Peter Hobson
Robert Peter Hobson (born November 23, 1949 ) is a psychiatrist . He is Professor of Psychopathology at University College London . He is known for his work on autism and developmental psychology . His research led him to new conclusions regarding the origin of consciousness .
power
The core of his work is that the human mind is the result of a successful series of interactions between child and caregiver . Hobson's research is based on principles created by Colwyn Trevarthen from the mid-1970s. Trevarthen identified clear steps in pre-linguistic infant development, the so-called primary and secondary intersubjectivity . These equip the developing mind of the child with an architecture that is necessary to achieve symbolic thinking.
Hobson substantiated his conclusions by reviewing cases where children were unable to have intersubjective relationships, whether for genetic or environmental reasons. Hobson achieved the findings without any ethically questionable experimentation. He examined children with autism, Down syndrome , congenital blindness, and extreme social deprivation . For the latter, he used statistically relevant numbers of children rescued from Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romanian orphanages . All obstacles that stand in the way of normal interaction between child and caregiver were carefully checked.
Hobson's arguments challenge sociobiology and evolutionary psychology by leading the concept of the human mind back to a receptacle for social interactions, without consciousness in the human sense being impossible. On the other hand, Hobson shows that having a strong emotional bond is critical to a child and the process of intersubjective learning. The experience that emotions can be triggered by and in other people has been identified as the material from which the sense of self, the other, objects and symbols are made.
The theses are of growing interest in the philosophy of mind and related disciplines. Edward Skidelsky points out that Hobson fatally overlooks the fact that autistic people also learn to speak. Others see Hobson as a charge against the parents of autistic children, which he has expressly denied.
Fonts
- Robert Peter Hobson: How we learn to think: Brain development and the role of emotions. Verlag Walter, Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3530421685
Web links
- Literature by and about Peter Hobson in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hobson, Peter |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hobson, Robert Peter; Hobson, R. Peter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British psychiatrist and psychopathologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 23, 1949 |