Chels’s Reviews > The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook > Status Update

Okay just highlight and note the last chapter of this book… so cool!

“Further, when humans evolved, infants didn’t have their own room—they didn’t even have their own bed. They were usually never more than a few feet away from an adult or sibling at any time and most often were being held.”

“Policy makers imagine that nuclear families epitomize the ‘golden age’ but in terms of the deep history of the human family, it is unusual for children to be reared only by their mothers and fathers. Children accustomed to nurturing from others view their social world as a benign place and act accordingly.”

“In order for us to keep our children safe, we need to form healthy relationships, and connect With others. We need to hug our children. Protecting children needs to be done in a way that respects their needs. By strengthening the community, not splintering it.”

“Children need healthy touch. As we’ve seen, infants can literally die without it. Unfortunately, we’ve become so afraid of unhealthy touch, that we may actually make it more likely, by failing to meet the needs of children for healthy physical affection. This can make them more vulnerable to pedophile, not less. As children will tend to seek out those who are more affectionate towards them”

“We are social mammals and could never have survived without deeply interconnected & interdependent human contact. The truth is, you can’t love yourself unless you have been loved and are loved. The capacity to love cannot be built in isolation.”

“People are not interchangeable. The price of love is the agony of loss- from infancy onward. The attachment between a baby and the first primary caregiver is not trivial. The love a baby feels for its caregivers is every bit as profound as the deepest romantic connection. Indeed, it is the template memory of this primary attachment that will allow the baby to have healthy intimate relationships as an adult.”