After a career in medical and scientific photography, Sir Richard retired in 1999 to spend his time studying the work of his father, John Bowlby, the pioneer researcher on the impact of early attachment relationships between parents and their young children. “Disruptive children, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, depression and crime, are problems that usually share a common origin. It is the quality of the earliest attachment relationships formed between parents and their babies that tend to predispose the behaviour of the developing child and emerging adult. There is now overwhelming long-term scientific evidence that points to the first two years of a person’s life as the critical period for their personality traits to become established. These patterns of behavior are wired up in the infant's developing brain, and when they later become parents they will frequently find themselves repeating the experiences of their own childhood with their child.”
Video Programs
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Sir Richard Bowlby On Attachment
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Birth As A Cultural Initiation Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD
Robbie David-Floyd, PhD is a cultural/medical/symbolic-interpretive anthropologist, specializing in ritual studies and the anthropology of reproduction. Her book; Birth as an American Rite of Passage peals back the curtain and reveals the hidden agenda behind routine obstetrical practices in a technocratic culture. "I realized it was a piece of high technology that made obstetrics a high-tech profession. Before we had the monitor, obstetricians were looked down on. Real doctors have PET scans and CAT scans, and those things were cool, and, doctors can get all this information from inside the body. Once obstetrics got ultrasound and the fetal monitor everything changed. In the 1980 edition of Williams Obstetrics, the preface to it says, (paraphrased): Isn’t this a glorious time to be an obstetrician? Now, we have two patients because now, with ultrasound, we can peer into the mother’s body; we can study the condition of the fetus, and we don’t have to rely on the mother, anymore, for information about the baby. Isn’t that exciting! That’s what they were all about. I realized that the fetal monitor and the ultrasound were the two powerful, high-technology symbols that made obstetrics a profession—a viable, acceptable, reputable medical profession."
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Lloyd deMause The History of Childhood
Lloyd deMause is the founder of The Journal of Psychohistory and first president of the International Psychohistorical Association. Psychohistory is the science of historical motivations, combines the insights of psychotherapy with the research methodology of the social sciences to understand the emotional origin of the social and political behavior of groups and nations, past and present. Lloyd has taught psychohistory at the City University of New York and the New York Center for Psychoanalytic Training, is a member of the Society for Psychoanalytic Training, and has lectured widely in Europe and America. He has published over 80 scholarly articles in such periodicals as The Nation, Psychology Today, The Guardian, The Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology, The Journal of Psychohistory, Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity and many others. His books include The History of Childhood, A Bibliography of Psychohistory, The New Psychohistory, Jimmy Carter and American Fantasy, Foundations of Psychohistory, Reagan’s America, The Emotional Life of Nations, and The Origins of War in Child Abuse.
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Marilyn Milos On Circumcism
Every parent has a right and an obligation to know what’s going to be done to their son behind closed doors. Not only to protect the son from a traumatic experience, because it is obviously traumatic, but also to prevent mothers from feeling the same way that I had felt about oh my God, I didn’t know enough to protect my own babies.
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Ashley Montagu
Our first Touch the Future interview was recorded in my home with Ashley Montagu in 1994, an anthropologist and humanist who popularized issues such as race and gender and their relationship to politics and human development. Ashley authored over fifty books including Life Before Birth, Touching, On Being Human, The Nature of Human Aggression, The Natural Superiority of Women, Growing Young and many others. In 1995 The American Humanist Association named him the humanist of the Year for revolutionizing our understanding of human nature. Ashley has been an inspiration to Touch the Future from its inception. Michael Mendizza
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The Continuum Concept Leidloff
This is the best interview with Jean Leidloff, author of the Continuum concept, anywhere. We have made a terrible mistake about what human nature is. We are under the misapprehension that we're born bad, or in the official words of the Church of England, innately depraved, and that is simply not true. I was living for more than two years with Stone Age Indians, looking straight at them and not really seeing them, because I was so blinded by preconceptions. I didn't even notice that, amazingly, the children never fought. They played together all day unsupervised, all ages, from crawling, to walking to adolescence. Not only did they not fight, they never even argued. This is not at all what we have been taught human nature is-boys will be boys. So I thought, "well maybe, boys won't be boys." One thinks these are savages. They wear red paint and father loincloths, so they're not people. But they're exactly the same species as we are, except they are behaving the way we all evolved to behave. We, on the other hand, are mistreated as infants and children, treated inappropriately for our species. As a result, we keep re-creating an anti-social population. Nobody's born rotten. You just don't have bad kids. It's not true. There is no such thing. But we can make them bad.
