ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a part of the brain that exerts a huge influence on people’s behaviour: the amygdala.
From man’s earliest stage of evolution, one of the primary purposes of the amygdala has been to provide an instantaneous bodily reaction in the face of perceived threat and danger: fight, flight or freeze.
We no longer face sabre-tooth tigers, but the perceptions of threat and danger now come from multiple sources and in an updated form. Fear may arise from an array of different perceived threats in a twenty-firstcentury context that can frighten us, as may anger and panic. But other activators have developed, including shame and to some extent twenty-firstcentury multi-tasking.
When the amygdala is activated, our rational and logical processes “switch off”, so that our energies are directed towards fight, flight or dissociation. Even recounting events that caused this reaction can reactivate the amygdala. This is not a time for rational decision-making. Professionals need to understand and identify when people are in this state and to have strategies for helping people back into logical decision-making mode. The chapter addresses all these issues and strategies.
