Good Ol' Satanic Cultism

Leave it to good ol’ Texas to have a freak out about Satanism. When Dr. Perry first began talking about created memories in the chapter, he appeared to have much less tact. I remember feeling like he was victim blaming and doubtful of some of the experiences the children were having (sexual abuse). Thankfully he was able to clear that up as he moved forward in the chapter. While I was aware that our memories were malleable and can be influenced, I find it deeply disturbing that the idea of this “Satanic Cult” turned into such a pervasive presence in this town. I was very curious as to how you sort out which memories were true and the ones that had been tampered with by someone else’s seemingly unintentional coercion.

                Perry essentially did a lie detector test, but used heart rate instead of sweat. I find it interesting that some of the children knew they had said things that didn’t happen to them in response to the “holding” technique, others did not refute that they had said what they said due to others, and seemed to truly believe it. It is interesting that the “Created” memories of the children in who did not say they only said the things they said as a result of punishment, their heartrate was calm when discussing those horrific events. So even though their memory may include it, since it didn’t actually happen they had a much more passive response versus the sexual abuse that did occur. I found it interesting that PTSD wasn’t said to have occurred in the children with the created memories. One would think if someone believed they had bared witness to terrible events like many that were described, the person would exhibit symptoms, yet none were mentioned.

                As for the “holding” technique. This has evolved into something different in which I was trained to do at the residential treatment center. However, it looks absolutely nothing like what was described here. The intentional Stockholm syndrome, and abuse being dealt out as therapy, churned my stomach. Having bruises be a part of the technique, when nowadays if you leave a bruise on a child it is a clear sign of abuse, should’ve been a big enough sign then that it shouldn’t occur. As Perry explained, it only continued due to the “good” results it produced. But as we read the results were not always honest or real, and was mostly done by the child in an attempt to make it stop. The reinforcement of telling the parents that you love them after the ordeal, made me feel so violated. Like you have the parents do this really shitty thing to their child, and then are positively reinforced by the child declaring their love for them, perhaps to abstain from any guilt that process may have generated?

                It saddens me that even the components of the legal team in this town were wrapped up in the belief of the Satanic Cult, and that they had children name names, which helped the spread of children being taken from families that did not need to be. I do wish Perry had addressed how/if he broke the news of his discovery to the town and how it was received.

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

As I read Dr. Perry’s book, I can’t help but think of how extraordinary it is that Dr.Perry has gotten to work with such diverse clientele. I can’t imagine most people in the helping professions, receiving these opportunities nearly as much. For a boy who had been kept in a cage for so long, I was surprised that Justin’s caregiver did not seem to be in much trouble. It also is very shocking to me that despite the Justin’s behavior, no doctor asked about how he was being raised. Furthermore if his caregiver had been of lower intelligence, it surprises me that he was deemed a fit guardian after the Justins’ grandmother passed away.

                The neurosequential model makes a lot of sense to me. It makes sense that certain experiences must be had or completed in order for the most basic parts of the brain to form correctly, and for the rest to develop in the proper manner. Kind of like a game of Tetris. I value so much the considerations Dr.Perry had for both Connor and Justin. Creating the air of safety, enabled him to bring in so much work. When comparing Justin, Connor, and Leon I tried very hard to pick out the differences. Justin and Connor despite their neglect both had positive immediate experiences as a baby with caregivers. Leon started off with his mother not knowing quite what to do, and very well could’ve been left alone as soon as his mother had recovered.

                I would have never thought of rhythm as such an important aspect. Sure some people are better at dancing or at musical instruments than others, and I usually attributed that to a natural inclination rather than a flourishing portion of something developmentally required. While some of us may just have rhythm down enough to walk without an awkward gait. The dancing rhythm also offered the repetitive movement in a safe environment, which Perry claims has a great impact. As someone who has worked with traumatized children, many with developmental delays, repetition and safety are very key.  

                Massage therapy isn’t really something I had considered. I understood that back scratches, hair brushing, or skin brushing were all sensory inputs that helped children soothe. I had never considered them being something more like massage therapy. The idea of using this therapy I feel could have its pros and cons. While it worked in Connor’s case, and proved to be very helpful, I wonder how effective this would have been had he actually had Autism? I know many individuals that have Autism are adverse to touch, and I’m curious if parents would still want to try massage therapy to try to gain back some physically affectionate behavior. It’s also a curiosity of whether the brain stem in someone who has Autism would be less or more developed than someone like Connors’ and still show the aversion to touch and rhythm?

                I think it is amazing that Mama P’s lesson has stuck with Dr. Perry all this way, and that her believing in making up what the child had lost and did not have, made such an impact on how he treated his clients. It reminds me of when I worked at a residential treatment facility for those struggling with addictions and disordered eating (majority of the clients having experienced trauma) , how some of them would engage in therapy that required them to embrace their inner child. This usually involved having stuffed animal and coloring books. I am curious if an appropriate adult simulation of rocking could’ve helped in that case as well.

