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Author Archive for Rick Leonhardt

Beyond Thoughts & Prayers: Bridging Brain Research to the Public Sphere (Pt 4)

I was first introduced to the idea that a protracted period of “psychological birth” was required following actual “physical birth” after reading the 1975 book entitled Psychological Birth of the Human Infant—Symbiosis and Individuation by Margret Mahler, Fred Pine, and Anni Bergman. The authors argue that after physical birth a psychological symbiosis exists between mother and her infant. […]

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Beyond Thoughts & Prayers: Bridging Brain Research to the Public Sphere (Pt 3)

Here’s your brain:   Here’s your brain on conceptualization: I do not wish to be glib here. I do, however, wish to point out that conceptualizations are not meant to be the things they conceptualize or represent. As Joseph Campbell would say of metaphors (and I paraphrase): Do not eat the menu for the meal […]

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New BLT Blog by Email Service via MailChimp

Hello. Rick here. Yes, I know, it has been awhile since you last received a Bowlby Less Traveled blog post by email. Two things happened. First, after I released my book A Question of Attachment back in 2018, I decided to take a much needed break. Second, Google decided to retire its FeedBurner service. We […]

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Beyond Thoughts & Prayers: Bridging Brain Research to the Public Sphere (Pt 2)

Have you ever wondered Do bacteria have intelligence? You haven’t? Me neither. Neurobiologist Antonio Damasio has asked this question throughout his career investigating the origins of consciousness and his answer is a resounding Yes. In his book Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious, Damasio tells us that simple single-celled organisms such as bacteria do display […]

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Beyond Thoughts & Prayers: Bridging Brain Research to the Public Sphere (Pt 1)

From 2009 until 2016 President Obama felt compelled to address the nation no less than 14 times following all manner of mass shootings such as Sandy Hook (2012) and the Orlando nightclub shooting (2016).[1] He delivered six of these addresses in 2016 alone. His addresses circled around the sentiment, now burned into our synapses, “Our thoughts […]

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