Book Review: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and Other Stories from a Psychiatrists Notebook

When a newborn enters this world, he is unaware that what he experienced inside his mothers womb would be totally in contrast to his experiences in the outside world. The book The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and Other Stories from a Psychiatrists Notebook accounts for traumatic children who have undergone miserable conditions that shaped their physical and mental development during their early years. This paper reviews the said book to understand human development for the common readers and early childhood educators.

About the Book

The selected book The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and Other Stories from a Psychiatrists Notebook is authored by Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz. The psychiatrists own written account of the experiences that he had when working with emotionally stunted children who have no full understanding of the world themselves. His writing style provides vivid illustrations of the most stressful and violence-inflicted life circumstances that have deeply and negatively affected the childrens brain mechanisms. The presentation of the images and facts is intensely exhibited related to violence, sexual abuse, or even neglect. The authors overall objective is to give the readers knowledge into the childs world and how adult behavior shapes their small world that lingers on in their later life developmental stages. He seeks to give facilitation for the recovery of these children who were powerless and felt the loss of control under such a state. A brief overview of the traumatic experiences would be explored in the following sections, and what therapeutic precautions the author took when treating those children would also be discussed.

Summary

The author has presented various arguments in this book. The first and foremost is about the childs brains neuroscience and how his exposure to harsh environments adversely impacts the childs early development. Whether they are from their close ones or anyone in the outside world, there is no doubt that the child needs care and protection during his critical early years since the experiences during these years create a solid mark on his physical and mental upbringing for the rest of his life. He believes that although the childs brain is nave, these violent experiences are imprinted within his mind in the form of crystallized pieces of information, such as images that are detailed and do not bear any confusion. The child knows what happened to him and how he felt as the cruelty might have been repetitive, such as sexual abuse. For example, in chapter 8, The Raven, the doctor had presented details of how the brain works when it is under stress and feels the same pain when it was in a real trauma condition. The chapter talks about a girl who the mothers partner repeatedly abused for several years. Although the girl is 17 years old and the sexual abuse happened years ago, the author mentioned significant implications of the self-inflicted indications even when the victim has been abused in the past. The author noted many cutters on her forearm that were perfectly parallel; their location, depth, and patterns were symmetrical. They were the indications of the patients who have a history of trauma. The author then details the brains working of such people when they mutilate themselves; they can induce dissociative state, similar to the adaptive response they had had during the original trauma. He further explains the discernment in such situations since the patients do it for their disconnection from real life. They want to break free from the emotional and physical pain they felt in a real traumatic situation in their past and want to indulge themselves in the self-inflicted pain as natural opioids are released in the brain that yields a comforting sense of remoteness from ones miseries.

The above argument or theme is related to the next theme discussed extensively in the book, which is the defense mechanism of traumatic children. Taking the same example of Chapter 8s...

…what the child needs when undergoing traumatic circumstances and whether his protection needs increase are unknown to many of us. Through this book, it also dawned upon me that in such situations, the child develops his protection shield around himself since he does not want to disclose his embarrassing emotions to any adult who might be of help to him. His brain has not developed enough to think rationally at such an early stage and cannot reason or trust to open up about his distressing feelings. This book opened my eyes that how fragile a child could be if his outcry for help is not heard. Only one moment in his life when he is not helped could lead him to struggle with his mental well-being for his remaining life span.

This book impacted my understanding of human development since there is no hard and fast rule for finding mental wellness, either among children or adults. Each child and adult is different with their unique brains and needs specially designed procedures for their mental treatments. No one child has experienced the world in the same way, and thus, has different cognitive functioning that could make him or break him in his later years. His personality would also affect the people around him, be it his friends or family members. Thus, he needs to be given care in his earl years, and the treatment should be designed with structured and progressive familiarities with an increased safer environment.

The book is a great help for the early educationalists since the human relationships in the early years define the childs way of spending his life that brings a straight affect on his life achievements. Early educators should be familiar with the interventions needed for dealing with such children so that they could confide in them and be given immediate help at appropriate times. Since some children do not tell their secrets even to their parents, who are their primary caregivers and the most trusted relation, early educators can…