A woman was beating her infant-toddler in a stroller in front of our gallery. This is a busy tourist destination. One of my colleagues rushed out the door. “Stop that right now,” she said, as others stood by in silence. We are responsible for our children’s behavior, and yet we punish them for our sins, and have for centuries. "Father, forgive us, for we do not know what we are doing."

Holding my hand Carly Elizabeth stopped in her tracks. Walking down the street, a few yards ahead, were three large overstuffed derrières and a bright, bored four-year old. The swaggering behinds belonged to a set of grandparents and presumably to their son. Granny stopped the herd, grabbed the boy by the shoulder and smacked him in the seat, shaking him. “If you don’t shut up I’ll smack you again,” and she did. Predictably, the boy cried and the matriarch smacked him again.

After fifty years Attachment Theory is no longer a theory. Decades of research confirm; the nature and quality of a human being’s earliest relationships shape the body and the brain for a lifetime.

By the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (NICHD / NIH):

Letter to Vice-President Biden; Senators Carper and Coon

With Corrected Video Links
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19 September, 2014

Michael

Congratulations on an extraordinary post, one tht brings academia (abstractions) into the real (sensory) world.

Over fifty years ago James W. Prescott, PhD, noted that an absence of what we call bonding is neglect or abuse. Researchers at the McLean Hospital identified four types of permanent brain abnormalities caused by early childhood abuse and neglect. These and other studies confirm what Prescott and associates discovered in the 1960's and 1970's; that lack of affectionate, intimate contact between mothers and infants during the most sensitive periods of brain growth may result in permanent brain abnormalities associated with juvenal and adult patterns of depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, aggression and violence.

Violence is Failed Bonding/Attachment - Continued
Two key points: violence, along with a long list of other maladies; depression, ADHD, addiction, chronic stress related diseases, child abuse, domestic violence and rape are expressions of failed or impaired attachment AND the biological fact that males are more vulnerable than females focus our attention sharply. At least it should, but often doesn’t, which is indeed curious. For some strange reason the closer we tread to the heart of violence the more our attention is distracted, rendering us less capable of embracing and embodying the truth.

We, or at least I, often rationalize violence. After all, it is normal to pound a fist or scream when frustrated and angry. Anger is normal. Einstein’s protégée, David Bohm, defined violence as any excessive use of force. Slamming a car door when one could gently close it. Violence is natural. Or is it?

Applying Gabor Mate’s insight into addictions: The question isn’t why the addiction. The real question is; why the pain?

See More... and More...

PHS Surgeon GENERAL KOOP:
“…violence, which is one of the most extensive and chronic epidemics in the Public Health of this country."

James W.Prescott, Ph.D.

C. Everett Koop, M.D., PHS Surgeon General and Deputy Assistant Secretary For Health. addressed the American Academy of Pediatrics, New York October 26, 1982 On Violence and Public Health, stated some 30 years ago:

The Role of the Paleocerebellum in Eliminating Violence in Mother-deprived Primates and Permitting Expression of Affectional Behaviors Not Possible Before Paleocerebellar Surgery.

James W. Prescott, Ph.D.

It is well recognized that Violence by Homo Sapiens throughout the World threatens species and planetary survival. Violence begins with the individual and must be understood before Cultures of Violence appear. The brain is the organ of behavior and how the brain is encoded for Peaceful or Violent Behaviors is the great challenge to Humanity.