THE LIFE-CHANGING BESTSELLER HUMAN · Dr Jeffrey K. Zeig, Director of the Milton H. Erickson Foundation “[This] approach offers a refreshing alternative to reams of expensive psychobabble.”

P U B L I S H I N G

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THE LIFE-CHANGING BESTSELLER

We are all born with a rich natural inheritance... a partially formed mind containing a treasure-house of innate knowledge patterns.

But if our minds are to unfurl and develop to their fullest potential, these innate patterns, our physical and emotional needs(the ‘human givens’), must be healthily completed in the environment. It is when they are not that we become vulnerableto depression, anger, anxiety disorders, greed and addiction.

The rich and inspiring body of psychological knowledge in Human Givens, culled from startling new scientific ideas and discoveries about how the mind works, will strike a chord with any lively mind. And the wealth of information and stories it contains will help you improve the quality of your life and thelives of those around you.

“Absolutely the right way forward.”

BBC Radio 4 ‘All in the mind’

“Harnessed between these pages are scientific insights and practical techniques of sufficient power to completely revolutionise our approach to parenting, teaching and thecaring professions. I wholeheartedly recommend HumanGivens to any individual with a burning interest in how lifeworks and can be helped to work better.”

DR NICK BAYLIS, Lecturer in Positive Psychology, Cambridge University

“An entirely attainable and reasonable road map for goodmental health.” IRISH EXAMINER

“A wonderfully fresh and stimulating view of dreaming, evolution, and human functioning. Human Givens also provides both an encompassing model and practical, specificapplications to enhance the effectiveness of psychotherapy.It will deepen and widen every reader’s perspective.”

ARTHUR J. DEIKMAN, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California

“A quiet revolution.” NEW SCIENTIST

NEW EDITION

HUMANGIVENSThe new approach to emotional

health and clear thinking

Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell

HUMAN GIVENS

Joe Griffin & Ivan Tyrrell

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Further praise for HUMAN GIVENS:

“In Human Givens Griffin and Tyrrell offer innovative perspectives on promoting effective living. They have synthesized brain and socialresearch in such a way that they provide new templates for under-standing how to unlock the best in human nature.”Dr Jeffrey K. Zeig, Director of the Milton H. Erickson Foundation

“[This] approach offers a refreshing alternative to reams of expensivepsychobabble.” The Big Issue

“Real breakthroughs in the behavioural sciences are rare, and it’s smart to beware of hype. But not all scientific progress is incremental.Sometimes, as in the germ theory of disease, it’s exponential. Griffinand Tyrrell’s contribution advances psychology as much as the intro-duction of the Arabic numeric system with its zero digit advancedmathematics.” Washington Times

“While books are never a cure for what ails us in life, they are often acatalyst, a trigger that fires off those rare and profound ‘aha!’ momentsthat lead to deeper insights and understanding. Human Givens is sucha catalyst.” Jack Davies

“Important original work ... both aesthetically pleasing and of immensepractical use... has great relevance to all areas of life... could save (taxpayers) millions of pounds. A remarkable achievement which shouldattract the attention of any truly curious human being.”Dr Farouk Okhai, Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy

“Human Givens is the most practical and intuitive book I’ve read inyears. People have been speculating about the utility of dreams fordecades, but I think you guys have it hammered.”Charles Hayes, Autodidactic Press, USA

“Psychology doesn’t have to be difficult and mystique has no part especially when the writers cross boundaries to take from all quartersand from there synthesize with such clarity. Some purists may not likeit [Human Givens] but broken fences facilitate a wider view and allowone to see further.” Leo Kingdon

*Prelims (16 pgs)_Denise_Bron_153mm (updated 2015 v2).qxp_*Prelims (16 pgs) pbk AMENDED 05/06/2015 13:01 Page 1


ALSO BY THE AUTHORS

Godhead: The brain’s big bang Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell

