The Growth of the Mind - Introduction

Questioning a Historical Dichotomy

Stanley I. Greenspan, MD (with Beryl Lieff Benderly) wrote the book The Growth of the Mind in 1997. It's about how we develop intelligence. I read the Introduction today and started on chapter one; this entry will tackle the Introduction only.

...emotions, not cognitive stimulation, serve as the mind's primary architect. (p. 1)

This is, essentially, Greenspan's theory - the one this book is meant to explain, make clear, etc.

He explains, early on, the hazards of using traditional IQ testing to determine whether or not a child has developmental delays, describing a child called Cara who failed an IQ test but displayed many cognitive abilities outside of the formal testing environment.

Clearly, as Cara's thrilling linguistic debut demonstrates, early relationships and emotional experiences - the excitement of reciprocity with her mother, not isolated skills like fitting pegs and finding beads - hold the key to her intelligence and mental development. (p. 3)

He goes on to discuss the history of our culture and psychology, and seems to blame psychiatry (that is to say, psychopharmachology - medicalization of "psychological problems" - treatment of things like depression with medication) for the current dearth of emphasis on emotional development.

He notes a paper by Antonio Damasio which showed that people whose prefrontal cortex has been damaged can have perfectly intact IQ scores but still have difficulty making good decisions.

Children or adults with sequencing problems invariably have difficulty in making judgments because they do not easily construct patterns; they can't see the forest for the trees. (p. 6)

Finally, he explains the full emotion thing:

Historically, emotions have been viewed in a number of ways: as outlets for extreme passion, as physiologic reactions, as subjective states of feeling, as interpersonal social cues. Our developmental observations suggest, however, that perhaps the most critical role for emotions is to create, organize, and orchestrate many of the mind's most important functions. In fact, intellect, academic abilities, sense of self, consciousness, and morality ahve common origins in our earliest and ongoing emotional experiences. Unlikely as the scenario may seem, the emotions are in fact the architects of a vast array of cognitive operations throughout the life span. Indeed, they make possible all creative thought. (p. 7)

This is, essentially, what he's been getting at all along. As we continue to read, I'm sure it will become more clear. But the Introduction doesn't end there.

Deprivation or alteration of needed experiences can produce a range of deficits. ... Experience continues to influence brain structure during childhood and adulthood. (p. 8)

Children seem to require certain types of emotional interactions geared to their particular developmental needs. (p. 8)

Next to these I have noted, "What does this mean about ADHD?" And it's a good question to ask, I think. Most of what Greenspan is saying in this book has the potential to impact our understanding of autism and ADHD - and other disorders that affect an individual's development.

And then he talks about autism, very briefly. The paragraph is long; I'll just quote the two bits that stood out for me:

...physiology makes it difficult for them to engage in the interactive emotional experiences that are required for mental growth. ... Many of these children have since grown to be intelligent and emotionally healthy. (p. 9)

"Doesn't take into account people like Amanda or Chris." Amanda (Ballastexistenz) and Chris are both autistic adults I've known online for a number of years. Amanda is, I suppose, "profoundly autistic" and extremely intelligent; Chris works full-time and is "successful" but has a past fraught with abuse. Yet Amanda, being so severely affected, ought to be severely cognitively delayed, oughtn't she? And Chris, with her abusive background, oughtn't to be as successful in her life as she is. According to Greenspan, that is.

On page 10, Greenspan notes that infants process their sensory world with the same parts of the brain that are devoted to emotions. He says that

Babies whose brains lack the ability to regulate emotions have trouble paying attention and discriminating among sensations. They have difficulty figuring out what they are looking at or listening to. They often become irritable and their reactions disorganized. (p. 10)

This sounds a heck of a lot like ADHD.

The following pages explore this developmental perspective and its implications for how we bring up our children, function as adults, and participate in our society. (p. 10)

And here ends the Introduction.

I made a very few notes.

According to the introduction, then:

1. Cognitive development is strongly influenced by emotional experiences in the early years.
2. Children whose biology puts them at risk for developing autism require a certain amount/type of emotional stimulation if they are to develop normally.
3. If a person's emotions cannot be regulated, their senses also become disorganized.

This post's icon was created by the author of the post, for once!