental psychology and child development to neuroscience and counselling.

New to This Edition

• Incorporates findings from a huge body of recent research; over 1,000 citations added.
• Revisits and refines the core hypotheses of interpersonal neurobiology.
• Chapter on the experience of belonging and the development of identity.
• New or expanded discussions of behavioural epigenetics, the default mode network of the brain, social neuroscience, cultural and gender issues, theory of mind, the Wheel of Awareness contemplative practice, the science of consciousness, and more.

Table of Contents

Introduction. “What Is the Mind, Anyway?”: An Interpersonal Neurobiology Perspective

1. The Embodied Brain, Awareness, and the Nature of Energy sample
2. States of Mind: Cohesion, Subjective Experience, and Complex Systems
3. Memory and Narrative
4. Attachment and a Sense of Self
5. Emotion as Shifts in Integration
6. Representations and Mental Reality: Modes of Processing and the Construction of Reality
7. Regulation and Coherence
8. Interpersonal Connection and the Relational Mind
9. Integration Within and Between
10. Belonging, “Self,” and an Integrated Identity as Me plus We = MWe: A Framework for Cultivating Integration

Glossary

Notes

References

Index

"I can only describe this as a unique and astounding book about child development that every therapist must have in his or her library. Siegel is thorough and incredibly informative as he explains the child's developing social mind and brain. The book is also very readable."
- John M. Gottman, PhD, The Gottman Institute, Seattle, Washington

"Siegel presents an up-to-the-minute third edition of a book that is already in wide use. He elucidates the neurological underpinnings and social processes that have made humans—with our peculiar questing for intersubjective engagement—so different emotionally from other apes. No book I know of more clearly lays out, step by step, how people develop in response to those around them, and how variable those outcomes can be."
- Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, PhD, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of California, Davis

"Welcome to an intellectual feast that will also enrich your emotional life. Siegel is masterful at synthesizing multidisciplinary knowledge to give us an understanding of the mind that is both scientifically rigorous and richly imbued with experiential meaning. The third edition of this classic text incorporates new findings from thousands of recent studies, while retaining the fresh excitement of the field of interpersonal neurobiology that Siegel inaugurated 20 years ago. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in how the mind emerges from the interface between brain and interpersonal experience."
- Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD, Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair in Infant Mental Health and Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco

"This comprehensive book reviews three decades of neuroscience related to learning with others in the early months, and reveals new ideas about how the mind grows when a child is thriving. Siegel, a leader in child and family mental health, generously shares his expertise. He traces how the infant is committed from birth to play a part in the life of a community of personalities, and how our emotions, bodies, and brains move together in search of kindness and connection."
- Colwyn Trevarthen, PhD, FRSE, Professor Emeritus of Child Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

"The importance of Siegel’s work has been reflected in the interest, enthusiasm, and joy that his interpersonal neurobiology has brought to people around the world for more than two decades. The third edition of The Developing Mind presents the ongoing neuroscientific research that supports the book's initial hypotheses and expands their applications in psychotherapy, education, and mindfulness. It offers a window into Siegel's evolving synthesis of his theories of mind into the core of interpersonal neurobiology. Readers will find themselves on a wonderful intellectual and personal journey."
- Louis Cozolino, PhD, Graduate School of Education and Psychology, Pepperdine University

"An astonishing accomplishment. Somehow, Siegel explains the amazingly complex human mind to nonscientists and scientists alike. As a child psychologist, I find much of The Developing Mind of great interest and relevance to my practice, including excellent material on early attachment and trauma. The third edition has been completely updated with the most recent research and writings across multiple disciplines. Students and professionals in diverse fields will find interesting and useful material in this impressive work."
- Deborah Roth Ledley, PhD, private practice, Plymouth Meeting and Narberth, Pennsylvania