The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog : and Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook, by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz

Early childhood psychology is so fascinating, and the title definitely draws you into this book, which has a further subtitle of what traumatized children can teach us about loss, love, and healing. Perry has an extensive two-decade background in child psychiatry, and discusses some of his more difficult cases in the book and then draws out how lessons learned with these kids can be applied to other kids.

Perry worked with the children released from the Branch Davidian compound before the remainder of the members of the cult died. He's also worked with children--like the one in the title--who were raised in utter neglect by people who just didn't know any better, and lots of people who did know better. There is no blanket indictment of parents, teachers, or anyone else, but he clearly feels that we as a society are not aware of how impressionable infants and young children really are. He also feels that science hasn't done enough research in this area, and presses for more. Mostly, he just wants people to remember that the habituated lessons learned before the age of one are long-lasting and hard to undo. Sobering and frightening.