Content Warning: Childhood trauma and violence.

Dr. T and The Truth Fairy welcome Dr. Darcia Narvaez to the show to discuss her work on the neurobiology of moral development. They specifically address her Evolved Nest theory and shed light on how greater connections can heal. 

Dr. Narvaez explains in detail how the Evolved Nest is the set of developmental provisions we give to the young. There are nine components that affect development and which Dr. Narvaez studies. The first components specifically refer to infants but the rest involve adults with themes like nature, immersion and connection, and healing practices. 

The discussion The Truth Fairy and Dr. T have with Darcia Narvaez delves into how psychedelics can assist  in feeling connected to the universe, but Dr. Narvaez adds that it’s ideally accompanied by immersion, community, and being in touch with your body. They address how Indigenous culture has a greater connection to nature and self that we are disconnected from to greater and greater degrees in Western society.

“I think we have to get back to the Indigenous worldview. So Indigenous worldview is this perspective of connection. But it's also respect and humble awareness of our limitations, and that we have so much to learn from the animals and plants who have been around as species much longer than we have. We’re pretty young on the planet. And so the Native Americans have all sorts of practices and ceremonies of gratitude and thankfulness.” -  Darcia Narvaez, PhD

About Darcia Narvaez, PhD:

My life has been an adventure through many careers. I am still growing.

My academic scholarship has moved from work on nonconscious moral rationality (in the 1990s), to moral character education in the schools (late 1990s- early 2000s), to the neurobiology of moral development (mid 2000s to present), to the study of evolved parenting practices (presently), and the study of small-band hunter-gatherers who represent the type of society in which humans evolved (presently). All this comes together in a moral developmental systems theory that emphasizes the ongoing epigenetic plasticity of how we develop our humanity and our morality. We are co-constructed by our families and our experiences.

My concerns are for developmental optimization and fulfilling human potential—actionable communal imagination.  I put some of this together in various articles and chapters but mostly in my 2014 book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Dr. Allan Schore
• Kindred World
• The Evolved Nest
• “Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality” by Darcia Narvaez

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Darcia Narvaez, PhD: website

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