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Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain Hardcover – January 7, 2014
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Between the ages of 12 and 24, the brain changes in important, and oftentimes maddening, ways. It’s no wonder that many parents approach their child’s adolescence with fear and trepidation. According to renowned neuropsychiatrist Daniel Siegel's New York Times bestseller Brainstorm, if parents and teens can work together to form a deeper understanding of the brain science behind all the tumult, they will be able to turn conflict into connection and form a deeper understanding of one another.
In Brainstorm, Siegel illuminates how brain development impacts teenagers’ behavior and relationships. Drawing on important new research in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, he explores exciting ways in which understanding how the teenage brain functions can help parents make what is in fact an incredibly positive period of growth, change, and experimentation in their children’s lives less lonely and distressing on both sides of the generational divide.
Brainstorm is a current nominee for a Books for a Better Life award.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTarcherPerigee
- Publication dateJanuary 7, 2014
- Dimensions6.2 x 1 x 9.2 inches
- ISBN-10158542935X
- ISBN-13978-1585429356
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Deepak Chopra, MD
“Brainstorm is eye-opening and inspiring, a great gift to us all—teens, parents of teens, and anyone who wants a full and rich life on this planet. Daniel Siegel shows how the supposed downsides of the teen years all have upsides, and that the lessons for living that await teens are ones any of us, at any age, can learn from.”
—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence
"Siegel emerges as a bighearted writer, fully convinced that we all possess the fundamental virtues to navigate the choppy waters of adolescence, and he is eager for us to set them loose, working with adolescents to cultivate the positive aspects—and he is hugely convincing of the intense engagement and creativity that often accompany this time period in a person’s life. Smart advice...on providing the most supportive and brain-healthy environment during the tumultuous years of adolescence."
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
“This book is chock-full of cutting-edge knowledge as well as a deep compassion for teenagers, the adults they will become, and the teenagers in all of us.”
—Alanis Morisette
“Brainstormis a necessary look at why adolescents do what they do that can put parents in an emotional frenzy. The information that Dr. Dan Siegel shares is not only invaluable for understanding your growing child's brain, but helps build more compassion and patience. A gift for us all.”
—Goldie Hawn
"By the end of this book, the teenager has been transformed from a monstrous force into a thinking, feeling, and entirely approachable human being."
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“I strongly recommend Brainstorm to teens and those who care for them.”
—Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia
“‘You just don’t get me’ is a common refrain from teenagers to their parents and teachers. Adolescents who read this book will discover that Daniel Siegel gets them . . . This respectfulness is why the book works so well as a manual for adolescents, as well as for their parents and mentors.”
—Lawrence Cohen, author of The Opposite of Worry
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The essential features of adolescence emerge because of healthy, natural changes in the brain. Since the brain influences both our minds and our relationships, knowing about the brain can help us with our inner experience and our social connections. In our journey I’ll show how this understanding, and learning the steps to strengthen the brain in practical ways, can help us build a more resilient mind and more rewarding relationships with others.
During the teen years, our minds change in the way we remember, think, reason, focus attention, make decisions, and relate to others. From around age twelve to age twenty-four, there is a burst of growth and maturation taking place as never before in our lives. Understanding the nature of these changes can help us create a more positive and productive life journey.
I’m the father of two adolescents. I also work as a physician in the practice of child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry, helping kids, teens, adults, couples, and families make sense of this exciting time in life. In addition to working as a psychotherapist, I also teach about mental health. What has struck me in each of these roles is that there is no book available that reveals the view that the adolescent period of life is in reality the one with the most power for courage and creativity. Life is on fire when we hit our teens. And these changes are not something to avoid or just get through, but to encourage. Brainstorm was born from the need to focus on the positive essence of this period of life for adolescents and for adults.
While the adolescent years may be challenging, the changes in the brain that help support the unique emergence of the adolescent mind can create qualities in us that help not only during our adolescent years, if used wisely, but also as we enter adulthood and live fully as an adult. How we navigate the adolescent years has a direct impact on how we’ll live the rest of our lives. Those creative qualities also can help our larger world, offering new insights and innovations that naturally emerge from the push back against the status quo and from the energy of the teen years.
