This is a book about damaged children and the psychiatrist who tried to help them. The two saddest stories are the little girl, a toddler really, who at 3 was being prepared to testify against the man (as the only witness) who had murdered her mother in front of her and then cut her throat. She was too young to know about death and had tried to wake her mother and feed her, give her milk and then laid down on her and sung her lullabies. The other was the 21 Waco children that David Koresh had ta...

Non-fiction books, as a general rule, bore me.The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dogis a non-fiction book.The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog did not bore me.To the contrary, it fascinated me. It incited a hundred different emotions that I didn't think was possible with a non-fiction book. It made me smile; made me cry. It punched me right in the chest and soothed me the next. It was utter perfection.The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog is a book of beauty and one of the most beautiful things about it was how t...

"Incredibly eye-opening on the effects of trauma."What did you love best about The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog?This book is a must read for anyone who works with children......and anyone who suffered trauma as a child. Dr. Perry is incredibly insightful, honest and humble in sharing what it took him a career to learn. I hope everyone in the mental health fields and their supporting agencies heed his teachings.What did you like best about this story?I read this to improve my understanding of trau...

This book should be read by everyone who cares for children professionally. We know that children are abused and suffer, yet when we meet some of these children we often don't understand how to help them. This book of stories from Doctor Perry's practice shows us children who come from backgrounds of neglect or abuse. These stories tear at your heart, but knowing that Doctor Perry and others are using what we know about neuroscience to heal offers us hope. If anything, reading this book will mak...

Using case studies from the author's practice, this book focuses upon the incredible growth, development and malleability of the human brain. Depending upon your personal preferences, you may or may not appreciate the author's frequent digressions into the biology of the brain to describe what his patients are experiencing. The fairly frequent discussion of animal experimentation saddened me, especially when considering that numerous experiments conducted in the name of psychological science ten...

A very impactful read. The most practical thing I think I can take from it is a greater compassion for my fellow men. We really don't know what people have gone through to contribute to who they are. These stories make me not want to judge anyone (some "bad" people experienced trauma and neglect to the degree that their brain was permanently affected). I wish I could do something to make life better for or be a friend to some of these unusual, and socially misfit individuals. Thank goodness many...

A thorough, interdisciplinary book about childhood trauma written with compassion and eloquence, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog amazed me with its depth and insight. Bruce Perry, an experienced psychiatrist, shares many case studies about kids who have suffered horrible adversity, and he discusses their development and recovery with intelligence and an apparent kindness. One quote that stood out to me about how we should treat people who self-medicate and self-harm with understanding instead of...

really interesting, heart wrenching stories. favorite quotes: "More than in any other species, human young are born vulnerable and dependent. Pregnancy and early childhood are tremendous energy drains on the mother and, indirectly, on the larger family group. But despite the severe pain of childbirth, the numerous discomforts of pregnancy and breast-feeding, and the loud, continuous demands of a newborn, human mothers overwhelmingly tend to devote themselves to comforting, feeding an protecting

Absolutely no notes. This is a must-read for all humans. It's also insanely short. Just read it.

Absolutely fascinating. The truth is, you cannot love yourself unless you have been loved and are loved. The capacity to love cannot be built in isolation. Whewww, this one was an emotional doozy - I was equally fascinated and horrified by what the author witnessed and treated.There's the case from the title - where a (marginally) well-meaning old man finds himself in charge of a young boy (the grandson of a deceased girlfriend). Not knowing how to raise children, but having plenty of experie...

Bruce Perry is an absolute godsend to the hundreds of children and families he's helped. I wish we could clone him. He's absolutely brilliant, charming, empathetic, and has no qualms with thinking outside the box.

Bruce Perry treats children who have suffered childhood trauma using a neurosequential approach. This approach supposes that as the brain grows from the most basic deep structures to the most complex outer structures (basically from the inside out and from the bottom up) in the first 3 years of life, trauma at any phase of that development shapes or prevents the proper physiological development of the brain area that is developing. Because the higher brain structure development depends on develo...

Last Saturday, I was awakened from my sleep at five in the morning by strange noises. It took me a while to realize that it was my son who had just returned from a night out with his friends, and had a bout of hiccups. He has a place of his own, but every now and then, he sleeps at his old folks’ home, so I usually don’t expect nightly visitors. Anyhow, I went upstairs to have a glass of water, and he followed me upstairs (our sleeping rooms are downstairs). “You woke me with your hiccups!” “I d...

I borrowed this book from my supervisor when I interned in a pediatric psychiatric hospital, and I pretty much read it in one sitting. The book completely changed the way I looked at patients. Before, I saw them as children who were reacting to terribly traumatic experiences. Now, I understand that the traumatic experiences literally changed the way their brain functions. It explains why so many therapeutic interventions fail; our techniques aren't right. We're treating the cancer with cold medi...

This book has almost no redeeming qualities. In fact, its primary worth is undoubtedly as a clear example of multiple cultural failings.1. It is the most obvious, cringe-worthy trauma porn. It is primarily a titillated retelling of the most horrifying situations. It is a collection of carnival sideshows to chill and entertain the masses. 2. Perry has a Savior Complex to make Jesus blush. In every story, there will be a Suffering Child. In every story, no other person will understand, will listen...

Perry refutes the adage that children are resilient, and walks us through the cases of traumatized children -- the consequences on their psyches and behavior, and how to heal them.A few minutes of stress for baby rats can affect their brain into adulthood. Yet these children are expected to handle abuse, witnessing the murder of a parent, systematic neglect... What seems to affect them the most is the lack of love, even while medical diagnoses are offered. A disruptive girl has ADD, of course. B...

This was recommended to me by a colleague. I thought it would be a disturbing read and put of off for ages, however despite some of the horrendous cases, the book is not a shock and awe text. It’s actually quite uplifting. Dr Perry has a gifted way of explaining the connections between trauma, neuroscience and psychotherapy, which is accessible to the lay reader. His model of recovery assumes that children can be healed by receiving the stimulation they missed at certain developmental points. E....

This book is incredibly frustrating - the information is valuable and intriguing, but the tone makes me cringe. This author is a well intentioned (aren't they all?) white dude who's seemingly pretty proud of himself for wearing jeans and thus "not looking the type" etc etc. I found the tone so condescending it was hard to read, and skimmed some paragraphs. The worthwhile part of the book, though, is the scientific parts that talk about the physical concrete parts of the brain and the research on...

This was such an incredibly eye opening, powerful and painful read. This is definitely not something everybody would want to read, as it centres around child abuse (a substantial amount of detail regarding child sexual abuse); but the effect of trauma on brain development and behaviour is incredible. (There is also a LOT of anatomy and physiology of the brain talk, so that may become a little dull for some). I was recommended this book for my Child Development class and I’m so glad I read it. It...

"The truth is, you cannot love yourself unless you have been loved and are loved. The capacity to love cannot be built in isolation.""Many of the sleeping and crying problems seen in infancy today are likely caused by the fact that a human infant left alone and out of sight distance of adults for almost the entire evolutionary history of humankind would have been facing near-certain death. It's hardly surprising that babies find being left alone to sleep distressing. In fact, what's startling (a...