His research has focused on affective neuroscience, neuropsychiatry, trauma theory, developmental psychology, attachment theory, pediatrics, infant mental health, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and behavioral biology. Schore works at the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, and at the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development. He is author of Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self as well as Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self and Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self, and numerous articles and chapters. Schore is Editor of the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology, and on the editorial staff of several journals. He has worked on effects of early trauma including in animals, and using brain development using neuroimaging to study the effects of attachment. He also works on borderline personality disorder. He works as a psychotherapist. He leads Study Groups in Developmental Affective Neuroscience & Clinical Practice in Los Angeles, Berkeley, Portland, Seattle, Boulder, Austin and Albuquerque, and was a member of the Commission on Children at Risk for the Report on Children and Civil Society, "Hardwired to Connect". According to Google Scholar, Schore has been cited over 20,000 times in scientific literature. Schore has written; "If…an infant, especially one born with a genetically-encoded altered neurophysiologic reactivity, does not have adequate experiences of being part of an open dynamic system with an emotionally responsive adult human, its corticolimbic organization will be poorly capable of coping with the stressful chaotic dynamics that are inherent in all human relationships. Such a system tends to become static and closed, and invested in defensive structures to guard against anticipated interactive assaults that potentially trigger disorganizing and emotionally painful psychobiological states. Due to its avoidance of novel situations and diminished capacity to cope with challenging situations, it does not expose itself to new socioemotional learning experiences that are required for the continuing experience-dependent growth of the right brain. This structural limitation, in turn, negatively impacts the future trajectory of self-organization."
Main Publications
Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self. The Neurobiology of Emotional Development
Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self.
Affect Regulation and Repair of the Self.
The Science of the Art of Psychotherapy.
Modern Attachment Theory. The Central Role of Affect Regulation in Development and Treatment. DOI 10.1007/s10615-007-0111-7
Dysregulation of the right brain: a fundamental mechanism of traumatic attachment and the psychopathogenesis of posttraumatic stress disorder.
Advances in Neuropsychoanalysis, Attachment Theory, and Trauma Research: Implications for Self Psychology.
