Summary of Bruce D. Perry and Maya Szalavitz's The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview:Children subjected to unspeakable cruelty and neglect are deeply impacted by such  trauma, which in turn affects their growth and behavior. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog (2017), psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry and his co-writer Maya Szalavitz approach childhood trauma following a hands-on method. Based on Perry’s clinical experience, they explore cases of trauma and development, reveal the lessons that can be learned from these often-misunderstood children, and detail the techniques psychiatry uses to treat them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669345435

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Summary of Bruce D. Perry and Maya Szalavitz's The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

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Overview

Children subjected to unspeakable cruelty and neglect are deeply impacted by such  trauma, which in turn affects their growth and behavior. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog (2017), psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry and his co-writer Maya Szalavitz approach childhood trauma following a hands-on method. Based on Perry’s clinical experience, they explore cases of trauma and development, reveal the lessons that can be learned from these often-misunderstood children, and detail the techniques psychiatry uses to treat them.

Increasing Interest in Child Psychology

In the 1980s, little attention was paid to the long-term effects of psychological trauma. Even less attention was devoted to how trauma could affect children. Children were thought to  have an innate resilience and capacity to recover. Bruce D. Perry, however, began noticing in the lab as a young researcher that stressful experiences may modify the brain of young animals. Multiple animal studies had shown that even mild stress during infancy may have a long-term effect on the brain. This launched him into researching the same effects on humans. Perry, through his clinical work, noticed that many children suffered from trauma and PTSD, but were not diagnosed because of their age.

Psychiatrists acknowledge that tragic events may leave lasting traces on the psyche, whether they are caused by humans, like the terrorist attacks of 9/11, or by nature, like Hurricane Katrina. Psychiatrists now understand that the effect on children is considerably greater than on adults. They also know that by the age of 18, more than 40 percent of American kids will have had at least one possibly traumatic incident. What decides how children endure trauma, whether physically, emotionally, or mentally, is whether the grownups they ought  to be able to