For every new way of thinking and feeling and behaving with its positive potential, there is also a possible downside. Yet there is a way to learn how to make the most of the important positive qualities of the teenage mind during adolescence and to use those qualities well in the adult years that come later.
Brain changes during the early teen years set up four qualities of our minds during adolescence: novelty seeking, social engagement, increased emotional intensity, and creative exploration. There are changes in the fundamental circuits of the brain that make the adolescent period different from childhood. These changes affect how teens seek rewards in trying new things, connect with their peers in different ways, feel more intense emotions, and push back on the existing ways of doing things to create new ways of being in the world. Each of these changes is necessary to create the important shifts that happen in our thinking, feeling, interacting, and decision making during our adolescence. Yes, these positive changes have negative possibilities, too. Let’s see how each of these four features of the adolescent brain’s growth has both upsides and downsides, and how they fill our lives with both benefits and risks.
1. Novelty seeking emerges from an increased drive for rewards in the circuits of the adolescent brain that creates the inner motivation to try something new and feel life more fully, creating more engagement in life. Downside: Sensation seeking and risk taking that overemphasize the thrill and downplay the risk result in dangerous behaviors and injury. Impulsivity can turn an idea into an action without pause to reflect on the consequences. Upside: Being open to change and living passionately emerge, as the exploration of novelty is honed into a fascination for life and a drive to design new ways of doing things and living with a sense of adventure.
2. Social engagement enhances peer connectedness and creates new friendships. Downside: Teens isolated from adults and surrounded only by other teens have increased-risk behavior, and the total rejection of adults and adult knowledge and reasoning increases those risks. Upside: The drive for social connection leads to the creation of supportive relationships that are the research-proven best predictors of well-being, longevity, and happiness throughout the life span.
3. Increased emotional intensity gives an enhanced vitality to life. Downside: Intense emotion may rule the day, leading to impulsivity, moodiness, and extreme, sometimes unhelpful, reactivity. Upside: Life lived with emotional intensity can be filled with energy and a sense of vital drive that give an exuberance and zest for being alive on the planet.
4. Creative exploration with an expanded sense of consciousness. An adolescent’s new conceptual thinking and abstract reasoning allow questioning of the status quo, approaching problems with “out of the box” strategies, the creation of new ideas, and the emergence of innovation. Downside: Searching for the meaning of life during the teen years can lead to a crisis of identity, vulnerability to peer pressure, and a lack of direction and purpose. Upside: If the mind can hold on to thinking and imagining and perceiving the world in new ways within consciousness, of creatively exploring the spectrum of experiences that are possible, the sense of being in a rut that can sometimes pervade adult life can be minimized and instead an experience of the “ordinary being extraordinary” can be cultivated. Not a bad strategy for living a full life!
While we can brainstorm lots of new ideas inside us that we can share collaboratively during the creative explorations and novelty seeking of adolescence, we can also enter another kind of brainstorm as we lose our coordination and balance and our emotions act like a tsunami, flooding us with feelings. That’s when we get filled with not only mental excitement but also with mental confusion. Adolescence involves both types of brainstorms.
In a nutshell, the brain changes of adolescence offer both risk and opportunity. How we navigate the waters of adolescence—as young individuals on the journey or as adults walking with them—can help guide the ship that is our life into treacherous places or into exciting adventures. The decision is ours.
Product details
- Publisher : TarcherPerigee; First Edition (January 7, 2014)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 158542935X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1585429356
- Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.2 x 1 x 9.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #117,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #187 in Parenting Girls
- #226 in Parenting Teenagers (Books)
- #900 in Sociology Reference
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
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Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA with training in pediatrics and child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry. He is currently a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, founding co-director of UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, founding co-investigator at the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development, and executive director of the Mindsight Institute, an educational center devoted to promoting insight, compassion, and empathy in individuals, families, institutions, and communities.
