What’s the difference between these two brains? – Telegraph.
OK – this is scary, and very important. Whatever you might think about these 2 images, it is clear that there is something fundamental being scientifically proven and illustrated.
I want to try to explain it in the terms it was explained to me, that made such an impact on me and the film I ended up making.
When we are born our brains are not developed to the extent they need to be to function as a social being. This “growing” happens from the moment we are born, through the interaction we receive with our carers, specifically our primary care-giver. Our brains need the love and care of a maternal, or paternal carer to connect and grow. This needs to happen from the moment we are born, or some would say the moment we are conceived.
It’s that simple.
This is what makes us go on to live our lives and determines how we function. By the age of 18 months we have learned a HUGE amount about the world and our brains have formed accordingly. If we haven’t felt love our brain literally doesn’t grow, I imagine it is a little like a flower withering. This is tragic.
As Suzanne Zeedyk has said about the debate surrounding this article :
That debate shows us, once again, that it is one thing for us (as a society) to know this information. It is another thing to think about what it feels like to know this information. The debate in response to this article gives a very good sense of how unsettling the information can be.
It has made me want to try to define LOVE in those first few months and years. It has made me want to help people, especially mothers, who may not have felt love, to feel it and therefore start to give it to those around them. How does it feel to be neglected like that? It pains me to even begin to imagine how many people haven’t been shown love by each preceding generation. How do we break the cycle?
And most of all for all those babies out there being born every minute of every day, can we start to do our best to show them what Love is?
