The Primal Teen: Book review

December 7th, 2007 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (2) |

The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids

I first heard about Barbara Strauch’s The Primal Teen from Mark Oestreicher (a.k.a. ysmarko) on his blog, and then in person when he plugged it during his seminar on middle school ministry at the 2007 National Youth Workers Convention.

The basic premise of the entire book is that new findings in the field of neuroscience (scientific study of the brain) are proving that many stereotypes and/or assumptions about adolescents have a biological foundation. “Teenagers may, indeed, be a bit crazy,” says Strauch in the Introduction, “but they are crazy according to a primal blueprint; they are crazy by design” (xiv).

Analyzed in light of recent scientific findings are many of the things traditionally associated with adolescence, such as impulsiveness, out-of-character and shady behavior, experimentation (drugs, sex, etc.), raging hormones, puppy love, sleeping too much, and so on. Many of these things have something to do with the prefrontal cortex, which is essentially the decision-making and impulse-resisting center of the brain. Adolescent bodies develop faster than the adolescent prefrontal cortex, and although a “teenager may outwardly look like a mountain of maturity to us… it’s an illusion” (36).

There’s a lot of great stuff in this book. If you’ve ever been puzzled by a teenager and asked the question “Why on earth does s/he do that!?”, this book has a lot of answers. It challenges us to look at adolescence as more than an awkward stage of bodily growth and social unrest; adolescence, scientists are finding, is period in which brain development rivals that of early childhood.

As a professional youth worker, I highly recommend this book, both to fellow youth workers and parents alike. For youth workers, you’ll see your job in a whole new way. In addition to encouraging kids in the Way of Jesus, we’ll begin to see our ministry as vital to the biological development of adolescents. The implications here are huge. Things we do (and the way we do them) in youth ministry will not only affect the rest of teenagers’ lives spiritually, they will affect the rest of their lives biologically – we are, quite literally, molding their brains.

I have just one caveat. The book was published in 2003, which means most of the research and interviews were likely conducted in 2002 and before. As we approach 2008, this book nears its fifth birthday, and five years in the field of neuroscience is a LONG time. So the book is a bit dated, but it’s still relevant. As far as I know, there haven’t been any similar (and similarly accesible) books since The Primal Teen was published.

I’d like to end this review with a quote in the book from an 18 year old guy named Stuart which I think accurately sums up the book. He says,

I think one of the biggest changes I notice is that my mind seems to see things in a more complex, complicated kind of way now… It’s like for the first time, my brain can ask “what if” (202).

May we be courageous enough to encourage adolescents to ask “what if”. Their biological development may depend on it.