Maia Szalavitz

Wonderful and intelligent. This book is an amazing look not only at how the brain is shaped by early interactions (including trauma) but a look at how amazing recovery can be. Perry handles this potential depressing subject wonderfully. Instead of leaving me appalled at the horrors that people commit against children (which I was), it left me feeling amazed at how children can handle and cope with amazing things. I was left, not with disgust, but with hope.

I've read this twice, years apart, in two different editions. As part of an undergrad psych course I read the original book, and more recently for a graduate counseling course I read the new, expanded edition. I've also had the opportunitiy to hear Dr. Perry lecture in person and talk to him a bit. Both editions are excellent, with the more recent one literally just containing updates to the individual cases to account for the large span of time between editions, so pick up the new one.
Dr. show more Perry is one of the greatest living therapists/psychiatrists working with highly traumatized children. For those familiar with his work overall, a lot of the discourse here is going to be familiar to the point of repetitiveness, but if you're just getting into the field there's a really low barrier to entry here as its written to be accessible to a lay audience. Think of it as something between anecdotal stories and case studies involving the application of his theories and techniques across his career.
While written to be accessible to the lay person, this is really looking at highly traumatized individuals mostly from backgrounds of unbelievable abuse. Unless you or a loved one is struggling with a traumatic background, or you work with those who have/work in education or human services, it feels a little exploitive/distasteful to read this just for 'fun'. Though I can definitely see some material here for those interested in or working in fields related to True Crime or cults, as there are stories involving children from groups such as the Branch Dividians. Similarly, those who may have had a very violent/traumatic childhood may want to just assume the whole book has a big trigger warning label on it. show less

I took a long break from this book after getting to chapter 9 and her repeated mentions to her first experience with cocaine being with Jerry Garcia. I was extremely (maybe to the extent of going a bit overboard) vexed by what I perceived as name-dropping and bragging in conjunction with drug use. At the time, I probably needed a target for some anger, and this was an easy one.
I am glad I went back to reading this. It has insights into addiction that I found personally helpful. I can show more truthfully say the insights were life-changing, and hope that doesn't sound too effusive.
Her points are repeated throughout the book. If you wanted the gist of what she's saying, without all the references to studies, anecdotal support, and her own story, you can get a decent idea by reading chapter 20: Neurodiversity and the Future of Addiction.
But I never could wrap my brain around her terminology that addiction is a "learning disorder." I could pick up what she was laying down as far as it being learned behavior, based on environmental and psychological factors, and an unpredictable pattern of use and reward. I just didn't see how that makes it a disorder. What was most valuable to me was what she had to say about treatment methods and societal attitudes toward addicts.

"Understanding addiction as a learning disorder means creating individualized approaches to address it-on the biological, psychological, social, and cultural levels. It means using models that view participants as students who need to be empowered by education-not defective people who can't make good choices unless they are forced to and who need to be humbled and then indoctrinated."

And I really liked what she said about anti-drug programs in schools needing to focus on teaching kids positive coping skills, rather than the "Drugs are bad, mmmkay?" approach and scare tactics, which will scare some and intrigue others.
I knocked the rating down a star because her writing style bothered me at times (64 instances of the word "indeed," for example), the memoir segments were not as interesting to me as the neuroscience, studies and experimental programs she discussed, and her citation method was my least favorite type (not numbered, just piled up in the back with the opening sentence the reference point).
Those minor quibbles aside, I highly recommend this book, especially for friends and families of addicts. show less

Addiction is a developmental learning disorder. Szalavitz backs up this hypothesis with mounds of evidence (285 footnotes!), leavened (which makes for easier reading) her own experience as a user of heroin and cocaine for many years.

It's persuasive, if only because none of the other addiction models seem at all successful (she does a good job of debunking AA, though it did work for her). I found some of the evidence hard to swallow, however, particularly the sociological experiments, which show more to me always seem inapplicable to real life.

I'd recommend, however, reviews by scientists or doctors rather than this cursory attempt by me! show less