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Archive for Michael Thomas

“The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment and the Developing Social Brain (Second Edition)”—Your Brain on Bad Relationships

If you lived in the US back in the 1980s, you’re probably familiar with this tagline: “This is your brain on drugs … any questions?” This tagline came from a series of TV PSAs (public service ads) sponsored by Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The ad I remember featured a guy who looked like a […]

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Light the Funeral Pyre for Mourning: Hijacking Bowlbian Attachment Theory

As promised in my February 3rd, 2016, blog post, I just finished reading In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Encounters with Addiction (2008) by Canadian MD Gabor Maté. I read Hungry Ghosts because on the surface it appeared to track the information presented in the 2014 edited volume entitled Addictions from an Attachment Perspective—Do Broken […]

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Of Marshmallows, Brain Plasticity and Attachment – RECAP

My four-part series on Marshmallows, Brain Plasticity and Attachment was triggered by my read of Walter Mischel’s 2014 book entitled The Marshmallow Test—Mastering Self-Control. Today’s post will be a recap, a Reader’s Digest version if you will. I will also offer up a few possible ways of connecting the middle object brain to the upper […]

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Of Marshmallows, Brain Plasticity and Attachment (part III)

Part I introduced the reader to the work of Walter Mischel. Mischel developed the Marshmallow Test back in the 1960s. The Marshmallow Test is used to assess the psychological dimension known as “the ability to delay gratification.” Kids assessed as “high delayers” on the Marshmallow Test tend to go on to have successful lives. High […]

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Of Marshmallows, Brain Plasticity and Attachment (part II)

Even a cursory glance reveals that the topic of brain plasticity is both scientifically and politically complex. As mentioned in part I, the concept of brain plasticity attempts to capture the brain’s apparent ability to change in response to new experiences such as therapy, cognitive exercises, and even certain religious practices (i.e., meditation and mindfulness). […]

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