The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook -- What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing Paperback – December 25, 2007

Dr. Perry is not just a psychiatrist who spends his time listening to and diagnosing clients. He is a maverick, willing to break the rules whenever needed and play detective rather than assert his expertise. By taking this approach to his young clients and studying not just their symptoms, but the treatment they were given from birth, he follows the brain as it develops. What he learns is of value to everyone. We were all children once.As he talks us through each of the cases covered in this book, we get a strong sense of his love for and understanding of the traumatized children. He approaches them slowly and with the utmost respect for their personhood. Like Alice Miller, he is acutely aware of the ways in which we seek to control or diminish small lives and the horrific consequences that sometimes result. But his quest is not just to address the psychological, it is to probe the way the brain itself forms and what can be done when its components lag or turn off.You will find every kind of child in this book, those who murder, those lacking normal social responses and those unable to thrive physically. In each case Dr. Perry reaches back into their past to uncover how the brain was encouraged to or discouraged from developing in corresponding ways. What is different about Perry's work is how he uses with this information. You won't find the perfect drug to control a child mentioned here. You will find some excellent stories about how touch therapy can renew and enhance neural pathways or how dance and movement can help a child regain natural psychological and physical cycles. In every case he fully explains what he did and why and gives full credit to those who taught him along the way. I am not talking about other doctors here, but people such as a foster mother and the children themselves.Even if you have no children and never plan to work with them, this book is worth reading. If you are an adult who has always felt out of sync with the world, you may find an explanation here.I found quite a few ah-ha moments and a great deal of personal food for thought. If you are an adherent of mind/body medicine, much of what he says will appeal to you as well.

"The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog" is an excellent book full of real-life examples of children who have experienced severe trauma and successful therapies administered to them.As an educator, I have found myself reflecting on the many "problem" children I've encountered in school settings, and wondering how many of them had been exposed to trauma at young ages, or even currently. I truly enjoyed reading about each case presented in this book, and the way each of these children overcame their painful pasts and experiences with the help of Dr. Perry.As I've observed students and their family lives over the years as a teacher, I've come to agree more and more on the importance of stability, love and quality time spent in the family for children. I've often theorized that the lack of quality time spent with parents have diminished children's linguistic abilities, but after reading this book, I've come to realize that the damages are far more extensive.Dr. Perry's concluding chapter outlines the needs for children to be cared for in healthy environments, as early as in their infancy. He contends for the need for community, extended families, cooperation and empathy in our lives in order for our brains to develop healthily. It is a good commentary on our familial and societal issues, and we cannot argue that many of the issues we face today stem from broken relationships in the smallest units.The stories in the book are well-narrated, and Dr. Perry's writing style is easy to read and interesting. If you are interested in reading a book about neglected and abused children and how to help them, this book is an excellent choice.

Perry combines neuroscience and a belief in the resiliency of severely traumatized individuals to show that healing can happen in the most dire of circumstances. I recommend this book for mental health professionals, psychology students, or the lay person with an interest in psychology. Each case study is presented in a clear and interesting manner, which keeps the reader engaged. For the mental health professional, Perry's book offers a model of relating to traumatized individuals using a biosocialpsychological model that truly integrates biological understanding with attachment theory. The author provides hope to the clinician working with severely traumatized patients that changes can happen biologically through the brain's neuronal plasticity combined with consistency, therapeutic love, and human connection. Perry helps the clinician believe that even the most traumatized individuals can heal, which is helpful for the sense of hopeless that clinicians can often feel in working with this population. Perry provides a fantastic display of clinical work, compassion, and science written in an easy to digest manner. I highly recommend this book and find myself re-reading various stories that will stay with me forever.Michelle Zody, M.A.Clinical Psychology doctoral student

Perfect book! Loved the new book smell it had.