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Human Givens: The New Approach to Emotional Health and Clear Thinking
A new edition of the life-changing book Human Givens which contains a wealth of new material that will enhance its already considerable reputation. The authors describe one of the most important psychological insights of our how we are all born with a rich natural inheritance - a partially formed mind containing a genetic treasure-house of innate knowledge 'the human givens'. We all experience these givens as physical and emotional needs, powerful forces that must be satisfactorily met in our environment if our minds are to unfold and develop to their fullest potential. Includes a new chapter on the biological basis of content blindness - caetextia - that blights the lives of millions. Ultimately this book is uplifting and practical because it brings hope in these troubled times by clearly spelling out what each child and adult needs in order to develop well, how to help those who aren't and who are suffering severe mental distress, including depression and post-traumatic stress.
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First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 28, 2009
A couple of the chapters are way off in left field, but otherwise it's a very good read.
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December 19, 2023Having read the book, here is a commentary on the foreword:
Human Givens attempts to create a unified theory of everything (human), but suffers from over-reliance on weak data (in one specific case, the authors cite a very commonly cited study, only to have a confirmation study show the original study was deeply flawed. This is not necessarily the fault of the author but of two things: first, science is constantly in flux (the confirmation study came out three years after this edition), and two, attempting to construct a theory of everything requires Herculean amounts of research, and we are but humans who cannot know everything).
In the first paragraph of his foreword, Farouk Okhai asks the rhetorical question, “How is it possible to have so many different models [of psychotherapy] when there is general agreement about how the brain works? Can you imagine having four hundred different schools of physics or mathematics?” Rather than focus on this question, he reports that the authors have led us out of this muddle.
Yet I would like to dwell on this question briefly.
The authors focus extensively on biology and measurable brain scans, and add stories from other areas when convenient to their argument, but SEEM to be seeing emotion as a function of the brain alone. If this is not their intent, that fact is not clear. This leaves them blind to aspects of emotion that are explained by polyvagal theory, aspects of imagination, and aspects of culture and historical or family trauma. This is similar to how chemistry and physics (or rather, chemists and physicists) are in many ways sometimes blind to one another.
I believe we have different models of psychotherapy because there are so many different ways of experiencing and making sense of the world, and each individual draws from each of these ways in different ratios, and we have developed various psychotherapeutic models to address the more common ratios. Are you a thinker and planner? Have some cognitive behavioral therapy! Or, you could focus on emotions with Emotionally Focused Therapy. If you find archetypes fascinating and love stories, there’s narrative therapy… and on and on and on.
Having these different modalities is a feature, not a bug, of understanding the human animal, because there isn’t just one human animal, there are close to eight billion as of this writing, and each experiences life using a different mixture of the perceptive tools.
Different modalities are useful in different situations and can be applied to different ends, much the same way we use physics to plan launching a probe to Venus, chemistry to get the probe on its way, and then use physics AND chemistry to explore how that probe might be affected by the Venusian atmosphere.
Human Givens attempts to create a unified theory of everything (human), but suffers from over-reliance on weak data (in one specific case, the authors cite a very commonly cited study, only to have a confirmation study show the original study was deeply flawed. This is not necessarily the fault of the author but of two things: first, science is constantly in flux (the confirmation study came out three years after this edition), and two, attempting to construct a theory of everything requires Herculean amounts of research, and we are but humans who cannot know everything).
In the first paragraph of his foreword, Farouk Okhai asks the rhetorical question, “How is it possible to have so many different models [of psychotherapy] when there is general agreement about how the brain works? Can you imagine having four hundred different schools of physics or mathematics?” Rather than focus on this question, he reports that the authors have led us out of this muddle.
Yet I would like to dwell on this question briefly.
The authors focus extensively on biology and measurable brain scans, and add stories from other areas when convenient to their argument, but SEEM to be seeing emotion as a function of the brain alone. If this is not their intent, that fact is not clear. This leaves them blind to aspects of emotion that are explained by polyvagal theory, aspects of imagination, and aspects of culture and historical or family trauma. This is similar to how chemistry and physics (or rather, chemists and physicists) are in many ways sometimes blind to one another.
I believe we have different models of psychotherapy because there are so many different ways of experiencing and making sense of the world, and each individual draws from each of these ways in different ratios, and we have developed various psychotherapeutic models to address the more common ratios. Are you a thinker and planner? Have some cognitive behavioral therapy! Or, you could focus on emotions with Emotionally Focused Therapy. If you find archetypes fascinating and love stories, there’s narrative therapy… and on and on and on.