Why we dream: the definitive answer


Dreaming Reality: How dreaming keeps us sane or can drive us mad


How to lift depression ... fast


How to Master Anxiety


Freedom from Addiction: The secret behind successful addiction busting


Release from Anger: Practical help for controlling unreasonable rage


An Idea in Practice: Using the human givens approach

Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell (Eds)

The Origin of DreamsJoe Griffin

The Survival OptionIvan Tyrrell




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PRINTING HISTORY:

New edition: 2013Reprinted 2015

Hardback edition first published in Great Britain 2003Reprinted 2003

Paperback edition first published in Great Britain 2004Reprinted 2006, 2007, 2011

Copyright © Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell 2003, 2013, 2015

The right of Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the

Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Some of the material, expanded in this book, has been published previously in the form of monographs.

Published by HG Publishing an imprint ofHuman Givens Publishing Ltd, Chalvington,East Sussex, BN27 3TD, United Kingdom.

www.humangivens.com

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 1-899398-31-7ISBN-13 978-1-899398-31-7

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.

Typeset in Sabon and Franklin Gothic.Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.



CONTENTS

Acknowledgments v Foreword by Dr Farouk Okhai vi

PART I: NEW DISCOVERIES ABOUT HUMAN NATURE Prologue 3

Chapter 1 Seeking completion 5 The need for meaning

The postmodernist fallacyThe science of human natureAdapting to now

Chapter 2 Where does human nature come from? 17 The risk and the prize

Why the brain is a metaphorical pattern-matching organ

Without sleep, we warm blooded creatures die

Chapter 3 The dreaming brain 30 Modern dream theories

The all-important PGO spikesRecording dreamsTo dream, and let off steamWhy we dream in metaphor – and then forget our dreams

The richness of the REM stateAnticipating realityIs dreaming connected to learning?Why we evolved to dreamA dream shipSome bitter juiceUsing dreams intelligently

Chapter 4 The mind entranced: sane and insane 61 First things first – directing attention

The trance state of dreaming



Posthypnotic suggestions and the REM stateHypnosis and expectationScientific study of hypnosisFocusing attention – inwards and outwardsUses and abuses of hypnosisDreams, hypnosis and psychosisThe observing selfHypnotic ability

PART II: APPRECIATING OUR BIOLOGICAL INHERITANCE

Chapter 5 The human givens 97 The need for security

The need for autonomy and controlCoping with changeSymptom controlTaking responsibility

Attention: the need to give and receive itThe need for intimacy

Love and resilienceNeed for community: the search for social support

The threats to community lifeKeeping greed in checkThe too many tribes problemThe law of 150By helping ourselves we help others

The need for statusThe need for privacyThe need to become competent and achieveThe need for meaning

Chapter 6 The gendered brain 154 Rough and tumble

Educating factsBrain differencesViolent men and violent women

Chapter 7 The body-linked mind 174 The stress and anxiety factor

All the rage

ii C O N T E N T S



iiiC O N T E N T S

Why depression is linked to diseaseThe great addiction mysteryUsing the mind to help the body

Chapter 8 Water babies and our distant aquatic past 187 Fishy features

Autistic fishlike behavioursOceanic feelings of transcendenceSupport for the ‘water babies’ theoryCasualties of evolutionary pressure

Chapter 9 When context is missing 204 How does a brain become aware of context?

CaetextiaOther theoriesExamples of context blindnessStruggling to copeDancing with horsesChaotic emotionsLeft- and right-brained caetextiaMore women than menCaetextia and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)Sense of selfThe observing selfCaetextia as an organizing idea

PART III: EMOTIONAL HEALTH AND CLEAR THINKING

Chapter 10 APET model: the key to effective psychotherapy 227 The importance of perception

Emotions before thoughtThree vital principlesThe power of thoughtUsing the APET modelPanic attacksObsessionsNegative ruminationsAnger disordersAddictionsMolar memories



iv

Placebo – noceboNocebo counsellingMetaphor, storytelling and learningThe bigger patternWhy human givens therapy should be more

widely available

Chapter 11 A very human vulnerability – depression (and how to lift it) 280 Depression is not a genetic illness

