Acknowledgements	6
	Contents	8
	List of Figures	10
	Chapter 1: What Is Neuroparenting?	11
	Normalising Parent Training	16
	The Requirements of Neuroparenting	19
	The Power of the Brain	20
	The Parenting Deficit	22
	Love Biologised	24
	Hiding Behind Babies’ Brains	25
	References	26
	Chapter 2: The Claims of Neuroparenting	29
	‘Killer Facts’	31
	Two Constructions of the Brain	32
	The Wondrous Brain	32
	The Vulnerable Brain	36
	Toxic Substances	36
	Toxic Technology	38
	Toxic Environments	39
	Toxic Parents	41
	Toxic Stress	44
	Pathologising Family Life	45
	References	47
	Chapter 3: Neuroparenting and the Quest for Natural Authority	51
	Natural or Scientific Parenting?	51
	Can We Learn from Animals?	54
	Critical Periods and Windows of Opportunity	55
	Bonding and Attachment	56
	Talking and Playing	58
	Parents as a Barrier to Progress	59
	Nature and Nature	61
	The Political and Expert Colonisation of Nurture	63
	Tensions Between Determinism and Intervention	65
	The Search for Universal Rules of Behaviour	66
	References	68
	Chapter 4: Neuroparenting and the State	70
	A Cause in Search of an Argument	72
	Enter the Neuroscience	74
	Neuroparenting Entrepreneurs	77
	Popular Disseminators	79
	The Therapeutic State	80
	Are We All Dysfunctional Now?	83
	References	83
	Chapter 5: Getting Inside the Family	86
	Instrumentalising Everyday Life	88
	Sapping Parental Authority	92
	Professionalising Parenting	94
	Normalising Help-Seeking	94
	Exploiting the Transition to Parenthood	96
	New Rituals for Old	98
	Undermining Parental Love	101
	References	102
	Chapter 6: The Problem with Neuroparenting	104
	Presumed Helplessness	106
	Further Intensifying Motherhood	108
	What Becomes of the Parent?	113
	What Becomes of the Child?	113
	What Becomes of the Family?	115
	What Becomes of Community?	116
	A Defence of Parental Love	117
	References	118
	Index	122