Having these different modalities is a feature, not a bug, of understanding the human animal, because there isn’t just one human animal, there are close to eight billion as of this writing, and each experiences life using a different mixture of the perceptive tools.
Different modalities are useful in different situations and can be applied to different ends, much the same way we use physics to plan launching a probe to Venus, chemistry to get the probe on its way, and then use physics AND chemistry to explore how that probe might be affected by the Venusian atmosphere.
January 15, 2015
Irritatingly self-congratulatory and striking in equal measure. Emotional introspection equals deepening problems yes- plus they think they have the answers - uh no.
August 3, 2022
Accessible language but not in the least bit patronising made this book a pleasure to dive into. I've recommended it to so many stuck/unhappy/lost people and ask my coaching clients to score each of the 9 emotional needs in their lives. Instantly obvious why they are unhappy, then we get to work on bumping up their score.
I'm not a Human Givens practitioner but I can see its application in practically any situation where a person is not at their best - schoolkids, business and personal partnerships, CAMHS (pleeeease!!), GPs etc.
I'm not a Human Givens practitioner but I can see its application in practically any situation where a person is not at their best - schoolkids, business and personal partnerships, CAMHS (pleeeease!!), GPs etc.
June 28, 2019
Very helpful information makes a lot of sense with plenty of practical examples. Goes a little overboard on berating other forms of therapy though!
August 30, 2014
Griffin's overarching metaphor used to explain APET therapy is a computerized overview of the brain. He even employs technical terms in his explanations: parallel processing, feedback loop, the 1's and 0's of emotionally driven black and white frames of reference and the filtering process that occurs when information sent ‘up’, if necessary, into consciousness.
So this led me to the computer analogy which for a layman's mind, as mine, works nicely to see what he is saying from 50,000 feet up.
If I have it right:
When the right and left hemispheres of the brain are disconnected or when our emotions deadlock in a non-processing state or when we are using the wrong template for our current reality check, we have psychological problems. Sometimes what appears perfectly accurate to us is the wrong answer.
"The A in APET stands for the activating agent, a stimulus from the environment, just as in the cognitive model. Information about that stimulus, taken in through our senses, is first pattern matched by the mind to innate knowledge and past learnings, hence the P, which in turn gives rise to an emotion, E. This, in turn, may inspire certain thoughts, represented by the T (though thought is not an inevitable consequence of emotional arousal)."
I know this doesn't explain anything but actually the book is easy reading and if you do counseling, you might want to get serious about what this work has to offer you. (The includes pastors.)
Aristotle offers an example of a working computer program in this regard:
So this led me to the computer analogy which for a layman's mind, as mine, works nicely to see what he is saying from 50,000 feet up.
If I have it right:
- The neocortex is the cpu which can ratify or question emotions, feelings of anger, fear, distrust, attraction, etc.
- The cpu loads in 2 modules (The neocortex contains):
--The right hemisphere which is the seat of imagination (processes micro-instructions) and
-- The left hemisphere where logic and reason process our reality. (The ALU)
- The amygdala is RAM or internal memory.
- The hippocampus the area where emotions are generated is the operating system in the computer because its processes are (autonomous) always alive. "Our conscious reality is always accompanied by emotions, ranging from very subtle to extremely strong. Emotions are expectations that exist at a stage prior to language."
- The thalamus is the bus relaying information back and forth between the right and left hemispheres.
- The anterior cingulate is the connector between this bus and the cpu (The thalamus and the hemispheres of the brain.)
- mammalian templates are just that, templates, or metaphorical outlines of life's experiences.
- Activating agents are working the keyboard (user input).
When the right and left hemispheres of the brain are disconnected or when our emotions deadlock in a non-processing state or when we are using the wrong template for our current reality check, we have psychological problems. Sometimes what appears perfectly accurate to us is the wrong answer.
"The A in APET stands for the activating agent, a stimulus from the environment, just as in the cognitive model. Information about that stimulus, taken in through our senses, is first pattern matched by the mind to innate knowledge and past learnings, hence the P, which in turn gives rise to an emotion, E. This, in turn, may inspire certain thoughts, represented by the T (though thought is not an inevitable consequence of emotional arousal)."
I know this doesn't explain anything but actually the book is easy reading and if you do counseling, you might want to get serious about what this work has to offer you. (The includes pastors.)
