Introduction

In 2002 a cross-sectional picture of two brains placed side by side was published in an article by Bruce Perry, founder of the ChildTrauma Academy in Houston Texas, an independent agency promoting a ‘Neurosequential Model’ for working with ‘at-risk’ children (see Figure 1.1). The image purported to show MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans of the structure of the brains of two 3-year-old children. One was the brain of a child who had what was referred to as a ‘normal’ development, and the other was a rather smaller, shrivelled brain with worrying ‘black holes’ (Allen, 2011a: 16) indicating enlarged ventricles or cortical atrophy from a child labelled as subject to ‘extreme neglect’.

This brain scans picture has become iconic, a key motif in political and thinktank reports concerning children's upbringing and outcomes from across the spectrum. It provides a graphic visual image for assertions that poor parenting causes lasting damage to babies’ and young children’s brain development. In two influential policy reports we read that:

The Perry image feels like solid, objective evidence of the formative importance of attentive mothering for babies’ brain development and the need to intervene early to ensure that children's brains are not damaged by substandard parenting.