Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain

Winner of the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Prize 2018. Up to the minute brain science from a world class scientist. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore explains how the adolescent brain transforms as it develops and shapes the adults we become.

Drawing upon her cutting-edge research Professor Blakemore explores:

• What makes the adolescent brain different?
• Why does an easy child become a challenging teenager?
• What drives the excessive risk-taking and the need for intense friendships common to teenagers?
• Why it is that many mental illnesses - depression, addiction, schizophrenia - begin during these formative years.

And she shows that while adolescence is a period of vulnerability, it is also a time of enormous creativity and opportunity.

"Beautifully written with clarity, expertise and honesty about the most important subject for all of us. I couldn’t put it down."
Professor Robert Winston

"You will understand your children better for reading it."
The Times

Adolescence isn't an aberration
A sense of self
Fitting in
Inside the skull
Inside the living brain
The ever-plastic brain
Social mind, social brain
Understanding other people
The right sort of risks
When things go wrong
Educating the brain
It's the journey that matters
Notes
Acknowledgements
Illustration sources
Index