Dreaming and depressionWhy some people get depressed and others don’tBipolar disorderEffective psychotherapy for depressionBlueprint for an effective therapy sessionTaking the wrong roadAn avoidable deathMore casebook examples

Chapter 12 Terror in the brain: overcoming trauma 319 Freeze, fight or flight

Creating calmHow to cure post-traumatic stress disorderWhy EMDR and EFT may also workFast, non-voyeuristic and safe treatment for traumaCuring phobiasPanic attacks and agoraphobiaObsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)The chair’s problem

Appendices: APPENDIX I Inducing relaxation using guided imagery 353

APPENDIX II The stages of the rewind dissociation process 356

APPENDIX III Effective counselling and psychotherapy:what people should expect of practitioners 357

APPENDIX IV The Emotional Needs Audit 359

References and notes 361

Index 386

C O N T E N T S



Acknowledgments

IN THE writing of this book, and evolving the ideas and teachingmaterial that stem from it, we have relied greatly on the voluntary andinvoluntary, witting and unwitting, contributions from far too manypeople to individually acknowledge: wives, families, friends, colleaguesand patients. We thank you all.

We have also had very direct help from Denise Winn and Jane Tyrrellwith the organizing, presentation and editing of the material.

Our thanks are also due to Elizabeth Abbott whose letter greatlyilluminated the section on psychosis. And to Farouk Okhai for read-ing the original manuscript and contributing such an encouragingfore word.

Grateful thanks are also due to the estate of Idries Shah for allowingus to quote from his work, particularly the long passage on attentionfrom his book, Learning How to Learn. He, more than anyone else,understood and appreciated the real significance of the givens ofhuman nature.



Foreword

IT IS A general rule in medicine that, when there are a number ofdifferent theories purporting to explain a condition, one can be certainthat all of them are wrong, though each may have certain facts right.There are over four hundred different models of psychotherapy in theWest today, with the proponents of each model competing with theothers and laying claim to primacy. How is it possible to have so manydifferent models when there is general agreement about how the brainworks? Can you imagine having four hundred different schools ofphysics or mathematics? By dint of clear thinking, Joe Griffin and IvanTyrrell lead us out of this muddle. They have assembled verifiablescientific information on how the brain works, including importantoriginal work of their own, and created a new organizing idea – the human givens approach – that has the potential to transform the practice of psychiatry, psychotherapy and counselling. Although myinterest is in psychiatry and psychotherapy, it is obvious to me that this big idea also has great relevance to other important areas of life, such as education, social work and personal relationships. Some of theinformation in this book will be new and startling to many, some, atfirst glance, will appear familiar. But Griffin and Tyrrell’s assembly ofit is unique in that the bits and pieces that stick out in other therapymodels now fit together, and this fit is both aesthetically pleasing andof immense practical use.

For example, they succeed in making reading about depressionexciting! This common, rapidly rising condition is costing Westernsociety enormous pain; emotional and financial. It is also a majorcause of premature death through suicide. Depressed mood, loss ofinterest and enjoyment, fatigue, poor concentration, guilt, suicidalthoughts, and disturbed sleep and appetite, are generally agreed crite-ria used to diagnose depression. Often a person with depression willcomplain of early morning wakening, with depressed mood and tired-ness worst at that time. To overcome the fatigue he or she may try to sleep longer than usual but the tiredness persists. We also know that depressed people spend a greater proportion of sleep time in the REM (rapid eye movement) state, that artificially shortening the REM



periods leads to a temporary lifting of the depression, and that anti-depressants, when effective, shorten the REM sleep time.

Griffin and Tyrrell link these findings in a way that makes sense ofthe facts and provides the basis for rational treatment which couldsave millions of pounds. The story begins with Griffin’s findings fromhis research into dreams and REM sleep and makes a convincing casefor the central importance of REM sleep in depression. A trigger orActivating agent (which may be a divorce, death, unemployment andso on) sends the brain on a search for similar Patterns (previous negative events) setting off a train of introspection which gives rise to the Emotion of depression with resultant Thoughts (such as “I amuseless”, “nothing ever goes right for me”) that the depressed persongets locked into seeing as absolute truth. The prolonged REM sleepperiods are attempts to deactivate this highly arousing chain of intro-spection, explaining the early morning wakening (in the more severelydepressed) as a mechanism to limit the exhaustion caused by theintense REM activity.

