The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook -- What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing

by Maia Szalavitz and Bruce D. Perry

Book Overview

In this classic work of developmental psychology, renowned psychiatrist and the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Happened to You? reveals how trauma affects children--and outlines the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465056539
• Release Date: December 2007
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Extremely interesting and informative

The book explained very interesting and wild cases involving children and is filled with information I reference to this day years later

An eye opener on mental health

I love learning about psychology and mental health and this book sheds a whole new light on it.

Brilliant and heartening

Assisted by a talented science writer, child psychiatrist Bruce Perry presents a series of heartbreaking stories of children severely damaged by trauma. But that's only one side of this remarkable book. The other side is how many of these profoundly damaged children were assisted to heal. Perry explains his "neurosequential" approach that sequentially targets brain regions left undeveloped by abuse or neglect. He presents compelling cases to illustrate how the child's age at the time of the abuse or neglect will determine the gaps in neurological development and how his interventions sequentially target those developmental gaps. For children whose brains were stalled out in infancy, for example, therapy may start with healing touch or rhythm before moving on to higher brain activities. The focus, always, is on the child's humanity. Perry explains the importance of listening and letting the child set the pace. He warns of the damage caused by well-intentioned but poorly trained therapists who push children to open up, or who administer punitive interventions in the guise of treatment. Healing is not about a specific technique administered in cookbook fashion but, rather, about love, and restoring shattered human connections. This is an enlightening and heartening book and a real page-turner to boot. The neurological underpinnings of the trauma theory are presented in clear English accessible to anyone who can read. If you're a mental health professional, psychologist, or psychiatrist, you'll love this book. If you're a parent or a teacher, it's also for you. Whoever you are, it's for you. I guarantee you will be engaged and inspired.

Drama in the Service of Social Restructuring

Erik Erikson's -Childhood and Society-. Don Winnicott's -The Child, The Family and The Outside World-. Alice Miller's -For Your Own Good-. Three books about growing up in Western Culture. Three books the average guy could understand. Three watersheds. This could be -- and -should- be -- the fourth. I have been reading Perry's professional work for a decade. Along with Daniel Stern (-The Motherhood Constellation-) and Alan Schore (-Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self-), he stands with the giants of early life neurobiology, infant-mother bonding and socialization in the millennial era. For me, his work harks back an entire century to the simple and forthright illuminations of the recently rediscovered Pierre Janet. I may routinely recommend the mass market work of people like Pia Mellody, Claudia Black and Scott Peck in -their- heydays; usefully dramatic expositions of vital concepts tend to flip my switch. This thing flipped it over, and over, and over again. A brief sample may help others to understand why: "For years mental health professionals taught people that they could be psychologically healthy without social support... People without any relationships were believed to be as healthy as those who had many. These ideas contradict the fundamental biology of the human species: we are social mammals and could never have survived without deeply interconnected and interdependent human contact. "The truth is, you cannot love yourself unless you have been loved and are loved. The capacity to love cannot be built in isolation. "In order for a child to become kind, giving and empathetic, he needs to be treated that way. Punishment can't create or model those qualities. Although we do need to set limits, if we want our children to behave well, we have to treat them well." Perry buttresses his case with presentation after presentation from casework involving neglected, invalidated, brainwashed, ignored and hoodwinked young humans "raised" in extremist religious cults, Eastern European orphanages, broken chromosome backwaters and even animal cages. He shows us how children raised in seemingly "normal" homes can have every reason to be as confused and disoriented as his more obvious worst-case-scenarios. And he shows us how developmentally appropriate re-parenting (more or less the fundament of the Adult Children of Alcoholics movement) can and will produce near miracles. Social impact seems to require drama. Miller's work in the '80s crashed through the gates of denial on child abuse after decades of factually solid but less dramatic publication. Perry's first-hand experience with the surviving children of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas, and the tragically mistaken "satanic cult" furball in rural Gilmer, Texas, make the most of memorable headlines from recent years. Drama, however, is only a means to an end. The message is what matters. And the message is simply -this-: The love of the mother is not merely signifi

Moving and insightful

I am a therapist who works with families and children who have suffered trauma. I found this book to be incredibly moving, inspiring and insightful. I particularly recommend this book to parents who are thinking about adopting an older child (non-infant), and professionals who work with traumatized children. While some of these types of books are downers, and there certainly are some sad stories involved, this book is really about hope. Dr. Perry outlines what these children need to do well, what parents and professionals can do to help, and where they often fall short. He really helps us understand exactly how trauma affects children and how it stunts or delays their emotional development. Again, these children have hope. They are not doomed to become criminals and abusers. We need to start listening to people like Bruce Perry if we want to help them heal while they still have a chance.

The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog

I have been a childrens mental health therapist, specializing in childhood trauma, for over 20 years. I have taken innumerable classes and read countless (mostly difficult to wade through) books. This is the single best "text" on development, trauma and intervention that I have ever read. Dr. Perry communicates well and makes his ideas clear and understandable. He is remarkabley down to earth and his compassion and humanity shine through. I am recommending it to many who are not in this field but are interested in children and how we can best meet there needs.

Love does heal these children!

Thank you, Dr. Perry! Finally, what foster and adoptive parents knew all along...Love does heal these traumatized children! As a former foster parent, an adoptive and birth parent, and a child and family therapist, I am overjoyed to see these stories in print. It is a difficult task to find help and have professionals actually understand that this child sees the world differently for a neurodevelopmental reason, and not just because they are oppositional. Dr. Perry has shared this information in a way that anyone who reads it will think differently, with his incredible storytelling. It is so important for children with prenatal and postnatal trauma to be understood and to matter. Neurodevelopmental principles are not that difficult to put into place at home, school, or in the community. Children must experience success on a daily basis, at their individual neurodevelopmental pace. I have seen it work in many children. Dr. Perry puts it very simple when he stated in this book: "For years mental health professionals taught people that they could be psychologically healthy without social support, that "unless you love yourself, no one else will love you." Women were told that they didn't need men, and vice versa. People without any relationships were believed to be as healthy as those who had many. These ideas contradict the fundamental biology of human species: we are social mammals and could never have survived without deeply interconnected and interdependent human contact. The truth is, you cannot love yourself unless you have been loved and are loved. The capacity to love cannot be built in isolation." This book is a must read for anyone working with traumatized children, raising healthy children, or just raising each other! Connie Sirnio, MSW, LCSW Child and Family Therapist PsyD Learner in Clinical Psychology Coos Bay, Oregon