Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Growing the Brain: A New Perspective on Child Psychiatry

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Early Interaction and Developmental Psychopathology

  • 803 Accesses

Abstract

The author discusses the influence of her study of early development on her clinical work as a child psychiatrist and child analyst. She discusses three different results of this influence: (1) a major commitment to consultation to caregivers of young children, (2) greater clinical attention to regulation and growing regulatory competency, and (3) a shift in clinical emphasis from categorical diagnosis and medical or even psychoanalytic intervention to developmental formulation and scaffolding toward the goal of adaptive function. She describes some essential features of developmental theory that have had a profound effect on her thinking. She offers brief clinical examples to demonstrate her consultation to child caregivers, her attention to regulation, and her focus on developmental formulations and interventions. All of the interventions described—consultation to parents and other caregivers focus both on the child’s regulatory capacity and on developmental perspectives—have as their eventual goal “growing the child’s brain”.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    1American team members collaborating in giving workshops and designing PNE include Ginger Gregory, Alayne Stieglitz, Elizabeth Levey, Anna Baumgartel, and Abishek Bala; Indian collaborators are Neena Lyall and Himanshu Lyall.

  2. 2.

    The Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO), an adaptation of the assessment tool NBAS, developed by Brazelton and Nugent [29]. The aim of the NBO is to demonstrate to parents the particular competencies and sensitivities of their new infant, in that way promoting a responsive and supportive caregiving relationship.

References

  1. Bos K, Zeanah CH, Fox NA, Drury SS, McLaughlin KA, Nelson CA (2011) Psychiatric outcomes in young children with a history of institutionalization. Harv Rev Psychiatry 19(1):15–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Rutter M, Kumsta R, Schlotz W, Sonuga-Barke E (2012) Longitudinal studies using a “natural experiment”: design: the case of adoptees from Romanian orphanages. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 51(8):762–769

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Center on the Developing Child (2011) Building the brain’s “air traffic control” system: how early experiences shape the development of executive function: Working paper #11. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/

  4. Sullivan R, Perry R, Sloan A, Kleinhaus K, Burtchen N (2011) Infant bonding and attachment to the caregiver: insights from basic and clinical science. Clin Perinatol 38(4):643–655

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Porges SW (2003) Social engagement and attachment. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1008(1):31–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Partanen E, Kujala T, Näätänen R, Liitola A, Sambeth A, Huotilainen M (2013) Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth. Proc Natl Acad Sci 110(37):15145–15150

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Virtala P, Huotilainen M, Partanen E, Fellman V, Tervaniemi M (2013) Newborn infants’ auditory system is sensitive to Western music chord categories. Front Psychol. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00492

  8. Murray L, Trevarthen C (1986) The infant’s role in mother–infant communications. J Child Lang 13(01):15–29

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Trevarthen C (2012) Communicative musicality: the human impulse to create and share music. In: Hargreaves D, Miell D, MacDonald R (eds) Musical imaginations: multidisciplinary perspectives on creativity, performance, and perception. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 259–284

    Google Scholar 

  10. Piallini G, De Palo F, Simonelli A (2015) Parental brain: cerebral areas activated by infant cries and faces. A comparison between different populations of parents and not. Front Psychol. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01625

  11. Lambert KG (2012) The parental brain: transformations and adaptations. Physiol Behav 107(5):792–800

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Alio AP, Mbah AK, Kornosky JL, Wathington D, Marty PJ, Salihu HM (2011) Assessing the impact of paternal involvement on racial/ethnic disparities in infant mortality rates. J Commun Health 36(1):63–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Montirosso R, Provenzi L, Tavian D, Morandi F, Bonanomi A, Missaglia S, Borgatti R (2015) Social stress regulation in 4-month-old infants: contribution of maternal social engagement and infants’ 5-HTTLPR genotype. Early Hum Dev 91(3):173–179

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Porges SW (2015) Making the world safe for our children: down-regulating defence and up-regulating social engagement to ‘optimise’ the human experience. Children Australia 40(02):114–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Teicher MH, Samson JA, Anderson CM, Ohashi K (2016) The effects of childhood maltreatment on brain structure, function and connectivity. Nat Rev Neurosci 17(10):652–666

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Nelson C (2013) Biological embedding of early life adversity. JAMA Pediatr, Published online October 28, E1–E2, jamapediatrics.com.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Tronick EZ (2007) The neurobehavioral and social-emotional development of infants and children. Norton, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  18. Beebe B, Jaffe J, Markese S, Buck K, Chen H, Cohen P, Feldstein S (2010) The origins of 12-month attachment: a microanalysis of 4-month mother–infant interaction. Attach Hum Dev 12(1–2):3–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Perry B (2006) Applying principles of neurodevelopment to clinical work with maltreated and traumatized children: the neurosequential model of therapeutics. In: Webb NB (ed) Working with traumatized youth in child welfare. Guilford Press, New York, pp 27–52

    Google Scholar 

  20. Provenzi L, Giusti L, Montirosso R (2016) Do infants exhibit significant corticol reactivity to the face-to-face still-face paradigm? A narrative review and meta-analysis. Develop Rev. Elsevier Inc. www.elsevier.com/locate/dr.

  21. Tronick EZ (1989) Emotions and emotional communication in infants. Am Psychol 44(2):112–119

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Sander L (1977) The regulation of exchange in the infant-caretaker system and some aspects of the context-content relationship. Interact Convers Develop Lang 5(40):579–593

    Google Scholar 

  23. Caspi A, Houts RM, Belsky DW, Goldman-Mellor SJ, Harrington H, Israel S, Moffitt TE (2014) The p factor: one general psychopathology factor in the structure of psychiatric disorders? Clin Psychol Sci 2(2):119–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Kendler KS (1996) Major depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Same genes, (partly) different environments—revisited. Br J Psychiatry 168(30):68–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Insel, T. (2013) Transforming diagnosis [Web log post]. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml

  26. Fivaz-Depeursing E, Corboz-Warnery A (1999) The primary triangle. A developmental systems view of mothers, fathers, and infants. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  27. Downing G (2004) Emotion, body, and parent-infant interaction. In: Nadel J, Muir D (eds) Emotional development: recent research advances. Oxford University Press, Oxford 429–449.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Harrison AM (2005) Herding the animals into the barn: a parent consultation model. Psychoanal Study Child 60(1):128–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Brazelton T (1976) The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale, Clinics of Child Development No. 50. Spastics International Medical Publishing, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Alexandra Murray Harrison

  2. The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Newton Centre, MA, USA

    Alexandra Murray Harrison

Authors
  1. Alexandra Murray Harrison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Murray Harrison .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Groupe Hospitalier du Havre, Université de Rouen Normandie, Rouen, France

    Gisèle Apter

  2. Institute of Psychology, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

    Emmanuel Devouche

  3. University of Paris Nanterre, Nanterre Cedex, France

    Maya Gratier

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Harrison, A.M. (2019). Growing the Brain: A New Perspective on Child Psychiatry. In: Apter, G., Devouche, E., Gratier, M. (eds) Early Interaction and Developmental Psychopathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04769-6_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04769-6_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04767-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04769-6

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation