The work in recent decades on childhood attachments that I’ve described, which builds on the work of Freud and many who followed, provides empirical evidence that there is a connection between a child’s early relationship with their parents and the way in which their mind develops. This in turn influences the function of the adult personality, including the ways in which people talk about themselves and those closest to them. Some research indicates that repeated exposure to abuse or neglect in childhood may affect the development of neural connections between those areas of the brain that
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