Dr. Siegel’s psychotherapy practice spans thirty years, and he has published extensively for the professional audience. He serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which includes over 70 textbooks. Dr. Siegel’s books include his five New York Times bestsellers: Aware: The science and practice of presence, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, and two books with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.: The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline. His other books include: The Power of Showing Up and The Yes Brain (also with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.), The Developing Mind, The Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology, Mindsight, The Mindful Brain, The Mindful Therapist, and Parenting from the Inside Out (with Mary Hartzell, M.Ed.). He has been invited to lecture for the King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Google University, and TEDx.
For more information about his educational programs and resources, please visit: www.DrDanSiegel.com and www.mindsightinstitute.com.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book helpful and insightful, providing valuable information on teenagers' brain development. They describe it as readable and easy to understand, with clear explanations in layman's terms. Many consider it a worthwhile resource and better priced than expected. However, opinions differ on the emotional content - some find it supportive and sympathetic, while others feel it is repetitive or wanders off topic.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book provides helpful information about teenagers' brain development. They appreciate the author's research and writing style. The book explains the latest research in adolescent brain development and the relationship between brain development and mental theory. Readers find it useful and enjoyable, with an interesting blend of scientific and personal aspects.
"...The benefits and challenges are also discussed, along with the need of parents to have an emotional spark, and a reminder that what we see in others..." Read more
"...The upside? The thrill and passion of discovery—and the reality that most innovations in art, music, science and technology emerge from the..." Read more
"...It explains all the latest research in adolescent brain development as well the relationship between brain development and parent-child attachment...." Read more
"The title of this book is misleading. It has great information in it about how necessary effective bonding is when we are children and the impact on..." Read more
Customers find the book readable and easy to understand. They appreciate the author's clear explanations in layman's terms. The comparisons are presented in an amusing manner. Overall, readers consider it a worthwhile read that is worth their time and effort.
"...for the adolescent and the caregiver, which can also be a painful, thrilling time...." Read more
"...A little slow in the middle, but definitely worth the time to better understand the adolescent mind and normal (but seemingly abnormal) adolescent..." Read more
"This book is amazing and I wish it would have been available when my children were teenagers!..." Read more
"...His advice is sound and his descriptions are easy to follow. Overall, an excellent resource." Read more
Customers find the book a valuable resource and reasonably priced.
"...Overall, an excellent resource." Read more
"Kind of slow going but still a great resource. Really it's a great book to touch in with for reminders. The exercises were good." Read more
"GREAT resource!" Read more
"Very valuable for those with adolescents in your lives!..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the emotional content. Some find it helpful for recognizing and regulating emotions, providing supportive cognitive development, and reflecting on past relationships. Others feel it is repetitive and distracting, with too much theory and not enough practical advice.
"...We need to understand that this is a time of emotional intensity, social engagement, and creativity...." Read more
"The book was okay. Recommended by a friend. Too much theory, not enough practical application for me, but other may dig it." Read more
"...It explains how emotions develop and how we learn to recognize and regulate our emotions...." Read more
"...Sections are spent reflecting on past relationships and how to bridge or build better relationships (helpful at any age)...." Read more
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Arrived in bad condition
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2014Daniel J. Siegel M.D. delivers a helpful guide for parents, teachers, mentors, and caregivers on the journey of adolescence. The author discusses the age of 12-24, a challenging time for the adolescent and the caregiver, which can also be a painful, thrilling time. Tips are given of how to help the adolescent survive and thrive, through this period in life. In addition, Doctor Siegel presents myths that are not true, such as raging hormones to be the evil cause, or to lose their minds. He explains that hormones do increase, but they don't determine what goes on.
The author highlights that what goes on, what they experience, is the result of changes in the development of the brain. To know about these changes, is the golden key to helping an adolescent. This knowledge can help the parent, teacher, and mentor to make things more smoothing. Another myth is that adolescence is a time of immaturity, and they need to 'grow up.' The truth is that an adolescent travels through a path that can be confusing, and intense.
