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The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog: Chapter 7 Reflection

Chapter 7 of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog, Satanic Panic, describes Bruce Perry's experiences working with a group of children in the foster care system who had supposedly experienced abused by members of a satanic cult.  Through this complicated and twisted tale, Bruce Perry discovers that after the first sibling group was removed from abuse, "therapy" was used within their foster care setting in order to coerce the children to make outcries that did not hold validity.  These outcries ultimately led to the removal and abuse at the hand of this "therapy" of many more children within the community.  Bruce Perry uncovers an elaborate web of lies that ultimately led children to be put in danger at the hands of those who were supposed to keep them safe. 

Reading this chapter, my initial reaction was disgust.  I found myself needing put down the book and reread pages as the story of Satanic Panic evolved into an elaborate conspiracy with  many moving parts.  I found it both equally difficult and easy to conceptualize that an event such as the one in Gilmer, Texas could actually take place.  As I pushed forward in reading this chapter, my mind wanted so badly for this to be a tale of fiction because that is largely how the events read; the Satanic Panic of Gilmer is so outrageous that I find it extremely difficult to wrap my mind around such a story being true.  However, as Bruce Perry explored the concept of "group think", the concept where a group of people collectively think with one mind.  It is a phenomenon that can easily become dangerous and is extremely common.  Everyday examples of group think are sports, superstitions, bullying, etc.  When group think takes over in cases such as Gilmer, Texas, catastrophic consequences can and will take place.   This is why I also found it dishearteningly easy to imagine that this Satanic Panic actually took place.

Even so, I find it extremely difficult to swallow the fact that the people who were tasked to care for these children would participate in a disturbing intervention such as "holding therapy".  I am extremely surprised that there wasn't a single caregiver that questioned the nature of this intervention as it seems to be extremely outlandish and extreme.  Additionally, the fact that CPS officials went at such lengths to even participate in the abuse is far beyond disturbing and I am curious to know how abuse was defined at the time of this abuse.  As I write this post, I still find myself trying to find an explanation for this horrific event that left one child permanent disability and many more with trauma that they would have to face for the rest of their lives.

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