Dr. Frances Jensen is the chair of
the Department of Neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine at UPenn. She is
incredibly accomplished. Both as a professor and researcher, she has expanded
the field of neurology and synaptic plasticity a great deal. She also wrote an
incredibly charming, unique, and insightful book about adolescent physiological
development. Her book is terrific. It can be found at the Penn bookstore and
online and you should read this review and then go read it.
After reading two short pages in
Dr. Jensen’s book, A Teenage Brain, I
rushed over to my parents and apologized to them for the way I was as a
teenager. To my delight, they accepted my apology and explained that they never
took it personally. The first few pages of the book provide a hilarious anecdote
of Dr. Jensen’s teenage son having dyed his hair from auburn to jet-black
without even commenting on the change. While Dr. Jensen does not set out to
describe the physiological motivations behind that specific teenage move, she does wisely explain with diagrams,
experiments, and more anecdotes the effects that being a teenager will have on
the brain. And they are indeed far-reaching effects.
The book
takes the view of almost of a “how-to” for parents raising teenagers. There are
drops of advice and parental stratagem in many of her chapters, but to me I
found the book as plain explanation—and sometimes excuse—for so many of the
typical emotions and actions that were (and probably are) so typical to my
teenage self. Additionally, the book gave me a pretty interesting insight into
the mind of a parent. It’s not that I’ve never thought about what it’s like to
be a parent, but Dr. Jensen really emphasized how much effort a parent could
make to be an effective role model.
The book is
not for the timid or shy. She comes from a place of intense curiosity and an
reflexive urge to understand the basis of behavior and change. And boy does she
highlight the amazing complexities of the teenage mind! There are paradoxes
galore. Why do most teenagers forget to execute a chore but will almost never
forget if a parent or friend slips up? How can teenagers learn so much so
quickly and then often make the same mistake time after time? Why is it so
difficult and fun to actually be a teenager? With these questions in mind, Dr.
Jensen investigates drugs and alcohol, sleep and learning, technology and
addiction, and at the root of each topic there is a clear physiological
explanation and often a clear solution for either the parent or teen reader.
It goes
without saying, but there is still much that needs to be understood about the
teenage brain. This stage in life is clearly a time of cultural uniqueness as
teens and their loud rock music bands and Twitter feeds are a group that seem
to be changelessly changing. There is a method to the teenage madness, and it
lies in the circuitry of a brain that seems to be picking up speed and taking
off the training wheels at the same time—and the breaks definitely do not work
in this teenage bicycle metaphor. Read the book, reflect on your angsty teenage
self, write a poem, and while you bask in the glory of emerging from
teenagerdom, please thank someone for dealing with the most difficult version of you.
