Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential--and Endangered

Bruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz

Harper Collins, Apr 6, 2010 - Psychology - 384 pages

The groundbreaking exploration of the power of empathy by renowned child-psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry, co-author, with Oprah Winfrey, of What Happened to You?

Born for Love reveals how and why the brain learns to bond with others—and is a stirring call to protect our children from new threats to their capacity to love.

“Empathy, and the ties that bind people into relationships, are key elements of happiness. Born for Love is truly fascinating.” — Gretchen Rubin,  author of The Happiness Project

From birth, when babies' fingers instinctively cling to those of adults, their bodies and brains seek an intimate connection, a bond made possible by empathy—the ability to love and to share the feelings of others.

In this provocative book, psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry and award-winning science journalist Maia Szalavitz interweave research and stories from Perry's practice with cutting-edge scientific studies and historical examples to explain how empathy develops, why it is essential for our development into healthy adults, and how to raise kids with empathy while navigating threats from technological change and other forces in the modern world.

Perry and Szalavitz show that compassion underlies the qualities that make society work—trust, altruism, collaboration, love, charity—and how difficulties related to empathy are key factors in social problems such as war, crime, racism, and mental illness. Even physical health, from infectious diseases to heart attacks, is deeply affected by our human connections to one another.

As Born for Love reveals, recent changes in technology, child-rearing practices, education, and lifestyles are starting to rob children of necessary human contact and deep relationships—the essential foundation for empathy and a caring, healthy society. Sounding an important warning bell, Born for Love offers practical ideas for combating the negative influences of modern life and fostering positive social change to benefit us all.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - puttocklibrary - LibraryThing

An excellent book. Full of insights on why empathy is important in everyone's lives; why some people have it...and some people don't. A must read for anyone intending to have, or already have, young ...

wonderful book

User Review  - mainemomof2 - Overstock.com

This book has a fantastic chapter on autism and empathy. Recommended

Contents

• one heAven Is other PeoPLe: 7
• two In Your fAce: 27
• three MIssIng PeoPLe: 45
• four Intense WorLd: 72
• seven resILIence: 145
• eight the chAMeLeon: 170
• eleven on BABoons BrItIsh cIvIL: 232
• twelve WArM As IceLAnd: 259
• thirteen ALL together noW: 288
• epilogue PeoPLe And ProgrAMs: 323

About the author

Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., is the senior fellow of the ChildTrauma Academy (www.ChildTrauma.org), a not-for-profit organization based in Houston that is dedicated to improving the lives of high-risk children, and he is an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago. He is the author, with Maia Szalavitz, of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, a bestselling book based on his work with maltreated children.

Maia Szalavitz is the author of Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids (Riverhead, 2006), which led to state investigations into the industry as well as federal legislation. She is a senior fellow at media watchdog STATS.org and has written for the New York Times, Elle, Time magazine online, and the Washington Post.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential--and Endangered
• Authors: Bruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz
• Publisher: Harper Collins, 2010
• ISBN: 0061987670, 9780061987670
• Length: 384 pages
• Subjects: Family & Relationships / Parenting / General; Psychology / Developmental / Child; Science / Cognitive Science