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Verbal Abuse And The Brain
‘The child is father to the man’
Gerard Manley Hopkins
In the last 30 years there has been a growing exploration and understanding about the impact on adults of physical and sexual abuse that occurred in their childhood. However the impact of verbal abuse during that same growing period has been largely ignored.
The expression ‘Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me’ is an example of the current, but erroneous, approach to verbal abuse.
Language is actually one of the most powerful ways to transfer information. In our evolutionary history it wasn’t until around 200,000 years ago that our larynx dropped into a place where we humans could actually begin to be able to talk to each other.
The ability to talk made it much, much easier to share ideas, knowledge and information. As an example it can take a young Chimpanzee up to 6 years to learn how to crack a nut by watching and copying other Chimps, whereas a child can learn such a task in a few minutes by listening to what they are told.
What Counts As Verbal Abuse
Patricia Evans in her book The Verbally Abusive Relationship1 has demonstrated how verbal abuse can take many forms. The abuse can be active, such as a child being told that ‘you are bad’, or it can be passive, such as a child’s communications being ignored. Both are types of verbal abuse and are designed to have ‘power over’ the child. Most adults will have experienced verbal abuse in their upbringing, both at home, in school and out and about.
Some examples Patricia Evans identifies as verbal abuse can include:
Told there is something wrong with you
Put down
Your opinions discounted
Humiliated
Not listened to
Made fun of
Ignored
Dominated
Silenced
Not spoken to
Not informed about what is going on
Invalidated
Excluded from discussion
Accused
Undermined
Not emotionally revealed to
Judged
SCULPTING THE BRAIN
Any child that frequently goes through the types of experiences listed above, as they will growing up in any kind of dysfunctional family, is going to be subjected to a repeated release of a cascade of stress hormones as their system tries to cope with the abuse. These stress hormones create physiological responses that then cause physical changes in the young brain as it grows. Recent research (2003) by Martin Teicher, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has shown that -
“.....verbal assault can alter the way the developing brain is wired” 2
A changed brain means a changed mind
The research shows that the cascade of stress
chemicals causes a reduction in size of sensitive areas of the brain, a thinner connecting cable (corpus collosum) between the two sides of
the brain and decreased activity in the limbic (emotional) system.
The child's most vital organ, their brain, is prevented from growing as it naturally would and is left with reduced abilities.
The healthy growth of each individual area of the brain, communication within each part, and communication between the different areas requires that as a child you have a safe, stable and loving home environment.
Recovering from the impact of verbal abuse
Fortunately the brain is still plastic in adulthood and can be re-sculpted, this appears to be due to
‘....inherited gene mutations that gave us uniquely “plastic” brains, capable of changing
physically to meet hitherto unassailable intellectual and pactical challenges’ 3
However, just as it is easier to learn to play the piano as a child, and much harder later on, in itself an indication of the learning ability of the young brain, in order to recover from a dysfunctional childhood and it’s imprint on your brain, as an adult you will need to focus and practice a great deal more in order to learn at a later date.
Not only this, but you will be in effect doing the equivalent of learning to play another instrument whilst simultaneously un-learning your original instrument, the piano.
References
1 Examples of verbal abuse adapted from the book 'The Verbally Abusive Relationship' by Patricia Evans
2 'Childhood abuse hurts the brain' By William J. Cromie Harvard University Gazette 22nd May 2003
www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/05.22/01-brain.html
3 'Will designer brains divide humanity?' By Andy Coglan, New Scientist 16th May 2009
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