If, when depressed, we are locked into ruminating on all that hasgone wrong in our lives, it makes sense that treatment should aim at reversing this deepening spiral. Griffin and Tyrrell explain how theREM state can be accessed to lift the trance of depression quicklyusing inborn biological mechanisms. Their insight into depressionmakes sense of the unfortunate, but not uncommon, occurrence thatwill be familiar to many psychiatrists. Often a patient with depressionis admitted to hospital or seen in a clinic, and put on antidepressionmedicine, but found to be even more depressed a few days or weekslater. Many such patients are often encouraged, by well-meaning staff,including counsellors and therapists, to “talk about their problems”.In the light of the findings presented in this book, however, talkingabout problems and past failures can be seen to simply grind in a guilt-ridden, worthless, useless and unlovable self-narrative as ‘thetruth’ from the patient’s locked-in perspective.

In contrast to insight and ‘getting to the root’ therapies, cognitiveand behavioural methods have been shown to be effective for depres-sion. We can now see that this is because they engage the cognitive or motor circuits of the brain, thus allowing the locked-in, highlyaroused emotional brain to calm down, so enabling the patient to see

viiF O R E W O R D



alternative truths, possibilities and stories for his or her predicament.In addition to pointing out the erroneous assumption that thoughtprecedes emotion, which forms the basis of the cognitive behaviourtherapy model, the APET frame, which they introduce here, providesa much broader perspective. Just as significant, perhaps, as the intro-duction of the Arabic numerical system with its zero digit was tomathematics, providing as it did a much wider vista than the Romannumber system (I–X).

People love stories and this book is illuminated with a number ofthese, including those known as case histories. Case histories, stories,metaphors, pictures and jokes make things much clearer than a linearargument. Imagine describing a rose to someone who has never seenone and then asking him to identify one at a florist’s. But show himeven a sketch (i.e. a pattern) of a rose and from then on he will recog-nize one regardless of the variety. Griffin and Tyrrell explain that we‘see’ the world through such patterns, and run into problems when weuse the wrong pattern to make sense of our predicaments.

Perception through pattern matching is of crucial importance in thedevelopment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias. Inboth, the Activating agent (the trauma or phobic stimulus) is of suchmoment that it imbues a Pattern into the fast brain pathway (thelimbic system) so that future experiences with even a fragment of thatpattern evoke the terror (Emotion) of the original encounter. AgainGriffin and Tyrrell explain how this can be reversed by accessing theREM state, with resolution of symptoms often in one or two sessions.

Another fascinating topic covered, and one of the human givens, isthe attention factor. ‘Attention-seeking’ and ‘manipulative’ are oftenused pejorative descriptions of patients and clients, but if the import-ance of both giving and receiving attention as a normal human needwas more widely recognized, the health systems of the world would be freed of an enormous burden. The ‘thick notes (or thick chart)syndrome’ is no doubt familiar to many hospital doctors: a patient ispassed from one specialist to another with each doctor doing a set ofinvestigations and often surgery to remove various organs, but thepatient keeps coming back again and again! If their attention needswere met effectively in other ways these particular patients would notneed to fulfil them through the ritual of history, examination, investi-

viii F O R E W O R D



gation, medication and surgery. On the flip side, if doctors and ther-apists were more aware of the attention factor, they would be betterprepared for avoiding the trap of prolonging treatment in order tohave their own attention needs met through their patients. As Griffinand Tyrrell relate, the evidence for the importance of the attentionfactor includes a shocking, ancient, but relatively unknown, experi-ment carried out by a European emperor.