The Coldest Heart

                I expected to see a lot more to do with the brain in this chapter. Maybe it wasn’t expectation per se, but more I physically wanted some specifics in regards to what was happening within Leon’s brain to cause him to commit the crime that he had. The situation altogether is wildly unfortunate. His mother who lacked the capacities to raise an infant on her own, who unintentionally neglected Leon, started the process of Leon not having empathy. It strikes me as odd that Leon’s father either didn’t know about this, or  did nothing to try to remedy the situation. Furthermore if her extended family knew Maria had difficulties in raising a baby, and helped with the first one, would they not have tried to discourage her from a second one? But I suppose that isn’t really their place.

                I found myself questioning the responsibility of Leon as Dr.Perry went through his story. I admire that Dr.Perry looked so thoroughly into such a gruesome situation, even after Leon continued to change the story to put himself farther and farther away from the blame. Dr.Perry mulled through Leon’s upbringing, his schooling, the fact that he was drunk when he committed the crime…the fact that his own brother turned him in. I guess I also wanted a better reason for what happened. But the fact stands: if the girls had invited him to the apartment to fool around, it was wildly unlikely considering they were 12 and 13, while he was 16. He was intoxicated which may have inhibited his impulse control, but none the less was illegal for a 16 year old, and is not a valid excuse for anyone else’s poor behavior. He was neglected as a baby, yet had not experienced plenty worse neglect and abuse as many others had who have not committed these crimes.

                Dr. Perry describes the “Butterfly Effect” and “Snowball effect”. He suggests that the snowball effect is innately already in our minds, and that once Leon started to do wrong, he just kept going wrong. Leon kept making tiny choices that negatively impacted him, until they got so big that they weren’t tiny choices anymore. It is also curious to me that Leon grew up to know how to manipulate his surroundings, yet even though he knew so much about what people wanted or how to get what he wanted, he never actually truly understood it in terms of empathy. It was just this basic knowledge to him. He reminds me of one of the boys at my past work that eventually had to be transferred to a higher security center due to his aggressive behavior, lack of empathy, and repeated offenses. In undergraduate classes my professors would always say you would know a child with conduct disorder and budding antisocial personality disorder pretty quickly. That was one of two kiddos that qualified that I had interacted with. However in both cases, their histories were very traumatic and more ongoing that Leon’s. It’s astonishing how just like in the case of Virginia, such early childhood experiences can have such a large impact on the future.

Perry Chapter 4

As I read through this chapter, I carried immense hope. When it was suggested that the 4 year old child may have infantile anorexia, that sounded like the most ridiculous thing. To imagine a 4 year old who is doing it to herself intentionally, and to have the cognitive capacity ot have those feelings towards herself or others, is just wild. While I don’t disagree with the medical professionals wanting to rule out serious medical conditions, it is rather odd they didn’t think to ask the mother for her own background or even consider a mental health issue.

                When I looked up failure to thrive to find out more information, the majority of the informative websites online (assumingly meant for parents) never mention anything to do with the childrearing practices, attachment, or the possibility of it being a mental health issue. This infuriates me in a way, because I often feel like social work or psychology is viewed as a “soft science” by those in the medical field. In one article it suggests those who may be beneficial resources for the family. It mentions needing a social worker if the family needs to be connected to more food resources, or a psychologist for any behavioral issues (Gupta, 2014). But no suggestion of any kind of mental unrest was anywhere to be found within the article.

               

It made me very sad to hear about the adoption issues of Virginia, and how despite having a willing family, her biological family made this so difficult and impossible for them, disadvantaging their child in the long run. I saw this time and time again at the residential treatment center, and it broke my heart. IT is so inherently selfish to not do something in the best interest of the child, because of your own desires. When thinking about play therapy, I wonder if children like Virginia display many nurturing behaviors or often play with baby dolls within a play room. I wonder how much play therapy could have had a positive effect on her.

  

              I was so impressed by Mama P’s ability to understand the children she worked with. I think it is so amazing to have caregivers who are not afraid to provide safe touch and to help heal the needs many of the children had been neglected upon during their earlier years. It amazes me even further that she was willing to take a mother and a child into her home, and provide the care and learning experiences for both of them. What a true healing force this woman must be. While I have done a lot of rocking and safe touch, I can only hope to grow up to be like Mama P (#goals).

                When reading about how the brain plays a part in Laura’s situation, I found it interesting that even if the basic needs are being met, the “physical stimulation” for her body to grow, wasn’t being met. This puts Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943) at question. Her physiological needs were technically being met, as well as safety. Love/belonging was where it was lacking, and yet she was failing to thrive. An argument could be made that physiological needs includes affection, since it includes sex. However, there is no mention throughout the various charts. When Dr.Perry brings in the information about the “mirror” neurons and how they also probably contributed to the current situation, the thought of a mother not really smiling at her baby or making happy faces for the child to reflect, is also an interesting thought. If we don’t see happiness often, and we don’t know how to display it, can we really be happy?

