“Democracy begins at home”

This articule is about of a Psychotherapist called Sue Gerhardt. She wrote a bestselling book called “Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain”. It focused on the neuroscience of early development; on how babies' brains develop in direct response to the quality of care they receive at the start of their lives. There are multiple readings of this books, there are readers: Many readers were enthusiastic and others weren´t .

One of the most valuable aspect of the books is that she moves from the minutiae of the first year or two of life to the broad sweep of global politics; to climate change, the selfishness of capitalism and the shortcomings of materialistic western societies. And the text says “if Gerhardt is right, the people we become are fundamentally shaped by our earliest experiences, and in particular, the sort of love and attention we receive from our parents/carers.” (for example the George `s cases).

Gerhardt's argument is that by focusing on the sort of care and attention we give to our children, we can create a better society. The way forward, she says, is not a return to traditional family values nor a move towards a more authoritarian, disciplinarian style of parenting. In other part of this articule, she writes. "Personal development and political progress are linked. The mature, unselfish society is based on the same things as the secure family: meeting basic needs, validating each other and working through conflict. Ultimately, our survival will depend on how we treat each other on a global scale."

She is a psychotherapist very interested in global contingency issues especially on issues of American politic and she has contributed since her area of particular expertise as a psychotherapist at the Oxford Parent Infant Project .

Gerhardt's vision may seem a bit vague, but she has concrete demands: the right to flexible work, access to parent-infant psychotherapy and "a parenting wage", available for either or both parents to share over the first two years of their child's life.

In my opinion, this articule really shows that the arguments of this psychotherapist would give to the discipline that I study (psychology) a fundamental roll at social level, as much in my country as in the world.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/01/childcare-sue-gerhardt-psychotherapist)