The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

I was a little put off by the title of this book, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Tales from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook - What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing, and what I assumed would be a depressing recounting of horrific experiences of children by the psychiatrist who worked with them. I was happily surprised by what was a mostly positive take on these children and their ability to heal.

Perry recounts stories of the children he has worked with in his long career and how much he has learned about children and the impact trauma and neglect have on their development. Woven between those stories, Perry neatly explains brain development, mental health diagnoses and impacts of trauma on the brain which I had learned in my first year of Graduate School.

In the end, I was touched by how hard Perry and his team worked with each of these children and the patience and understanding they exhibited. Most of the stories have a happy, positive ending which helped make the overall book feel positive and in the conclusion, Perry makes some recommendations about the changes we need to make as a society to help minimize the impacts of trauma on our children.