- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Pan; 2 edition (1 Jun 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330488287
- ISBN-13: 978-0330488280
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 286,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Cradle of Thought: Exploring the Origins of Thinking
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Product Description
The Sunday Telegraph, March 24 2002
... a charming and gentle book...
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Robert Hanks , The Daily Telegraph
Admirably clear, broadly persuasive …packed with appealing anecdotes about the loveable things kids do and say
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
First of all, I am not commenting from a position of expertise in the area of early child development. My own research interests in elearning and autism indirectly led me to purchase this book. I also had the great pleasure of witnessing a presentation by Peter Hobson at IMFAR 2002. The book is exceptionally well written, and I am not bandying around superlatives for fashion's sake. The prose is clear and coherent. Hobson assembles background material, his own work and experiments with consumate ease. Insights into the effects of early bonding and secure attachment tumble ardently from the pages. While many of these results (revelations to me) may be known within the child development community already, this books draws them together in a uniquely admirable way.
I was particularly intrigued by Hobson's work on the relationship between maternal feelings of security (strong internal frame of reference) and childrens' IQ. The theory here is that insecure mothers have failed to integrate their childhood experiences. The result is a set of children with depressed IQs. Hobson tease out the work here ingeniously.
The book makes many noteworthy arguments. In the area of autism, Hobson expands upon his theoretical work that autism shows a failure in person perception with all that means for imitation, etc. Contra the Theory of Mind interpretation of autism, Hobson argues that the impairment arises out of intersubjectivity deficiencies. He draws on emerging research on Rumanian orphans in support of his position.
There is so much that is challenging, stimulating and exquisitely erudite in this book, that a short review must do it a serious injustice. However, if you are interested in intellectual currents of the day then this book deserves a very prominent place in your library. You will not be disappointed.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It was when our son refused to wave bye-bye that we began to realise something was wrong. Waving reveals a capacity to be affected by and respond to the action of another person. One of the most basic acts of imitation, it shows that an infant is becoming aware of the distinction between himself and others. As we - and many other parents - have discovered, the failure to wave bye-bye is an ominous early sign of autism.
Imitation - interacting at an emotional level - is, as Peter Hobson points out in this remarkable book, crucial to the development of thought and language. His great achievement is to explain this development as a process that depends on emotional engagement between infant and parent. He also clarifies how the diverse features of autism arise from a basic failure of emotional connectedness.
Peter Hobson, an experimental clinical psychologist and a psychotherapist, focuses on the social dimension of infant development - and its deficit in autism. This is the great strength of his approach, particularly given the neglect of interpersonal factors in current fashions for neurological, biochemical and autoimmune theories.
The Cradle of Thought brings together insights from studies of autistic and non-autistic children, of children of mothers with psychiatric problems, of children with congenital blindness and Romanian orphans. It even draws on studies of chimpanzees to clarify the distinctive character of human development.
The result is a profound and inspiring book that will be of great interest to families of autistic children. It is a particular pleasure to read a rigorously scientific study of autism that does not even mention PET scans, amino acids or immunoglobulins.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
The Forms of Relatedness That Make Us Human
7 Jan 2005
Format:Hardcover
This is a terrific and groundbreaking book. Peter Hobson presents a radical and scientifically coherent view of the development of intersubjectivity and its relation to symbolic forms of meaning. He carefully details the developmental science that requires a fully social and sharing human child as the medium for the emergence of consciousness. In laying out his arguments he offers a comprehensive overview of the research base on early relatedness-- from face-to-face affective communication, to social referencing, to language, to theory of mind, to the evolutionary background of these human capacities. In the way that he brings together relatedness and symbolic meaning he seamlessly heals the Cartesian split between mind and body and in doing so also heals the rift between self and other that has been the conceptual error of the 20th century.
This is a paradigm shift that can unite scientists and clinicians alike. His insights anticipate the emerging findings from affective neuroscience and provide a context for understanding why and how the social brain has evolved. And he is a pleasure to read. His writing is in equal parts incisive exploration and pure poetry. I recommend it highly.
This is a paradigm shift that can unite scientists and clinicians alike. His insights anticipate the emerging findings from affective neuroscience and provide a context for understanding why and how the social brain has evolved. And he is a pleasure to read. His writing is in equal parts incisive exploration and pure poetry. I recommend it highly.
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