Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain

Synopsis

“Dr. Siegel aptly characterizes the teen years as the most powerful life phase for activating courage, purpose, and creativity. With his usual personal and compassionate delivery, he illustrates how we can all become more aware, empathetic, and understanding of teenagers and ourselves. A visionary and a guide, Siegel knows that if we treat teenagers with the respect and understanding they deserve, they are more likely to live up to their greatest capacities.” —Laura S. Kastner, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, University of Washington, and author of Wise-Minded Parenting: 7 Essentials for Raising Successful Tweens + TeensBetween the ages of twelve and twenty-four, the brain changes in important and, at times, challenging ways. In Brainstorm, the renowned psychiatrist and bestselling author of Parenting from the Inside Out, The Whole-Brain Child, and Mindsight, 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—to reveal how it is in fact a vital time in our lives in terms of charting the course for the adults we ultimately become. According to Siegel, during adolescence we learn important skills, such as how to leave home and enter the larger world, how to connect deeply with others, and how to safely experiment and take risks, thereby creating strategies for dealing with the world’s increasingly complex problems.Siegel presents listeners with an inside-out approach to focusing on how brain development affects our behavior and relationships. Drawing on important new research in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, he 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.In this groundbreaking audiobook, Siegel offers teens and parents a road map for understanding the adolescent mind that will help families not just survive but also thrive through the “teenage years” and beyond.