In Conversation With Allan Schore

Abstract

Professor Allan Schore's distinguished career as a pioneer theoretician ‘scientist of the brain’ surprisingly began with the publication of his first volume, Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self. The Neurobiology of Emotional Development (1994), after having published only one paper. The rest, as they say, is history. In this conversation recorded in December 2009, Allan provides intimate insights into the major influences on his intellectual odyssey, from his engineer father's work on thermostats, to his later collaboration with his wife Judy on the centrality of shame in emotional development, eventually to formulate his theory of the development of emotional regulation through the life-cycle. Offering insights into the workings of his own creative mind, Allan traces key links between his personal and professional experiences to provide a deeper understanding into how his model of human behaviour leads to the controversial view that current brain science is in a ‘paradigm shift’. His influential work promotes the view that the previously neglected right brain functions are critical to a full understanding of both normal and dysregulated human behaviour.