Image Credit: Rose Gibbs

Gerald Hüther is a neurobiologist who after 25 years of research realised that all the findings in the field (mainly about neuroplasticity) were staying within the academic and scientific communities and were not actually starting to inform changes to education and social policies as they should. He then went out to write more populist books about the subjects to disseminate knowledge and so that people can start making the changes this knowledge implements. In the course of the next 20 years or so he then got involved in a lot of things, mainly in projects and subjects of radical education. His main premise is that nothing is fixed and all these brain pathways can be rebuilt.

Gerald Hüther’s idea in brief is that a child from a neglected or abusive background, who has grown up in a difficult environment can develop his/her potential in the world when they have had one adult person in their life (neighbour, aunt, teacher etc) who 'saw' and treated the child for how she/he is and not as an object. One of his subjects is the difference of being treated as an object or subject and that being treated as an object can happen through caregivers and often happens within the education system. Hüther describes that becoming an object is a very painful experience and children usually develop coping mechanisms to deal with it.

Unfortunately he has not really published anything in English (apart from a book called The Compassionate Brain https://www.amazon.co.uk/Compassionate-Brain-Empathy-Creates-Intelligence-x/dp/159030330X

http://www.gerald-huether.de/content/international