Doctor Siegel also presents information on the testing of boundaries, the passion to explore the unknown,and the exciting. The findings of research and the truths of understanding this stage of life, can help the adolescent to lead an adventure, and purpose. The author also discusses dependence versus independence. More important, he points out that if we get beyond the myths, we can make this journey much better for the adolescent, and the caregiver.
In conclusion, if we project negative attitudes, then this is how they see themselves. They will sink to that level, instead of realizing their true potential. We need to understand that this is a time of emotional intensity, social engagement, and creativity. The benefits and challenges are also discussed, along with the need of parents to have an emotional spark, and a reminder that what we see in others, can remind us of what we are missing in ourselves. Most important, when we understand the brain, we can make positive choices, and constructive lives. There is also information on: Maintaining The Power And the Purpose Of The Adolescent mind; How Communication Is Important To Relationships; Risk & Reward; and Pushing away. Interesting, extremely helpful, and thought-provoking. Highly recommended!
- Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2018Just finished this book on that intriguing creature that is the adolescent brain.
I read it and listened to it both. A little slow in the middle, but definitely worth the time to better understand the adolescent mind and normal (but seemingly abnormal) adolescent behavior!
He describes the ESSENCE of adolESSENCE:
"ES: An Emotional Spark is revealed in the enhanced way emotion generated from sub-cortical areas washes over the cortical circuits of reasoning. The downsides are emotional storms and moodiness; the upside is a powerful passion to live life fully, to capture life being on fire.
SE: Social Engagement emerges as teens turn more toward peers than parents, the downside being falling prey to peer pressure simply to gain membership in a group, the upside being the central importance of supportive relationships in our lives. Relationships are the key factor associated with medical and mental health, longevity, and even happiness.
N: Novelty-seeking emerges from shifts in the brain’s dopamine system with the downside of risk-taking behavior and injury, and the upside of having the courage to leave the familiar, certain, and safe home nest for the unfamiliar, uncertain, potentially unsafe world beyond.
CE: And our Creative Exploration of adolescence is found as we push against the status quo, imagining how things could be, not simply accepting them for what they are. The downside? Not just conforming to life as usual can be disorienting and stressful. The upside? The thrill and passion of discovery—and the reality that most innovations in art, music, science and technology emerge from the adolescent mind."
(quotation from his website)
- Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2023This book is amazing and I wish it would have been available when my children were teenagers! It explains all the latest research in adolescent brain development as well the relationship between brain development and parent-child attachment. It explains how emotions develop and how we learn to recognize and regulate our emotions. It also provides Tons of examples of how to deal with the multiple daily interactions between parents and teens that are often frustrating for everyone involved. As a retired developmental psychologist, I highly recommend this book for everyone who interacts with teens on a regular basis!
- Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2014The title of this book is misleading. It has great information in it about how necessary effective bonding is when we are children and the impact on the brain. Then the importance for brain development in the teen years are (and he explains why teens do what they do in terms of the brain). And finally he talks about how this brain development impacts adults and how we can heal what has come before. So it is way more than just about the teen brain. Though if you are a teen or have one, you definitely want to read this. But I would recommend it for parents, adults and anyone who wants to heal their past. It is difficult to get through at times (a lot about the brain and how it works and then all the different kinds of wounding we can have) but it is worth it.
Top reviews from other countries
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Maria Eugenia de LeónReviewed in Mexico on September 9, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Muchos tips
Está muy bien hecho para entender y cambiar la percepción que tenemos de los adolescentes.
Es claro y facil de leer
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on March 13, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, informative Read
I wonderful and well written book.
-
Johann-Christoph WandhoffReviewed in Germany on December 2, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Es lohnt sich!
Basierend auf Erkenntnissen der Neurophysiology, Praxiserfahrungen als Jugendpsychater und gesundem Menschenverstand. Für das Verständnis von Jugendlichen aber auch der eigenen Jugend — sehr lesenswert.
- Saritha vReviewed in India on November 16, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
The book was in agood condition.
- Muhammad MazharReviewed in the United Arab Emirates on August 25, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
It will help you to understand what your kid is thinking, how their brain is working, how you can change their thinking in a positive way.