| Synopsis A world-renowned child psychiatrist takes us inside his pioneering
work with trauma victims to offer a groundbreaking new perspective on
how stress and violence affect children's brains-and how they can be
helped to heal. Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has treated
children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, witnesses,
children raised in closets and cages, and victims of family violence.
Here he tells their stories of trauma and transformation.
Editorial Reviews
KLIATT
Children who suffer early trauma seem to have different rates of
recovery, and some never recover. In this collection of stories, Dr.
Perry tells of a number of children he helped. Most had difficult or
even horrible childhoods, often full of misguided parenting,
abandonment, or torture. Through the stories, he teaches the reader
about the human brain and how it can be hurt and healed. In a number of
stories, he tells of similar situations with different outcomes. He
tells the story of Leon, who at the age of 16 rapes and murders two
young girls. Leon was raised by a well-meaning mother who successfully
raised an older sibling; the biggest difference was that when the
mother (who was mentally impaired) lost her support system, she didn't
understand the impact of leaving the younger boy alone, and basically
abandoned the baby during the day. Another child was also left home
alone in his crib by the caretaker/cousin hired by his parents, who
didn't discover his neglect for over a year. This child was able to
recover because he had some affection and care when his parents were
home. Peter was raised in an orphanage in Russia for three years that
left him infantile in some ways and developed beyond his years in
others. Dr. Perry actually trained his first grade classmates to
understand brain development so that they could help Peter gain the
steps he was missing. The boy in the title story was raised by his
grandmother his first year, but when she died, he was left with a
step-grandfather who only knew how to raise dogs and treated the child
like a dog, leaving him in a crate most of the time. Dr. Perry shows
great understanding and respect for these children, which enabled him
tocomprehend their level of development and help them move forward.
Reviewer: Nola Theiss About the Author
Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., is the Senior Fellow of The Child
Trauma Academy (www.ChildTrauma.org). He has served as a consultant to
the FBI and is the former Chief of Psychiatry at Texas Children's
Hospital, as well as former Vice-Chairman for Research in the
Department of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine. He lives in
Houston, Texas, and Alberta, Canada. Maia Szalavitz is an award-winning journalist who specializes in science and health. She is the author of Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids and Recovery Options: The Complete Guide, written with Joseph Volpicelli, M.D., Ph.D. She lives in New York City.
Paperback: 275 pages
Carton Size: 60 books
Publisher: Basic Books; Reprint Edition (December 24, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465056539
ISBN-13: 978-0465056538
Product Dimensions: 8.0 x 5.34 x 0.77 inches
Shipping Weight: 0.53 pounds
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