Summary

“Getting on the Same Wavelength: Attachment and Attunement” opens with a quote suggesting that the best ways to bounce back from challenge or difficulty “are to be found in the sense of being understood by and existing in the mind and heart of a loving, attuned, and self-possessed other” (107). Author van der Kolk then prologues the chapter with a description of a test he designed and applied with the help of a colleague, child psychology expert Nina Fish-Murray. That test, he says, raised questions about how a child’s view of the world and of relationships was created; how that worldview affected brain function; and how to help traumatized children reshape their worldview in relation to mental health, including dealing with trauma.

In “Men Without Mothers,” the author describes how research into the psychologies of abandoned children began primarily...