October 29, 2016

October 29, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

This is my fourth response to “The Power of the Word May Reside in the Power of Affect” (2007) by Jaak Panksepp. I respond to Panksepp’s important work as it sheds light on the distinction between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB).

“All mammals are born with brain potentials that elaborate many positive and negative emotional processes that guide the developmental trajectory of language acquisition.” Anyone familiar with the SVB/NVB distinction recognizes that “primary-processes” such as PLAY/joy and CARE/nurturance are only expressed in SVB, while PANIC/separation distress and FEAR/threat are only expressed during NVB.

Panksepp’s “primary processes” teaches us that SVB is of crucial importance “in motivating the inter-subjective dance between mother and child,” while NVB always disrupts this bond. “Social brains/minds” simply can’t develop if there is too little SVB and too much NVB.

Normal brain development promotes “programming of linguistic prosody within right hemispheres of developing children” and “analytic-cognitive attributes, including various delusional potentials of language” promote “left hemispheric dominance.” Panksepp considers “primary emotional processes” as the sources of “such cerebral specialization,” but it is the sound of the mother’s voice which stimulates these processes.

Depending on her rate of SVB, the mother will induce PLAY and CARE in her child, but depending on her rate of NVB, she will induce FEAR and PANIC. Thus, only SVB stimulates the appropriate use of language, while NVB will always stimulate the “delusional potentials of language.”