Vulnerable Minds

The Harm of Childhood Trauma and the Hope of Resilience

By: Marc D. Hauser

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

A new, hopeful pathway to understanding children’s trauma and providing effective interventions to build healthier communities

Each year at least a billion children around the world are victims of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that range from physical abuse to racial discrimination to neglect and food deprivation. The brain plasticity of our most vulnerable makes the adverse effects of trauma only that much more damaging to mental and physical development. Those dealt a hand of ACEs are more likely to drop out of school, have a shorter life, abuse substances, and suffer from myriad mental health and behavioral issues.

The crucial question is: How do we intervene to offer these children a more hopeful future? Neurobiologist and educator Dr. Marc Hauser provides a novel, research-based framework to understand a child’s unique response to ACEs that goes beyond our current understanding and is centered around the five Ts—the timing during development when the trauma began, its type, tenure, toxicity, and how much turbulence it has caused in a child’s life. Using this lens, adults can start to help children build resilience and recover—and even benefit—from their adversity through targeted community and school interventions, emotional regulation tools, as well as a new frontier of therapies focused on direct brain stimulation, including neurofeedback and psychedelics.

While human suffering experienced by children is the most devastating, it also presents the most promise for recovery; the plasticity of young people’s brains makes them vulnerable, but it also makes them apt to take back the joy, wonder, innocence, and curiosity of childhood when given the right support. Vulnerable Minds is a call to action for parents, policymakers, educators, and doctors to reclaim what’s been lost and commit ourselves to our collective responsibility to all children.

*Includes a downloadable PDF of charts and graphs from the book

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Marc D. Hauser (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Marc Hauser combines a keen eye for scientific data, a sensitivity to human suffering, and relevant personal experience to cut through the myths and ignorance. He offers both insight and actionable proposals for how we can understand an issue of profound human and social importance.”—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of How the Mind Works

“An important and profound book by a brilliant researcher. I strongly recommend it.”—Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Stolen Focus

“Hauser is not just a renowned scientist, he is an exceptionally accessible writer. Educators, parents, and policymakers will find this clear and compelling book an invaluable guide to understanding and protecting our most vulnerable children.”—Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia, author of Why Don't Students Like School?