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Babies Know More than You Think
Ours is the first generation to have scientific information about life before birth. Babies learn and remember more and much earlier than we ever-imagined. Understanding this research can profoundly impact pregnancy, birth, bonding and beyond. This 60 minute video describes how the attitudes, beliefs and emotional states of mom and dad affect the unborn baby and what can be done to insure optimum growth during this first frontier of development. David Chamberlain, PhD., is a psychologist and major contributor to the field of pre and perinatal psychology. He has authored The Mind Of Your New Born Baby and over forty professional papers on the consciousness of the unborn child. for many years David served as the President of the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health. Suzanne Arms
helped pioneer a national social movement by bringing important information about the process of birth to women, men and health care providers. She is the author of 7 books, a photojournalist and tireless advocate for midwifery and home and community-based birth. Her book, Immaculate Deception sold more than 200,000 copies and was named a "Best Book of the Year" by the New York Times. -
Chamberlain Mind of the Prenate
In this 75 minute up date and companion program to Babies Know More Than You Think - David B. Chamberlain, PhD explores the present state of pregnancy and birth in America. He describes how birthing practices have been influenced by Obstetrics rather than Obstetrics being shaped to meet the needs of babies, mothers and families. The key insight being explored in this very candid and compelling program is startling and transformative. Very early in the program David explains why the mind of the baby is not in or dependent on the brain. He explains in detail how this insight transformed his life and practice in pre and perinatal psychology. It emerged from hundreds of hypnosis sessions with clients that described prenatal perceptions, feelings and experiences that were too early to be brain based. Nothing in the literature or his training in psychology explained this.
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Michele Odent
Michel Odent, MD, perhaps best known as the obstetrician who introduced the concept of birthing pools and home-like birthing rooms, has been influencing the history of childbirth and health research for several decades. The author of Primal Health: Understanding the Critical Period Between Conception and the first Birthday, Birth Reborn: What Childbirth Should Be: The Scientification of Love; The Functions of the Orgasm and numerous others, Michel’s approach has been featured in eminent medical journals such as The Lancet and in TV documentaries such as the BBC film Birth Reborn.
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Jeannine Parvita Baker
Author of Prenatal Yoga & Natural Childbirth and Hygieia: A Woman's Herbal, Jeannine had an active career in midwifery and began teaching through Hygieia College, an International Mystery School, what she calls “womancraft” – a way to realize the possible ecstasy for women through fertility awareness and homebirth. Soon after came Conscious Conception: Elemental Journey through the Labyrinth of Sexuality, co-authored with Frederick Baker and Tamara Slayton.
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William Emerson Part One
William R. Emerson, Ph.D., is pioneer in the field of pre and perinatal psychology, a workshop leader, writer and lecturer. He is the past President of APPPAH, the US educational corporation representing professionals and individuals interested in pre- and perinatal psychology. He is among the first in the world to develop prenatal and perinatal treatment methods for infants and children, is a renowned expert in treatment methods for adults.
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William Emerson Part Two
(Continued) William R. Emerson, Ph.D., is among the first in the world to develop prenatal and perinatal treatment methods for infants and children, is a renowned expert in treatment methods for adults.
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Karshall Klaus, MD
Marshall H. Klaus, M.D., internationally known neonatologist and researcher, is the author or coauthor of several standard works in the field, including Bonding, Care of the High Risk Newborn, and Mothering the Mother. has had exceptional influence as researcher, professor of pediatrics in American medical schools, visiting professor in Chile and Australia, recipient of many awards, and author of books translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Danish, Swedish, and Japanese. With his long-time colleague, pediatrician John Kennell, Marshall has made "bonding" a household word.In both highly technical and popular books, Dr. Klaus has guided a generation of professionals and parents. His recent books have emphasized the profound advantages of continuous social (doula) support during labor and birth.