Aristotle offers an example of a working computer program in this regard:
“Anyone can become angry – that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way – that is not easy.”
July 31, 2015
Human Givens - The new approach to emotional health and clear thinking by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell,is an important,groundbreaking Psychology ABC-book and also a self-help book. With common sense it informs distinctly and clearly and with support by latest science, what we need to be able to function as balanced individuals, groups and societies. Teachers and CEOs interested in a good climate in their classes and companies would find this book very useful. Hopefully it will mean the beginning of the end of our time´s, often dysfunctional, psychiatry.
But not everything is wrong. Some of the ideas and treatment models that exist today – each a useful tool under certain conditions, but not the only right one in all – fit in under Human Given´s organizing, overall idea. Their open perspective, with the claim that what they say must be in line with science, feels liberating. In the end of the book there is a very practical guide to take you whole skinned through the jungle of more than 400 psychological “schools”, many both harmful and dogmatic. (On Human Givens Institute´s homepage are listed HG-therapists in UK and the other parts of the world).
What I find very interesting is what the authors write about emotions, that they stem from the more primitive part of our brain, the one we have in common with the animals and where our instinctive reactions come from.
First comes emotions...
and after that we think and analyze with our new brain, the neocortex that separates us from the animals.
Sometimes our primitive brain takes over completely and “cuts off” the new brain and we stop to think: we´re in the grip of very strong emotions like severe depressions and other life threatening dangers.
And as depression is the main cause behind suicides and is becoming an alarmingly common condition in Western society, it is of utmost importance that we learn the ABC of our emotions and how to handle them.
This book is well worth reading – reflectively and many times.
But not everything is wrong. Some of the ideas and treatment models that exist today – each a useful tool under certain conditions, but not the only right one in all – fit in under Human Given´s organizing, overall idea. Their open perspective, with the claim that what they say must be in line with science, feels liberating. In the end of the book there is a very practical guide to take you whole skinned through the jungle of more than 400 psychological “schools”, many both harmful and dogmatic. (On Human Givens Institute´s homepage are listed HG-therapists in UK and the other parts of the world).
What I find very interesting is what the authors write about emotions, that they stem from the more primitive part of our brain, the one we have in common with the animals and where our instinctive reactions come from.
First comes emotions...
and after that we think and analyze with our new brain, the neocortex that separates us from the animals.
Sometimes our primitive brain takes over completely and “cuts off” the new brain and we stop to think: we´re in the grip of very strong emotions like severe depressions and other life threatening dangers.
And as depression is the main cause behind suicides and is becoming an alarmingly common condition in Western society, it is of utmost importance that we learn the ABC of our emotions and how to handle them.
This book is well worth reading – reflectively and many times.
August 16, 2012
Bought this book when struggling with chronic depression 8 years ago. Took it on holiday and could not put it down as it turned out to be a manual to how and why I feel and think the way I do. I have never suffered since and everyday is a good day and life is a real joy instead of something to be endured. (A couple of the chapters, water babies and relaton theory come across as speculative but apart from that probably the most important resource I have ever read.
January 17, 2016
This was an interesting way of looking at mental health, although it is clearly a plea for funding and recognition as well as an account of how it works. I am not wholly convinced - as soon as anyone cites Melanie Phillips as an authority, my BS detector emerges as I think she is a woman with a negative and misrerabilist agenda. Still, it is interesting on issues such as dreaming, depression and the connections between mental health and sleep.
November 1, 2009
All I can say is: OMG! I just got this book today and want to know why this is not more well known. I'm searching for PTSD treatments. This looks like the answer. I've been reading about Human Givens online and finally got this book today. I love it!!
March 16, 2014
A paradigm shift in psychotherapy, our understanding of the human mind and, most importantly, ourselves.
May 11, 2016
Excellent content, I learnt lots of new things (and I read these kind of books a lot!). On the downside it is pretty...dense. Certainly worth a re-read and perhaps taking some notes...
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August 14, 2009Still reading
April 11, 2017
Quite an academic book, but one filled with thought-provoking ideas challenging existing beliefs. However, the tone throughout is one of hope and perhaps even empowerment of the individual.
For those in the caring professions it may answer questions you might not have thought of before, but once encountered change your thinking for good.
It deals with the 'software' of human existence and how we interrelate with each other to gain a sense of self.
For those in the caring professions it may answer questions you might not have thought of before, but once encountered change your thinking for good.
It deals with the 'software' of human existence and how we interrelate with each other to gain a sense of self.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews