|
 by Bryan Post
I'm a Bruce Perry fan. I've been a Bruce Perry fan for over ten years. His work, research, clinical findings, etc. have served to mentor me throughout my professional years. I still remember the first time I met Bruce, it was in San Diego at an EMDR conference. I actually dressed to impress. Black suit jacket, slacks, tie-dye t-shirt, sandals, and dreads allowed to hang free. I didn't want him to forget me! Over the years I devoured every article he wrote and continually asked when he planned to write his first book his reply was always, "Man, writing a book takes a lot of time!"
Over the years our paths crossed several times, we were both featured in Trauma, Brain, and Relationship the groundbreaking DVD produced by Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and shared a common friend and colleague in Denver. Though I have not spent personal time with Bruce over the years we have both become very familiar with the work of one another and there is an expressed mutual respect. I have always enjoyed hearing him speak. He is the rare psychiatric/neuroscientist academic that also can profess actual clinical experience in an ongoing manner.
It's no surprise that when The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog was released that I would be excited. Well remarkably, I didn't actually buy the book for four years after it came out! Bad fan, B. bad fan! Truth is, I was pretty much up to date on everything Perry. However, a couple of professor friends of mine had invited Bruce to speak at Old Dominion University and invited me as well, so that evening after I had went up and said hello and he raved about the success of Beyond Consequences, I shamefully went to the back of the room and bought my mentor, my guru, my mental health rock star's book! Then of course I had him sign it for me before running home and devouring the little jewel.
What did I find in the book? A must read for every parent and professional. This book is jam packed with insights, brain findings, opinions from a very wise and seasoned man, that are destined to have a dramatic influence on the field of mental health, parenting, psychiatry, and education.
Written by perhaps the most genuine and inquisitive psychiatrists of our times, Perry pulls back the veil of traumatized children and gives the reader common-sense, easily understood insights into why children behave as they do, how their brains respond to stress and trauma, and the ultimate importance of love and relationship in the healing of children. Quite honestly, I love this man and everything he stands for. Beginning from his early experiences as a psychiatry resident in the University of Chicago child psychiatry clinic and his first experiences in working with traumatized children, Perry weaves a theory of understanding which follows his own experience and insights. This approach allows the reader to be somewhat innocently led into the more in depth understanding of trauma and its subsequent impact on behavior by following Perry's own naiveté in his early work with children.
Perry begins to close his book by writing the following: "One of the greatest lessons I've learned in my work is the importance of simply taking the time, before doing anything else, to pay attention and listen. Because of the mirroring neurobiology of our brains, one of the best ways to help someone else become calm and centered is to calm and center ourselves first- and then just pay attention." This spoken by a neuroscientist who has traveled the world working with the most traumatized children. I can't think of wiser words steeped in actual brain findings! Go get the book. Read it, and study it. You will be grateful that you did.
B.
Buy The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog today.
(*Though I don't do a tremendous amount of psychology reading these days I'm still interested in works new and old that you all have found influential. If you would like for me to review a book just send me the title, or preferably if you're done with the book just send it to me. I do indeed love books!)
|
Store 
