| Photo by Beth Macdonald on Unsplash
“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man,” the philosopher Aristotle said. St. Thomas Aquinas had expressed a similar belief, which became the basis of the Jesuit early education philosophy. There is much to unpack in this statement. The field of neuroscience and the workings of the brain and mind have evolved since Aristotle’s proclamation. However, the notion that a person’s early life from conception through infancy and early childhood is crucial to later development and throughout life has stood the test of time. Take, for example, what Attachment Theory proposes.
The ability of a newborn to thrive and fully develop his capacities — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual — throughout his life is intimately linked to mother-infant bonding and the nature of the early attachments he has experienced. Any serious disruptions in the normal cycle of the symbiotic relationship between mother and infant, such as an absentee mother, for example, or inadequate response to the infant’s needs, and other forms of trauma, have deleterious effects on the child’s future development. These early experiences are encoded in the brain and have a profound influence on brain development, with far-reaching consequences for the child’s adaptation and mental health.
“… How much should we temper laws regarding serious crimes? Does it make sense to abolish capital punishment completely? Does this flip the criminal justice system on its head? What emergent theories could shed light on the question: Do humans really have free will?”
The child’s gene endowment from parents is only half of the story. Brain plasticity, which is the power of experience to mold the brain, is the other. All these prenatal, natal, and early experiences, in conjunction with gene expression, set the conditions for how the child will develop. Physical or psychological trauma or both provides a vivid demonstration of how early adverse experience can affect the wiring of the brain, proof that experience can alter the physical and functional processes of the brain.
A landmark study of the consequences of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) showed dramatically how much of these early experiences are a significant determinant of a person’s health and mental health later in life. The key neurochemical involved is cortisol, which the body releases during stress, such as during traumatic experiences. Prolonged overabundance of cortisol in the body, as happens during extended exposure to stress, has damaging effects on bodily organs and functions. It’s not only in the realm of our physiology that trauma has deleterious effects. It triggers the brain to go haywire as its wiring and functions have been adversely affected. PTSD is a good example.
If much of what we become, our personalities, temperaments, and the choices we make, is fundamentally predetermined due to internal and external events in our past, how much can we be held accountable for our actions? It is a conundrum worthy of analysis and discussion.
Some neuroscientists have argued based on research that it’s difficult to ascribe free will to humans when their capacities seem predetermined by early internal and environmental experiences. It gets even murkier when you throw into the mix Evolutionary Psychological principles that certain behaviors, regardless of their moral quality, are forms of adaptation by the organism. It raises moral and ethical issues, particularly concerning antisocial or criminal behaviors, such as rape or murder. How much culpability do we ascribe to the perpetrator?
Since society requires social control to avoid it from descending into chaos, how much should we temper laws regarding serious crimes? Does it make sense to abolish capital punishment completely? Does this flip the criminal justice system on its head? What emergent theories could shed light on the question: Do humans really have free will?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Fernando B. Perfas is an addiction specialist who has written several books and articles on the subject. He currently provides training and consulting services to various government and non-government drug treatment agencies regarding drug treatment and prevention approaches. He can be reached at fbperfas@gmail.com.
