By Cathleen Medwick
Oprah.com |
From the January 2007 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
The 7-year-old girl expected every man she met to fondle her. The frantic little boy raged because his clueless caretaker, a dog breeder, had kept him in a cage. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog (Basic), child psychiatrist and trauma specialist Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, and journalist Maia Szalavitz explain how stress can stunt the brain's development, and how affection, consistently offered in a safe environment, can strengthen underdeveloped neural tissue (just like a muscle), enabling abused and neglected children to heal. A profound lesson in simple humanity.
