Gordon Neufeld (born 1946) is a developmental psychologist from

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. He is the author of the book ''Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers'' (co-authored with

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

Gabor Maté Gabor Maté (born January 6, 1944) is a Hungarian-Canadian physician and author. He has a background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development, trauma and potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health includin ...

Early life

During the 1970s, Neufeld completed an undergraduate degree from the

University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gr ...

and graduate degrees from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

Career

Neufeld's most significant contribution to developmental psychology is a theory of attachment that includes six stages in the development of the capacity for relationship, the construct of polarization that explains both shyness and defensive detachment. The Neufeld approach is based on the

attachment theory Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal ...

formulated by

John Bowlby Edward John Mostyn Bowlby, CBE, FBA, FRCP, FRCPsych (; 26 February 1907 – 2 September 1990) was a British psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachmen ...

. He taught psychology at the

for 20 years. Neufeld is founder of the Neufeld Institute based in Vancouver, which provides education and training for parents and professionals based on Neufeld's theories.

References

External links

Official siteOfficial Neufeld Institute YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neufeld, Gordon Living people Canadian psychologists University of British Columbia alumni University of Winnipeg alumni 1946 births