Considering what we know of the critical importance of being sensitive to children's needs and of responding to them in love and affection, it's astonishing that this book is so necessary. And yet, parenting often echoes being parented and negative issues can prevail at the expense of the newest generation. We may not always be in control, but with books like this we can at least be informed ... A fascinating, absorbing read.
Elizabeth Holmes, Wave magazine issue 43 (Winter 2006)
Why Love Matters is hugely important. It should be mandatory reading for all parents, teachers and politicians.
A really useful briefing on the new neuroscience and its underpinning of the central tenet of contemporary psychoanalysis: how actual relationships form us and are central to therapeutic endeavours and, even more importantly, how important loving relationships are crucial to our capacity to be human.
Susie Orbach
This is an extremely informative, creative work. There is now a market for translation of 'cutting-edge' science. Few can pull this off as the author does here.
Allan Schore, UK
A wonderful book full of research that connects the nature v. nurture argument, explaining how sensitivity to a baby's needs - and a caring response - can actually affect how a baby's nervous system develops scientifically. I would recommend it to all new parents.
This is a very important book - and anyone interested in the mental health of children and adults must read Why Love Matters. If I awarded stars, Why Love Matters would get a 5-star award. Truly, love does matter.
This is an impressively researched, eminently readable, and important book. Sue Gerhardt has taken recent advances in neuroscience and made them applicable to day-to-day living. What happens with a baby today will form 'mental muscles' upon which a lifetime's interactions will be built. The significance of this simple connection should not be ignored, not least in the light of the present government's political enthusiasm for day-care for very young children. Happy children end up as better adjusted members of society and happier parents themselves. This book should be obligatory reading not only for therapists, but for parents, social workers, teachers and policy makers at all levels.
Patricia Kerkham, Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal, October 2004
More reviews and reactions to "Why Love Matters" with links to major articles and reviews in national newspapers.
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