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Dr. Allan Schore, a UCLA faculty member and expert in emotional development, discusses the profound impact of childhood relationships on brain circuitry. He explains how early attachments shape our ability to manage emotions and form connections in adulthood. Emphasizing the right brain's role in emotional processing, he highlights techniques for improving interpersonal relationships. The conversation dives into the significance of listening to emotional tones and how creativity can stimulate brain function, ultimately fostering healthier bonds.
Human brain growth spurt: last trimester → ~2–3 years — a period of right-hemisphere dominance. Allan Schore: the mother (or primary regulator) sculpts the baby's right brain via face, voice, gesture.
This early right-brain wiring becomes the foundation for later emotional regulation and adult relationships.
The right brain is the unconscious mind.
— Allan Schore
Attachment = interactive regulation. Caregivers track baby arousal, synchronize (face, tone, touch), then repair misattunements. Repeated synchrony builds the child's ability to auto-regulate and to co-regulate with others later in life.
Key tools: prosody, facial expression, turn-taking.
This implicit dance teaches how to feel safe.
Early right-brain interactions create attachment strategies:
These styles reappear in adult romantic & work relationships.
Effective therapy is a right-brain-to-right-brain process: synchronize physiology, mirror prosody, then co-regulate. Therapists must surrender left-hemisphere control — adopt wide attention, feel the patient's arousal, and implicitly model regulation.
Result: repaired attachment experiences, new autonomic safety, and lasting symptom change.
Right hemisphere supports intuition, imagery, music, metaphors, compassion, and deep moral feelings. Activities that engage it:
These widen attention and foster synchrony with others.
Schore highlights a societal gap: the first 2–3 years are crucial (right-brain critical period). Countries with longer parental leave (Scandinavia: months) support healthier emotional development. In the U.S., many parents return at ~6 weeks — during a sensitive autonomic & amygdala growth window.
Investment early → lifelong emotional health.