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Bruce Lipton
Bruce H. Lipton, PhD began his scientific career as a cell biologist. He is an internationally recognized leader in bridging science and spirit. Stem cell biologist, bestselling author of The Biology of Belief and recipient of the 2009 Goi Peace Award, he has been a guest speaker on hundreds of TV and radio shows, as well as keynote presenter for national and international conferences. He has been a guest speaker on hundreds of TV and radio shows, as well as keynote presenter for national and international conferences.
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Suzanne Arms
Since 1973, Suzanne Arms has been an outspoken visionary, multi-book author, photojournalist, inspired teacher and public speaker: wise, passionate and compassionate. She synthesizes earth-based wisdom and modern science about how best to bring humans into the world and care for the mother-baby bond, so that everyone benefits and families can thrive. Her perspective is both broad and deep, as she weaves history, politics, economics, psychology, spirituality, public health, cross-cultural issues, eco-feminism and the feminine into a beautiful tapestry of knowledge. “Suzanne Arms tells the truth, and she does it with great clarity and compassion.” Christiane Northrup, MD, Ob/Gyn, Author of Women’s Bodies: Women’s Wisdom
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Barbara Loe Fisher
Barbara is the co-founder and president of The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a national charitable, non-profit educational organization founded in 1982. NVIC launched the vaccine safety and informed consent movement in America in the early 1980's and is the oldest and largest consumer led organization advocating for the institution of vaccine safety and informed consent protections in the public health system. (NVIC) is dedicated to the prevention of vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to defending the informed consent ethic in medicine.
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Marcy Axness
Marcy Axness, PhD, is an early development specialist, popular international speaker, and author of Parenting for Peace: Raising the Next Generation of Peacemakers. She is a top blogger at Mothering.com and a member of their expert panel. Featured in several documentary films as an expert in adoption, prenatal development and Waldorf education, Dr. Axness has a private practice coaching parents-in-progress. She considers as one of her most important credentials that she raised two peacemakers to share with the world — Ian and Eve, both in their twenties.
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Ina May Gaskin
Ina May Gaskin, MA, CPM, PhD (Hon), is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee. The 41-year-old midwifery service is noted for its women-centered care. Early in her career, Gaskin learned an effective method for dealing with a feared obstetrical complication (when baby’s shoulders become stuck during birth) from indigenous midwives in Guatemala. Years later, the low-intervention Gaskin Maneuver became the first obstetrical procedure to be named for a midwife in this era. The Farm Midwifery Center is noted for its low rates of intervention, morbidity and mortality despite the inclusion of many vaginally delivered breeches, twins and mothers of more than five babies. Author of several books, she promotes joyful birth, maintenance of breech skills and recognition of certain ingenious skills and techniques used by indigenous midwives of Mexico and Brazil. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from Thames Valley University, London, England and Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia. In December of 2011, she received the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.
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Patrick Houser Fathers
Patrick M Houser is a grandfather and father of 2 sons. It was the birth of his first son which revealed to him the need to understand birth more fully. Patrick’s second son’s arrival, in 1980, was the first documented waterbirth in the USA. This has informed his life's work and led him to nearly 25 years of passionate advocacy for birth choices. He has a degree in marketing, has owned a natural health centre and for 10 years ran his construction firm in Austin, Texas. He is the director of The Source Foundation International a UK reg. charity, promoting health and choice from preconception to birth and throughout life. Patrick is also a speaker, writes articles and is the author of the Fathers-To-Be Handbook, published in the UK and now available in a USA edition as well.
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Atachment Parenting
A candid interview with Barbara Nicholson and Lysa Parker, co-founders of Attachment Parenting International. API strengthen families, we nurture and fulfill our children's need for trust, respect, and affection, and ultimately provide a lifelong foundation for healthy, enduring relationships. API promotes parenting practices that create strong, healthy emotional bonds between children and their parents. For life. So they can take those bonds with them into their adult lives and share them with their children. And their children can do the same. A life cycle of compassion and connection.