And there are yet more treasures in this remarkable book including:why trance (focused attention) is a normal frequent everyday occur-rence, during which suggestibility is heightened, and its role both inhelping (the placebo effect, the transmission of culture and its morals)and harming (the nocebo effect, indoctrination); the conceptualizationof schizophrenia as waking reality processed through the dreamingbrain; why autism may be the result of the genetic absence of mammal-ian templates; why unbridled anger makes you stupid and shortensyour life; the therapeutic usefulness of seeing addictions as attempts tomeet basic human needs; and why avoiding greed and helping othersis good for your health.

The authors have put in a lot of work to show how knowledge ofthe way the brain works (gathered from a panorama of psychology,psychiatry, sociology, anthropology and neuroscience), can be used tohelp the distressed humanely. This book should be essential readingfor all psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and counsellors. For thegeneral public, this knowledge is vital if they are to protect themselves,friends and relatives from the chicanery, often unwitting, which passesfor much that is called counselling and psychotherapy.

This book is a remarkable achievement that should attract the atten-tion of any truly curious human being.

Farouk OkhaiMBCHB, MD (Texas), MRCGP, MRC PSYCH, FHGI

Consultant Psychiatrist in PsychotherapyConsultant Psychiatrist to the Home Treatment Team

Milton Keynes NHS Mental Health Service

ixF O R E W O R D



PART ONE

New Discoveries AboutHuman Nature

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Why we need to understand healthy minds

IT TOOK millions of years for the human mind to evolve to the pointwhere we have the knowledge to direct our own development. We havereached a watershed. Exciting discoveries about how the mind/bodysystem works show how human nature can unfold to create effectiveand fulfilled individuals. What will we do with this knowledge?

Science has discovered that nature endows each healthy humanconception with a wonderful array of living ‘templates’ – an infinitelyrich treasure-house of incomplete patterns that instinctively seekcompletion in the environment from the moment of birth, and thatcontinue to do so as we grow and evolve throughout our lives. Thesepatterns are expressed as physical and emotional needs and are in astate of continuous ebb and flow. If we are fortunate, and are borninto a culture and environment that provides us with the means to getthose needs met, we develop well. It is precisely the way needs are met,by the impact life has on them, that determines the individual nature,character and mental health of each person. Studying these innatepatterns, and charting their unfolding, is the new science of humannature, which is what this book is about.

Only by co-operating with these natural processes – the humangivens – can children be educated and matured into independent, fully integrated and fulfilled adults. And, when things go wrong andpeople lose their way, only by working in alignment with the humangivens can other people help them overcome emotional problems suchas depression, anxiety, addictions, anger disorders and psychoticbreakdowns.

And perhaps it is only by understanding these natural processes andovercoming the disadvantages we are also heir to – such as greed,vanity and the ease with which we can be conditioned – that we willevolve further.

P R O L O G U E



Seeking completion

WE SHARE in common with all living organisms – including plantsand the most humble, single-celled, protozoan creature – the fact thatwe have an ‘inner nature’, which we have biologically inherited, thatis always seeking the right environmental stimuli to unfold properly.This truth is easily seen when we study other living things but isharder to grasp in ourselves because we are so wrapped up in theprocess every moment of our lives.

Every microclimate supports plants that cannot live elsewhere. The warmth and humidity of tropical South American jungles, forexample, support over 8,200 orchid species, each with its own specialrequirements: the right soil conditions, nutriment, temperature, lightand pollinating potential. The more unusual the microclimate, the morerare and exotic the plant.1 The more common the plant, the lesscomplex its environmental needs and the more resilient it is. Anygardener who sees that a plant is not flourishing will recognize imme-diately that a deficiency in the environment – too little or too muchwater, for example – is preventing healthy growth, or that the planthas a disease compromising its biological integrity.

At a basic level, all organisms seek nourishment to renew themselvesand then give waste material back to the environment to be recycledagain and again. Oxygen, the waste gas of plant life, for example,becomes an energy source for animal life.

