The second edition of this book includes ten essays on the development of the human brain in the prenatal, infant, toddler, pre-school and school age, including adolescence. I tried to maintain the four essential directions of knowledge as laid out in the first edition: the deep roots of mental functions of our species in the evolutionary past going back tens of millions of years; the fact that even before being born as well as during the first moments immediately following their birth, children "know”, without realizing it and being able to communicate it, significantly more than anyone could have imagined until recently; the development of inner life as affected by the external environment, particularly the relationship between the youngest children and their mothers, referred to as a maternal bond; a group of findings proving the mutual relation between empathy, mentalization and self-awareness, the roots of humankind.
I attempted to relate new facts to old information, excluding outdated facts. All chapters contain more information, with special emphasis being paid to intelligence, the development of the selfhood and the development of the relationship between an individual and a group.