Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain
Between the ages of twelve and twenty-four, the brain changes in important and, at times, challenging ways. In Brainstorm, Dr. Daniel Siegel busts a number of commonly held myths about adolescence—for example, that it is merely a stage of “immaturity” filled with often “crazy” behavior. According to Siegel, during adolescence we learn vital skills, such as how to leave home and enter the larger world, connect deeply with others, and safely experiment and take risks.
Drawing on important new research in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, Siegel explores exciting ways in which understanding how the brain functions can improve the lives of adolescents, making their relationships more fulfilling and less lonely and distressing on both sides of the generational divide.
Reviews (183)
Very valuable for those with adolescents in your lives!
Just 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)
The Book Quickly Wanders Away from its Title Message, Ironically, Like a Teenager with a Short Attention Span
I read with alacrity "Brain Based Parenting: the neuroscience of caregiving for healthy attachment", on which Daniel J. Seigel was the third author, and gave that book 5 stars in an Amazon.com review. So I started out with high expections for Siegel's more recent work, Brainstorm. Really, I did. Unfortunately the weaknesses of the book far outweighed its strengths, for me anyway, as I'll outline below. There are multiple other books on raising and understanding teenagers I'd recommend before this one, as I'll list at the end. Strengths: (1) It's always good to remind oneself of the positive aspects of the developmental phase of the adolescent. Siegel lists these strengths as: intense and spontaneous emotions, intense and powerful peer and social connections, a spark of uniqueness and originality, and a profound search for one's identity and place in the universe. Frustrated parents can easily fall into the trap of seeing only your teenager's faults and negative behaviors. Remembering to see the upside (which is really only discussed in the first chapter of the book) is a good thing. (2) Somehow Siegel wanders into the topic of healing your brain from trauma. During the course of this digression, he reviews an intriguing theory of psychological trauma (p. 176ff) that painful memories that are 'locked up' in the right hemisphere - the seat of emotion, imagery, and "implicit" (timeless and voiceless) memories - cause intense pain, fear, and flashbacks. When the right and left (verbal, analytic, logical and chronological) brain are integrated, the left side of the brain can give a coherent narrative to the trauma story and place it into a past perspective. Healing from trauma then occurs when what was formerly intense, limitless, and present danger, is transformed into more comprehensible, limited, and coherent past experience. This is a powerful theory of trauma and healing and helps to explain why social connections and social supports aid in the prevention and healing of PTSD. Note: the theory is not presented here for the first time, but Siegel's review of it is interesting. Weaknesses: (1) In contrast to "Brain-Based Parenting", I found the book haphazardly organized and the writing style surprisingly poor. Siegel's sentences were run-on, off topic, and varied irritatingly between medicalese and schmaltzy sentimentality. His topics were all over the map, too: from the title topic, to attachment theory, to general advice for getting enough sleep and eating well, to "Mindsight" exercises for meditation and raising awareness. I was disappointed; I felt the book didn't stick to any consistent theme and was probably a hastily put together collection of blog posts. Search "teenage brain fitness" or "the adolescent brain" on Amazon.com and one will find many appealing titles on the topic that look more propitious than this one. (2) Siegel's stated intention is to write a book intdended to be read by both parents and their teenagers, perhaps even read aloud from one to another. Despite a number of cute cartoons, I can hardly imagine a teenager in modern America today who could make it successfully through this meandering, poorly written volume. I have one teenager and one pre-teen, and I am involved in volunteering and in contact with many of my daughters' friends (and, well, I also happen to be a psychiatrist and have seen hundreds of teens in crisis through a psychiatric emergency center in Fairfax County, Virginia). The only thing I can say in response to the idea of an American teenager finding this book readable would be "fuggedaboudit." Or maybe "you must be Cray-Cray." I found the following books infinitely more useful, readable, and enjoyable than Brainstorm: (1) Haim Ginot's "Between Parent and Teenager", (2) Thoms Phelan's "surviving your teenager", (3) Anything by Gershen Kaufman, Ph.D., especially "personal power for teens", (4) "Brain-Based Parenting" (see above), and (5)Ginsburg's "Roots and Wings." I tried hard to find the positives in this book; I read around five books per month so I am not averse to working hard to get something from a read, so I don't give out the dreaded "2 star" rating casually. I had to put this one down for long stretches and really force myself to punch on through, however. There are any number of other books on teenagers and their development I would encourage readers to turn to before, or instead of, this one.
Good, but Tedious
I was recommended this book by a friend, and have found it useful, but a bit tedious for my liking. There is some helpful information in the book relative to how teens (in my case boy) change as they get older, and it was good to know that my teen's current behavior, while not bad, was normal. The mechanics (or in this case the science) of the brain is thoroughly covered -- and in my opinion, a little too thoroughly. The author decided to write the book with both an adolescent and adult reader in mind, which is fine, but I find it hard to believe that many adolescents made it through this book (but his quotes inside the book suggest otherwise).
Parents of Teenagers MUST read
I bought this book when my son was 13 and started middle school. He, seemingly, changed over night. He was also dealing with the betrayal of his best friend once they got to middle school, and mourning that friendship. Seventh grade was not easy for him. After reading the that you didn’t have to read the entire book to get something from it, I immediately flipped to the section that was most relevant to my son. Of course I couldn’t fix the hurt he was feeling from the loss of friendship, and the betrayal of a friend he had been best friends with for the last 6 years; but this book really helped me understand how to be there for him and most importantly, how the brain changes in these critical years of puberty. I really credit this book to opening my eyes to the teenage brain. It really transformed my relationship with my son when he hit puberty. We have to evolve our relationship with our children as they grow, and this book more than guides you in that direction. It’s an unbelievable resource during the pre-teen and teenage years.
Figuring out my teenager
This book was recommended to me by my counselor to help me think through my interactions with my new teenager. The book provides a lot of reflective activities to do, which were a good practice, but not necessarily something I utilized a lot. I found the end of the book more helpful, simply because it told stories of individuals, which helped me think through my own challenges. Overall, it was a good book, but I have enjoyed the other Dan Siegel books more than this one.
A more nuanced view of the teenage brain
Great for adolescents and everyone that has to interact with them. As a middle school teacher, this presented information that I did not know. They are going through a lot of changes (not just hormonal!) that we all should understand.
A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.
This book has multiple acronyms per page. This is extremely distracting and does nothing to help remember anything due to the number of times a new acronym is introduced. The information is alright, but should no be given to an adolescent to read about themselves. This is for parents to read to better understand their adolescent.
So far so good!
Absolutely, hands down, one of my favorite authors. I'm not completely done reading this book, but so far so good. You cannot be completely without knowledge of behavioral sciences to comprehend this easily, but I feel like he did a very good job to explain it to those without prior experience. I purchased this for a friend without such training previously and she said it was something she only partially had to re-read.
Provides great insight into developing minds and helped me refocus
This is an excellent book! Provides great insight into developing minds. We all like to think that we haven't forgotten what it's like to grow up, but I must admit that this gave me an added perspective on my own adolescence as well. As tough as it can be to raise children, this has really helped me [re]focus my efforts. I got both the MP3 disk (for my long commute) and the paperback (for reference).
Benefits All Ages
I'm grateful to Daniel J. Siegel MD. He gifted the world with a wonderful, easy-to-follow look at life experiences, relationship bonds and the effects on the brain. Vice-a-versa: how brain development influences our love relationships. I've read many developmental psychology books for study and pleasure. This is the best I've ever read on the subject of optimizing the brain in order to improve connection with ourselves and our loved ones. I prefer the simpler title, Brainstorm, because the information is universal.
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