If we look at human beings in the same way as a gardener studiesplants, we can ask: what physical, psychological and social nutrimentdoes this creature need for the successful bringing to fruition of itsinnate nature? We can also look for what might be preventing theseinner templates from connecting to the greater world. But a person isnot a plant and we need not just material but also mental, emotionaland, some would say, spiritual nourishment if we are to flourish. And,

C H A P T E R O N E



while plants ‘know’ how to grow, children and adults need structuredguidance to optimise their own self development.

The need for meaningAn important human given, the need for meaning, is driving us towrite this book. This ancient natural human desire, the quest to under-stand, originally grew out of primitive creatures’ evolving ability tomove independently. Indeed, movement is fundamental to the veryexistence of brains, which developed primarily to control movement,to predict the outcome of movement and remember the result of pastmovements. Plants, by contrast, never evolved brains since they didnot need to do this. (There is a tiny marine creature called the seasquirt, which, in the earlier part of its life, swims around like a tadpole.It has a brain and a nerve cord to control its movements. But, when itmatures, it attaches itself to a rock and stays in one place like a plant.Thereupon it digests its own brain and nerve cord because it no longerhas a use for them.2)

The mental faculty for controlling movement is crucial to daily life.It is involved in conceiving an idea about what to do, planning aresponse and then carrying it out. (Literally, when we think aboutgetting a book down from a shelf, our brains mentally simulate themovement.) So important is it that the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex are both located in the frontal lobes, one of themost advanced parts of the brain, which determines not only wherewe direct our attention but also the relationship between short-termworking memory and long-term memory.

It also appears to direct consciousness itself, which is why the frontallobes have been termed the ‘executive’ function of the brain.3 Move-ment and meaning are inextricably linked.

The contemporary search for meaning is infinitely more sophisti-cated than that of our primitive ancestors like the sea squirt. It nowextends multi-dimensionally to the edge of the known universe anddown to the sub-atomic level – even beyond space and time. For35,000 years, since the beginning of cave art in the cultural explosionof the Upper Palaeolithic period, the search for meaning beyond day-to-day survival was spearheaded by remarkable individuals andgroups who passed their knowledge on down through the ages.

H U M A N G I V E N S6



Initially, through pre-gnostic (‘pre-knowing’) shamanistic traditionswhere sticks, stones and animals were worshipped, they explored bothhuman nature and the reality around them, and they expressed andtaught their findings through a framework that today is often called‘spiritual’: a fluid mix of excitatory practices, beliefs, rituals and expe-riences all involved in achieving and using altered states of conscious-ness.4 Freed as we are from the historical and ideological frameworkof those times, it is clear that these ‘spiritual’ researchers were on anevolutionary quest, investigating how to unfold our inner nature moreeffectively and, in the process, unlock the secrets of outer nature. Thiseffort eventually resulted in the evolution of gnostic (‘knowing’) tradi-tions. In essence, their spiritual quest was a scientific quest to under-stand more of reality by refining their perceptual apparatus in orderto see more clearly into the heart of nature. The gnostic teachersamong them, who always stood outside the ideologies of their time,always contended that within each human being there is the potentialfor a far richer personality, or perception. If this inner perception is todevelop, it must first be conceived of as a possibility.5 Its basis, there-fore, must rest, in part, on refined imagination.

A person needs preparation (in other words, appropriate environ-mental input) in order to attain more intelligent perception. And anessential part of the preparation involves a calming down or dimin-ishing of aspects of personality, which hinder, or even destroy, thepossibilities of refined perception. These include traits such as vanity,greed, self-obsession, etc. People driven by obsessions, for example,are unable to stand back and see beyond them. Likewise, people whoare ruled by emotions cannot make progress, because strong emotionsoverwhelm finer perceptions, just as raucous shouting drowns out agentle whisper.6

History shows that ‘spiritual’ knowledge, wherever it has appearedpublicly, is quickly polluted by the greed in the world; the teachings ofwiser people inevitably degenerate into dogma-driven cults, fossilizeand become self-perpetuating power structures. Wars are fought, peopleare indoctrinated and ignorance is entrenched, causing terrible havocaround the world.7 (Cult formation is not limited to extreme religiousgroups. It can be found in political parties, within academia, the arts,scientific laboratories, and business – in fact in any situation where

