The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog 1

The differences between being human and being humane are that humans have the capacity to act both rightly and wrongly, good and bad. Being humane is when a human acts in a positive and healthy and helpful manner towards others; it is the opposite of being inhumane. Being human is what it means to be comprised of both good and bad elements, faults and failings as well as good points and virtues. So being human encapsulates everything that humanity has to offer up, while being humane is much narrower in its definition, encapsulating only those good qualities and aspects of our humanity. From my own personal history, I can look at my parents’ relationship and describe it as very human because they fight, they make up, they fight some more. They have moments, however, where they are very humane towards others—very understanding and positive and supportive—even if this isn’t always the case with how they approach one another.

2

The authors’ main idea is that trauma and abuse harms children mentally, and traumatized children need help from nurturing adults so that they can have normal, healthy lives as they grow up. Perry and Szalavitz (2006) do come back to this main idea as they examine the various cases. For instance, with Tina, they show that abuse really affects a child’s brain; with Sandy, they show that children are not robots to be programmed but rather little human beings who should be allowed some independence and the ability to make decisions on their own so that they can engage with the maturation process; with Justin, they...

It disarms them from their suspicions (as in the case with Sandy). Sandy is suspicious of the doctor but as Perry continues to color, Sandy also wants to start coloring. Once disarmed, Perry can begin to probe and he monitors her coloring as a gauge of how close she is being pushed to “painful memories” (Perry, 2006, p. 44). His techniques include coloring in silence, inviting them to color with him, watching them color, and coloring with them, as Perry does with Tina—which, in fact, he enjoys doing because it is something that helps cut the ice between them (Perry, 2006, p. 12).
4

I believe the children in the book have an opportunity to experience a normal adult life because they have adults who are now there helping them and providing a positive impact on the children’s psyches and allowing them to develop in a more positive way. Yes, they have been traumatized, but they have not been totally abandoned—and that is the point of the book. As Perry and Szalavitz (2006) note, “a little pain now [in the form of some therapeutic intervention] could help protect [the traumatized children] from a lot of pain later” (p. 43).

5

Failure to thrive is explained as emotional neglect that causes children to not develop the way they are…