Perry Chapter 2

“For your own good, dude.” How casual of a phrase this is, paired with the action being committed was really jarring. This is a phrase friends say to each other when there’s gnarly breakup, or the loss of an unhealthy item. Reading this chapter created a lot of cognitive dissonance around this. What had the mother done? Why did she have a mark on her? How can you be so casual while trying to murder a child? How do you get two slits on your throat, and not die? Much less go attempt to drink milk?! How do you fuck up slitting someones’ throat twice, to where they are still alive?

                Dr.Perry talks about dissociation and how that caused Tina to survive. Dissociation as a physical survival method supported biologically made only a bit of sense to me. While I have seen many kids dissociate while working with them, I had only gotten to the point of “fight , flight,or freeze”. While Tina was in freeze, it didn’t occur to me that her blood flow was less, and focused away from critical parts of her body. The shutting down of pain caused by dissociation I suppose could account for her trying to drink milk only to realize it was coming out of her throat.

                I was happy to see Dr.Perry utilizing medication more, and finding new ways to help the boys at the residential center he was at. I think it’s also great that he advocated his use for the medication. The amount of diagnoses these children are given as opposed to PTSD is astonishing. I wonder if this is just because it’s ahrder to diagnose PTSD due to kids’ limited communication? It infuriates me that Tina’s case worker thinks that after all she went through, she doesn’t need to see a mental health professional. The comments made about resiliency were also shocking. “Oh yeah kids are resilient. They can see this stuff.” In what world?! With their brains still developing, the stress becomes ingrained and then impairs the brain function. Then as they grow it stays there until it is able to be processed out.

                I really loved that Dr.Perry was so aware of how he was being perceived by Tina and did what he could to be less intimidating and meet her at her level.   He did not try to rush the process other than by asking what happened to her neck.  I found the information on tolerance and sensitization to be interesting. I had only ever considered tolerance when thinking about drug habits. Sensitization makes sense in terms of trauma response and overdosing. Habituation being interrupted by negative emotion, and becoming sensitized is also a phenomenon that I am familiar with. The constant comparison of past patterns to what is currently happening is a very real thing for someone who suffers from anxiety. Tina was most likely comparing each thing that is occurring to the past, which I’m sure causes triggers for her PTSD.

Perry Chap 1

So I started this book emotionally guarded, due to the amount of sadness our professor had mentioned in class. I was genuinely curious to hear about Dr.Perry's first client. I was rather surprised and upset that he somehow didn't know what the child was doing when she climbed into his lap. When I worked at the in patient home for children who had severe behavioral and emotional difficulties, that was one of the first things addressed in training...boundaries. We were instructed to not immediately give children physical comfort (hugs, back rubs, holding their hand etc.) due to many of the children being groomed from sexual abuse. I can fully agree that the child is not consciously making the decision all the time to act the way he/she does. The patterns that the brain finds and sees, wear down a familiar track that the child definitely follows along.

While my former work place functioned behind TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention), it did not teach about a lot of the neurological pieces Perry delves into. If it was mentioned, it was very basic. I was familiarized very well with the brain stem having the "fight or flight" response. I would have loved to have known how he planned to address each dysfunctional behavior by treating the portion of the brain that it stemmed from.

It did worry me that after 3 years of working with the child, she relapsed on her behavior. I think of my work with children who had similar issues. I worry about them relapsing as well. It was comforting to think of how he only spent an hour a week with this girl, whereas the children had 24 hours, 7 days a week of therapeutic intervention. Dr. Perry also seemed very opposed to medicine. I both agree and disagree with how he handled the situation in regards to this.

On one hand, I believe that children are way over medicated in today’s world, and that it is important for children to learn how to cope etc without the help of certain types of medication. However, medication can also help with certain symptoms so that the main problem can be addressed easier. I do wonder if he had prescribed medication for his client, if her impulsivity could have been buffered, and her relapse have been potentially avoided.

I empathized with Perry wanting to give the family a ride home. I worked with individuals who were experiencing homelessness during my first field, and would find myself wanting to give them rides places (social security office, food stamp office, VA, a potential housing opportunity, etc). I discussed this with my supervisor on a few occasions, and it was determined to be outside of my role. I was very surprised that he did not receive any disciplinary action. While I understand it was for the benefit of the client, it crossed some boundaries of professionalism. I’m glad it broke the resistance with the mom, but I would be interested in other ways to break the parental resistance. I would be interested in the work Dr. Perry did with the mother to help break down the stress hormones at home.