We are at a turning point. The economic crisis of recent times has opened up the possibility of revising our values and moving away from selfishness and greed, towards a more co-operative and compassionate society. But how are we going to get there? Can we decide to change? This ambitious and wide-ranging book argues that such hopes are unlikely to be realised until we understand the central importance of our early emotional lives in creating a better society. The author argues that we have come to inhabit a culture of selfishness. As society has become bigger, working life is no longer communal, and everyday relationships and a more abstract political economy have developed which have failed to support child-rearing or to recognise people's emotional needs. This is the culture we have lived with for so long that it is hard to imagine things being any different. The Selfish Society shows that selfishness in public life and public behaviour has its roots in poor care in early childhood. The author draws on developmental psychology and neuroscience to show how the values of empathy and responsibility to others are passed on through early child-rearing - not through rational instruction, but from the way our parental figures behave.

When babies are not treated with sensitivity and personal care, those values are undermined. Early childcare is of crucial importance to society. This book tackles these controversial issues, assessing the impact of feminism on our current dilemmas. It argues that women have been co-opted into a materialism which has reached its limits of usefulness to human society. If we are to build a more caring society, we need to support the development of relationships that are learnt in early life, and integrate them into our political and economic thinking.