CARING

Of the seven primary-affect systems, perhaps CARING is the least studied. Or maybe better put, the CARE system has been mainly studied in terms of pregnancy and motherhood.

Affective Neuroscience

Jaak Panksepp coined the term affective neuroscience. Culminating a lifetime of animal lab research, he identified seven primary-process emotions. These seven affects are built into the brain by evolution, hardwired into the subcortical networks of all mammalian brains:

1. SEEKING or expectance
2. RAGE
3. FEAR
4. LUST
5. CARING
6. PANIC/GRIEF
7. PLAY

Smoking Shotgun by Ivandrei Pretorius from Pexels

CARE

Panksepp says that most neuroscientists accept the LUST and RAGE brain systems. Both these affects are clearly manifested in animal behavior and are essential for survival. But CARE is also essential to survival especially in relation to nurturing of the young. The ability of young animals to reach reproductive maturity is linked to the quality of motherly care. The quality of motherly care is enhanced by oxytocin. So scientists study oxytocin in relation to pregnancy and motherhood and indirectly study CAREing.

The ways in which motherly and fatherly CARE help nurture the brain are of great importance for understanding how altruism, compassion, and empathy became possible. The life-long benefits for brain and behavior initiated by motherhood are remarkable.” Infants who have received loving motherly care are better off emotionally and physically for the rest of their lives. The Archeology of the Mind, Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven

CARE is not only for the offspring but effects the mother herself. Animal research demonstrates that once a mother has exhibited competent and devoted maternal behavior following the birth of her first offspring, her maternal abilities remain elevated thereafter.

Oxytocin

An intranasal spray of oxytocin facilitates the quality of father’s play with their children. But even without the oxytocin spray, new human fathers experience an increase in oxytocin and other similar hormones of pregnancy and motherhood. Then infant contact modulates fathers’ endocrine systems in a very similar way that infant contact effects mothers. But the effect of oxytocin and infant contact is much more significant with mothers.

Gun Shooters and Mass Violence

We can counter virtually all mass violence with CAREing. That means a secure attachment from birth on. But this is like being dealt a poker hand of two kings and three aces. When kids reach school age, teachers can watch for students lacking in secure attachment and do their best to not only teach but to CARE.

I caused teachers GRIEF all through elementary school.  So instead of getting CAREing at school, I remember having “Joel Dames” screamed at me pejoratively for at least seven of my eight years of elementary school. As if to rub  that in, all of my teachers but two marked shiny bright red Fs for Cooperation and Dependability down the left side of my report cards.

I was not a mass shooter, I did not own a gun. Instead, I set fires from about age ten. In high school I continued lighting fires and set off fire alarms, and shot cherry bomb and ashcan loud fireworks exploding over garages at night behind my house as police scurried, slipping, sliding and cursing as they jumped garage roofs behind my house. I was a tiny, quiet kid, and aroused no suspicions. Only once whenI was eleven, firemen approached and asked where I got the matches. I said I found them. They said not to play with matches.

Thinking back, I should have been taken in and booked. Not to be jailed, but to be eventually identified as needing help.

Clinical Implications for CARE

 In years to come we will undoubtedly learn much more about the CARE system. New therapeutic methods might alter Brain CARE chemistry and related social-emotional systems. Such interventions could help parents experience nurturing affect and display supportive behaviors more effectively. Facilitation of oxytocin activity may promote the kinds of accepting, positive, prosocial feelings that can increase confidence in one’s capacity for greater emotional openness. Indeed, in a series of recent studies, it has been found that plasma oxytocin in mothers increases with the abundant affectionate contact with their babies.

Overall, the effect of oxytocin and other hormones, as well as infant contact, is to enhance the CARE system. It has long been known at the most effective psychotherapy occurs when clinicians know how to approach clients with unconditional acceptance, empathetic sensitivity and a full concern for their emotional lives. In a word, effective psychotherapists share their ability for CARE, along with the ability to recruit the healing power of positive emotions. And this lesson is not just for those whose professional focus is to help heal the mind, also for those harried clinicians who are more involved with bodily than mental health, and two, all too often, do not have sufficient time for the emotional concerns of their clients. Of course, the loving touch does not need much time. But it does need consistency. The Archeology of the Mind, Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven

 

Self-help books that help:

Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus

The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body