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Article: Can More Touching Lead to Less Violence in Our Society?
"When twenty-one people were slaughtered by a gunman in a McDonald's fast-food restaurant in San Ysidro, California last July, many of us were forced to confront once again an unpleasant fact of modern life: We live in a violent society, and the threat hangs over all of us constantly—individual acts of violence, mass violence, the threat of nuclear war. Violence, said Stokely Carmichael, is as American as apple pie. Why?
James Prescott believes the answer lies in another fact of life that may be even more American than apple pie—our failure to meet the physical needs of our very young, specifically their need to be given affectionate, caring handling and body contact.
Does Pleasure Reduce Violence?
Body pleasure and violent behavior have a mutually inhibiting relation, according to Prescott: The presence of one inhibits the other. When the brain's pleasure circuits are on, the violence circuits are off, and vice versa. This relation can be demonstrated in the laboratory. Electrical stimulation of the pleasure centers in a raging animal's brain causes the animal to calm down abruptly. And stimulating the violence centers will just as abruptly end an animal's sensual pleasure and peaceful behavior.
If the theory ended there, it would be an interesting intellectual curiosity and little more. What makes it truly provocative is its developmental aspect.
If Prescott is right, many Americans are unknowingly inflicting brain dysfunction on their children, and that brain dysfunction is in turn producing violent behavior, as well as a variety of symptoms generally associated with such disorders as autism and hyperactivity.
Here, in its simplest terms, is the core of Prescott's developmental theory:
1. Touch (handling and body contact) and Movement are essential sensory "nutrients" for the developing brain in humans as well as other animals.
2. Touch and Movement Sensory Deprivation early in life results in brain dysfunction and/or brain damage involving the cerebellum, which plays an important regulatory role in emotions as well as sensory and motor activity; the limbic structures of the brain; and the fronto-temporal lobes.
3. The neurological dysfunction manifests itself as abnormal behaviors—depression during infancy and violent behaviors later; autistic or withdrawn behaviors; stimulus-seeking behaviors, such as rocking or headbanging; and, in monkeys, chronic toe and penis sucking. These behaviors attempt to compensate for the sensory loss or deprivation experience early in life.
4. Increased vulnerability to alcohol/drug abuse and addiction is a means to cope with the emotional pain of Somatosensory Affectional Deprivation (SAD)."
rest at link.
"When twenty-one people were slaughtered by a gunman in a McDonald's fast-food restaurant in San Ysidro, California last July, many of us were forced to confront once again an unpleasant fact of modern life: We live in a violent society, and the threat hangs over all of us constantly—individual acts of violence, mass violence, the threat of nuclear war. Violence, said Stokely Carmichael, is as American as apple pie. Why?
James Prescott believes the answer lies in another fact of life that may be even more American than apple pie—our failure to meet the physical needs of our very young, specifically their need to be given affectionate, caring handling and body contact.
Does Pleasure Reduce Violence?
Body pleasure and violent behavior have a mutually inhibiting relation, according to Prescott: The presence of one inhibits the other. When the brain's pleasure circuits are on, the violence circuits are off, and vice versa. This relation can be demonstrated in the laboratory. Electrical stimulation of the pleasure centers in a raging animal's brain causes the animal to calm down abruptly. And stimulating the violence centers will just as abruptly end an animal's sensual pleasure and peaceful behavior.
If the theory ended there, it would be an interesting intellectual curiosity and little more. What makes it truly provocative is its developmental aspect.
If Prescott is right, many Americans are unknowingly inflicting brain dysfunction on their children, and that brain dysfunction is in turn producing violent behavior, as well as a variety of symptoms generally associated with such disorders as autism and hyperactivity.
Here, in its simplest terms, is the core of Prescott's developmental theory:
1. Touch (handling and body contact) and Movement are essential sensory "nutrients" for the developing brain in humans as well as other animals.
2. Touch and Movement Sensory Deprivation early in life results in brain dysfunction and/or brain damage involving the cerebellum, which plays an important regulatory role in emotions as well as sensory and motor activity; the limbic structures of the brain; and the fronto-temporal lobes.
3. The neurological dysfunction manifests itself as abnormal behaviors—depression during infancy and violent behaviors later; autistic or withdrawn behaviors; stimulus-seeking behaviors, such as rocking or headbanging; and, in monkeys, chronic toe and penis sucking. These behaviors attempt to compensate for the sensory loss or deprivation experience early in life.
4. Increased vulnerability to alcohol/drug abuse and addiction is a means to cope with the emotional pain of Somatosensory Affectional Deprivation (SAD)."
rest at link.