7S E E K I N G C O M P L E T I O N



people meet regularly, emotions are raised and charismatic personali-ties exert influence for their own ends.8)

But the essential pattern of this ancient knowledge about humandevelopment is perfectly echoed by, and in tune with, the findings of modern science about not only the physical universe but humandevelopment at all levels. Neurobiology, psychology and sociology allshow that there are inner patterns of perception that seek to connectwith the greater world and, when they do, allow for greater refine-ment and progress as human beings. And it is clear that, when thesedevelopmental processes are blocked, we cannot move on.

For example, we cannot be mentally healthy if we are isolated. Inher article, “What it feels like to be a child with no friends”, CeliaBrayfield wrote in the Sunday Times9 about the effect of being broughtup by a reclusive mother: “Friend was a word I didn’t know when Iwent to primary school. We didn’t do friends in our family. An old,dark leylandii hedge ended our garden and behind it we lived incomplete isolation. My mother was content but I was suffocating withloneliness. When I got to school nobody wanted to play with me andquite a lot of children wanted to beat me up.”

Little Celia drifted unhappily around, thinking, “I want to be yourfriend but I don’t know how,” and “… wondering why the other children were being so horrible. When people pick on you, you feelyou must deserve it. I didn’t know the rules and I certainly didn’tknow any of the songs or rhymes or skipping games a girl needs ifshe’s going to be a social success in the playground.

“With no friends, I was also an easy victim for the bullies,” she said.“On top of the normal day-to-day punching and kicking, the ring-leader once threw me face first down a flight of stairs.”

The article was inspired by a report that had just been published onsocial skills teaching in British primary schools. The report estimatedthat one primary school child in five has problems related to lack ofsocial skills and poor mental health. It also highlighted the consider-able body of research showing that, when small children have emo-tional difficulties, they can’t learn anything.10 Celia Brayfield wrote, “Iwas acting that out wonderfully [at school]. Although my mothermade sure that I knew my letters and numbers before I started school,I lost them instantly and was soon lagging behind the rest of my class.

H U M A N G I V E N S8




P U B L I S H I N G

HG

THE LIFE-CHANGING BESTSELLER

We are all born with a rich natural inheritance... a partially formed mind containing a treasure-house of innate knowledge patterns.

But if our minds are to unfurl and develop to their fullest potential, these innate patterns, our physical and emotional needs(the ‘human givens’), must be healthily completed in the environment. It is when they are not that we become vulnerableto depression, anger, anxiety disorders, greed and addiction.

The rich and inspiring body of psychological knowledge in Human Givens, culled from startling new scientific ideas and discoveries about how the mind works, will strike a chord with any lively mind. And the wealth of information and stories it contains will help you improve the quality of your life and thelives of those around you.

“Absolutely the right way forward.”

BBC Radio 4 ‘All in the mind’

“Harnessed between these pages are scientific insights and practical techniques of sufficient power to completely revolutionise our approach to parenting, teaching and thecaring professions. I wholeheartedly recommend HumanGivens to any individual with a burning interest in how lifeworks and can be helped to work better.”

DR NICK BAYLIS, Lecturer in Positive Psychology, Cambridge University

“An entirely attainable and reasonable road map for goodmental health.” IRISH EXAMINER

“A wonderfully fresh and stimulating view of dreaming, evolution, and human functioning. Human Givens also provides both an encompassing model and practical, specificapplications to enhance the effectiveness of psychotherapy.It will deepen and widen every reader’s perspective.”

ARTHUR J. DEIKMAN, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California

“A quiet revolution.” NEW SCIENTIST

NEW EDITION




HUMAN GIVENS

Joe Griffin & Ivan Tyrrell

P U B L I S H I N G

HG

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Documents

THE LIFE-CHANGING BESTSELLER HUMAN · Dr Jeffrey K. Zeig, Director of the Milton H. Erickson Foundation “[This] approach offers a refreshing alternative to reams of expensive psychobabble.”