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Mirroring People: The Science of Empathy and How We Connect With Others. Marco Iacoboni. New York, NY: Picador, 2009, 336 pp., $15.00 (paperback).
The study of mirror neurons is an exciting new area in the cognitive neurosciences. Mirror neurons are a system of cells in the prefrontal cortex of the brain that allows us to understand the minds of others. When understood by clinicians, it can have a wide range of implications for understanding affect and intention within the consulting room across clinical specialties, but particularly domestic violence. To understand the minds of our clients, we need to first understand our own emotions, how they relate to action, and how our brains are wired to connect with other brains, especially within the realm of emotion and intention. Understanding the mirror neuron system is the key to the successful treatment of perpetrators of domestic violence. Is it a sufficient theory to base our treatment approach? Of course it is not. The human mind and behavior is so complicated that it would be a mistake to reduce it to one concept or theory. But I believe that incorporating this recent discovery in the neurosciences will no doubt increase our understanding of violence, help our clients change their behaviors, and therefore improve outcomes.
Many therapists don't often read empirical research for several reasons. First, they may not immediately see the application of the findings to their work. Although this is changing, many research articles don't always make the theory-application connection explicit. Often, readers need to make that connection themselves. The second reason many people don't read scholarly research articles is because they are so dense. What I mean by "dense" is that they are difficult to read because of their complexity, the language is different from clinical dialect, and sometimes they are just simply too esoteric in nature. Researchers often examine a very narrow piece of human or animal behavior to understand its function, and in doing so, its relationship to the bigger picture of human behavior may not be immediately apparent. In his book Mirroring People, Marco Iacoboni takes a very complex science and makes it accessible to both professional readers and the general public alike.
Iacoboni asks the reader to ponder the question, "How do we...