Welcome to a new week! The last week of July actually...
Today's recommendation is a book titled "The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog. And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook." by Dr. Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz.
"Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love." Dr. Bruce Perry (p. 258)
Dr. Bruce Perry is a child psychiatrist specializing in the area of trauma and its impacts on the brain. Maia Szalavitz is a journalist specializing in neuroscience topics.
Now, you may have read that quick bio on each author and thought, "Maybe this book will be too technical for me." Luckily, this book is highly accessible and although it does present brain information, it does so in a way where you aren't even aware that you learned it!
Each chapter presents a detailed story of real cases of real children that Dr. Perry treated throughout his career. These stories offer insights into how adverse childhood events (ACE's) impact a child's development, what many different outcomes may occur as a result of those experiences, and how treatment and healing can begin to occur. By reading this book, you'll see a different perspective on the Waco, Texas ATF/Branch Davidians incident. You will read about parents who struggle to provide a nurturing environment, children who commit crimes, and children that "act out". As the title suggests, you will learn about a boy who was actually raised as a dog with other dogs by a default caregiver who did what he knew, nothing more, nothing less.
This book is clearly relevant to more people than we may believe. The book presents statistics such as "40 percent of American children will have at least one potentially traumatizing experience by age eighteen..."(The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog, p. xxv, 2017). Approximately 14 percent of children have experienced child abuse or neglect within the last year (CDC, 2020). Of adults surveyed across 25 states, 61 percent reported having experienced at least one ACE, and nearly 17 percent reported four or more (CDC, 2020). With numbers like these, and these being only those who were surveyed and felt comfortable to share, this topic is one that needs widespread education. You may also notice those statistics come from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Often, when we hear CDC, we may think of health conditions like cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. However, the CDC recognizes the profound health effects that negative childhood experiences such as abuse can have, both immediately and long-term.
The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog book is currently in its 2nd edition, published in 2017. The original edition was published in 2006 and has since been updated. This book not only provides the stories and insights mentioned above, but includes discussion questions, and an appendix with resources and graphics.
This book is an essential read for all psychology, sociology, criminal justice, criminology, social work, medical, and education major students. It is also highly recommended for parents, caregivers, and professionals to better understand childhood behaviors, both atypical and typical.
Although at times difficult to take in the experiences of these children and others in their lives, the book offers glimpses of hope, because of the amazing resilience of humans. Yes, our brains can adapt to the negative in our lives with negative outcomes, but so too can our brains adapt to the positive with truly great outcomes.
"The brain is built--our selves are built--from millions of tiny decisions--some conscious, most not. Seemingly irrelevant choices can result in tremendously different later outcomes. Timing is everything. We don't know when the smallest choice, or 'stimuli' will push a developing brain onto the path of genius, or onto the highway to hell." -Dr. Bruce Perry (p. 132).
Additional Resources:
Dr. Bruce Perry Child Trauma Academy https://www.childtrauma.org/
Center for Disease Control https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/fastfact.html
Please comment your thoughts on the book if you have read it already! If you have more questions about the book, please feel free to reach out to me.
Sources: [Center for Disease Control National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention, April, 2020; The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog, 2017]
Photo credit: [photograph taken of The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog book cover]